It's been more than a week since the NBA brought the hammer down on the Los Angeles Clippers for cap circumvention involving Kawhi Leonard, concluding a year-long investigation. But the drama involving the Clippers is far from over.
Leonard was hit with a $700,000 fine, but no suspension or voided contract, which the star gladly accepted in hopes that the investigation's resolution would clear the path for his trade to the Toronto Raptors to be finalized. However, that trade remains in limbo and it's not clear when the two sides might finally make official the trade that was first reported as being agreed upon back on June 30.
The Raptors were the ones who put the trade on hold due to the uncertainty about what punishment Leonard might face and the fact that they would have to abide by whatever the league decided. In hindsight, Toronto surely wishes it had taken the risk given Leonard's relatively light punishment, but now the Raptors seem to be at the mercy of the Clippers to get this deal across the line.
That's where things can get even messier. When Leonard and the NBA Players Association accepted his punishment, it took the appeals process and arbitration off the table for the Clippers, who now must decide whether to sue the NBA. If there wasn't already a rift between the organization and Leonard over this entire saga, Leonard's decision not to fight the NBA alongside the Clippers certainly increased tension and frustration from the L.A. perspective.
Some have posited that the Clippers could be dragging their feet on completing the trade out of spite for Leonard (and the league), and that they aren't obliged to help Leonard get to his preferred destination, with Marc Stein reporting earlier this week that plenty of folks in the league have pondered this.
"The delay has naturally led some league observers to wonder aloud whether the Clippers are holding off -- or considering something even more drastic -- to spite Leonard for so readily accepting the league's punishment rather than invoking his right to pursue an appeal," Stein wrote.
ESPN's Brian Windhorst called the Clippers' approach to the aftermath of the ruling "purposeful inaction," and noted that it could be part of a ploy to try to negotiate with the league with owners' meetings set for next week.
That speaks to the main reason the deal isn't done, which is the fact that the Clippers and the NBA have yet to agree on the new management structure in Los Angeles following the suspensions for team owner Steve Ballmer, president of business operations Gillian Zucker and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank. For the deal to be finalized, the Clippers need to appoint a new head of basketball operations -- with the expectation that GM Trent Redden would be the choice -- and a new acting governor.
The latter part is the bigger holdup, with Pablo Torre reporting that the Clippers have two alternate governors listed behind Ballmer -- Zucker, who is also suspended for a year, and co-owner Dennis Wong, who was named in the Aspiration reports. The NBA must approve the acting governor, and Wong's involvement with Aspiration as an investor might give the league some pause.
The Clippers have a unique ownership structure in this modern age, where most ownership groups feature numerous minority owners to help foot the multi-billion-dollar bill. L.A. has just Ballmer and Wong, with Zucker serving as the president of business operations. That leaves fewer options than most teams in this situation, which creates an additional challenge on top of the Clippers not being particularly cooperative, given their frustration with the NBA's ruling.
Stein noted that the uncertainty with who is in charge is the Clippers' official stance for why the Leonard trade is dragging on, with Windhorst adding that it could be a tactic from the Clippers to work out a more favorable deal with the league in a negotiation to avoid this becoming an even messier situation by going to the courts.
All the while, the Raptors and Leonard are waiting for the green light, with Leonard in Miami for a player-led pre-training camp "retreat," per The Athletic, as he gets set to make his official return to Toronto.
