It has been clear for a year or more than the Los Angeles clippers knew they quickly approached the end of the Kawhi Leonard / James Harden era. The mowers sought to rotate, and The report this week of clippers’ frustration towards Leonard Adapt to the existing model. It is not a coincidence that the team is set up to have a solid ceiling space in 2,027 just when Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and Karl-Anthony (among others) could become free agents.
This pivot came clearly well before the accusations started to climb against the owner Steve Ballmer and the Clippers of Los Angeles – including News who abandoned Podcast Pablo Torre Thursday (More details on this subject below) – that the team was trying to bypass the salary ceiling. These allegations allege that the owner of Ballmer and Minority Clippers, Dennis Wong, invested in the aspiration of the company “Banque Verte” (a sponsor of the Clippers team), which also signed Leonard to an approval agreement of $ 48 million. Except that there is no evidence that Leonard did anything to earn this money, which makes it a “non -presentation” agreement – a means for the clippers to bypass the ceiling.
In the wake of all the evidence of recent weeks, the subject has evolved in part towards potential sanctions, because it seems that punishments arrive (once the official investigation of the league, which is likely in the middle of the NBA season). The league can amend the mowers and bullets, but only up to a maximum of $ 7.5 million – Ballmer has earned more than that in interest during the time it took you to read this sentence. The league can suspend Ballmer and / or a clippers executive up to a year. The league can remove some of the future draft choices of the clippers (the most painful punishment of the franchise).
In addition, the league can cancel Leonard’s contract and make it a free agent. Do not expect this one, in part because the mowers would be good with her.
Latest accusations against mowers
In his defense of Ballmer and Clippers, The owner of the Mavericks minority, Mark Cuban, said that rather than team investments and sponsorship (which both arrived), the simplest means of the clippers could have helped the aspiration of the “Green Bank” company was to buy them carbon credits (which the company sold fraudulently).
Pablo Torre discovers evidence published Thursday That the Clippers did exactly that. Torre has a banking letter signed by the team’s financial director – as well as sources inside aspiration – who say that the Clippers accelerated an agreement of $ 21 million for carbon credits, weeks before the first payment of Leonard’s approval agreement. It was then that the Intuit Dome was under construction.
Together, Ballmer and The Clippers have invested $ 118 million in the aspiration. Leonard had an approval agreement of $ 48 million with the aspiration ($ 20 million of it were in stocks now worthless of the bankrupt company), for which there is no evidence that he worked.
Ballmer and The Clippers published a declaration both at the Podcast and in general about the purchase of these credits, stressing that making the new Green Intuit Dome building was very important for Ballmer, and he thought that the treatment of the aspiration had helped to achieve this objective. It is the same idea as when he said that he and other investors were “dual” by the company. Here is the statement that the Clippers sent to the Torre podcast:
“Our development agreements for the arena included purchasing mandates for carbon credits, but after having studied the problem of neutrality, we went well beyond these requirements, exploring means of responding could not fulfill their responsibilities. »»
Leonard contract
This last accusation concerning carbon credits only adds to the tsunami circumstantial evidence which seemed overwhelming. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the burden was on the league To prove that the mowers violated the ABC and seems to want direct evidence that Ballmer has intentionally attempted to bypass the salary ceiling, which will not exist (Ballmer would never have signed something so incriminating). Silver seems more ready to talk about changes in the league rules around investments and endorsements than punishment, but at this point, it seems that clippers must obtain more than slap on the wrist.
Could this include the cancellation of Leonard’s contract? (Leonard is expected to earn $ 50 million this season and $ 50.3 million next season.) In the words of the ABC, yes. Money has this power.
Do not expect him to exercise him.
As indicated in the first paragraph of this story, the Clippers recognize reality, and even if they have set up a good veteran team on paper for this season – a better than their team of 50 victories last season – it is not a competitor. The big threat of the playoffs depends on two unreliable things: Leonard’s health and Leonard’s qualifying.
Void Leonard contract, and the Clippers will have a maximum space of next hood next summer. They could then continue a star through a free agency or a profession, swiveling in the fall of 2026. It would be very good with the mowers.
Second, As John Hollinger notes at athleticsThe official NBA survey is expected to end in the middle of the season. Void Leonard contract at that time and there would be a crazy race for the eliminatory teams ready to take the risk of adding it in the short term, but none of them would only have a minimum veteran or something close to offer. As Hollinger notes, Leonard fought to return home to Los Angeles first, would he plan to sign with the Lakers for the minimum (which, at the moment, they cannot even offer before mid-January because of the hairstyle hard at the first tax apron)?
One thing Hollinger suggests that it is interesting: the money putting money from the Leonard approval contract in Clippers’ books, which makes them pay a luxury tax bill for this.
It is a long -term shot, but more likely than Silver canceling Leonard’s contract. The most likely scenario is that the clippers were sentenced to a fine, to lose a choice of draft in the first round or two, and perhaps a clipper executive is suspended (but not ballmer before its new Dome Intuits does host the All-Star game in February). It may be more than that, but at this stage, everything comes down to the league investigation, which is underway and will be for a while.
