NBA Insider: Clippers Should Trade First-Round Picks For A Star Before NBA Punishes Them For Kawhi Leonard Scandal

The Los Angeles Clippers are currently under investigation for cap circumvention, and NBA insider Tom Haberstroh thinks they should trade their future first-round picks right away. The Clippers will likely lose draft capital if they are found guilty of paying Kawhi Leonard via Aspiration, and Haberstroh urged them to act now.

"The Clippers could push all of their chips to the middle and float a draft-pick package — say, two unprotected firsts and a 2031 swap — and pursue another star to complement James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Bradley Beal and Ivica Zubac. Can you imagine if said star is the missing piece for the 2026 NBA Champion Clippers? That’d be quite the trophy ceremony.

"But really, if the Clippers trade for a star using their picks, what could Silver do about it? As long as the investigation is ongoing, the answer is almost certainly nothing. Freezing a team’s assets for the duration of an investigation would cause an all-out revolt among the other owners — the opposite of Silver’s 'innocent until proven guilty' decree last week. Ultimately, Silver’s hands would be tied until the verdict came in."

NBA commissioner Adam Silver certainly cannot block any trade involving the Clippers. Haberstroh did add, though, that if the Clippers were eventually found guilty, then Silver could potentially punish them a bit harder for pulling off this maneuver. They could lose even more draft capital, but it might be worth it.

Haberstroh listed Zion Williamson, Michael Porter Jr., and Brandon Ingram as three players the Clippers should pursue. Any of those three would provide a significant boost to their title chances.

There has been no indication so far, though, about the Clippers making any sort of moves. All that has come out of the camp is that they are not guilty.

This whole saga began when it was alleged that the Clippers attempted to pay $28 million to Leonard via a no-show endorsement deal from Aspiration. He is also said to have received $20 million in stock, and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had invested $50 million into Aspiration a year before that endorsement deal kicked in.

Ballmer and the Clippers have denied any wrongdoing. They stated that the notion that money was being funneled to Leonard was absurd. It will be interesting to see what this investigation unearths.

It has since been reported that Ballmer and the Clippers invested $118 million in Aspiration between September 2021 and March 2023. The situation just isn't looking great for the team at the moment.

All that said, Silver has made it clear that the burden of proof is on the NBA. When asked about circumstantial evidence, he stated that the league and its investigators look at the totality of the evidence.

As for when this saga could potentially end, we might have to wait a while. NBA insider Jake Fischer stated you shouldn't expect a resolution in the coming months.

"I'm being told from various high-level sources from around the NBA that they do not expect any resolution to this investigation to come until after the All-Star Game, when the Clippers are set to hold the whole weekend of festivities at the Intuit Dome, Fischer said.

The Clippers are hosting All-Star Weekend in 2026, and Fischer reports that the results of the investigation could be released well after that. That would give the team plenty of time to go down the route that Haberstroh suggested.