NBA Threatens Clippers With Major Penalties, Analyst Says They Must Walk a Tightrope

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From Hollinger via The Athletic: The penalties for circumvention are delineated in Article XIII, and one or two of them could be problematic for reasons I’ll get into in a minute. But here’s the menu Silver is working from:

• Fine the Clippers up to $7.5 million
• Fine Leonard up to $350,000
• Forfeit Clippers draft picks
• Suspend Ballmer or other Clipper personnel up to a year and fine them up to $1 million each
• Void Leonard’s contract and prohibit him from re-signing with the Clippers
• Require Leonard to return the money he received from Aspiration

Voiding the deal seems like the cleanest remedy on paper, but in practice it creates chaos. If Leonard becomes a free agent midseason, the competitive balance of the league would be shattered. Imagine him signing with a contender for the veteran minimum — the Lakers, the Celtics, or even Denver. That’s not just embarrassing for the Clippers; it’s destabilizing for the entire playoff race.

Leaving the $50 million cap hit on L.A.’s books while stripping the player isn’t much better. That’s effectively double jeopardy, punishing the team without addressing the market distortion. And yet letting the Clippers out from under the contract completely would feel like a reward — an aging, oft-injured superstar off their cap sheet just in time for free agency in 2026.

This is where Silver’s “broad powers” matter. History tells us the draft picks will be gone — probably all five remaining firsts, echoing the Joe Smith precedent. Ballmer could face a suspension, even if that amounts to little more than theater. Fines will sting in name only, not in substance. The real battlefield is the precedent set with Leonard.

Silver has generally been seen as a consensus-driven commissioner, reluctant to wield power in a punitive way. This case could force him to do exactly that. If he mishandles it, the message to the league is clear: deep-pocketed owners can push the rules until they break. If he threads the needle — perhaps by keeping Leonard’s contract intact but applying a retroactive cap hit for the Aspiration payments — he may save the system without detonating competitive balance.

One way or another, this case isn’t just about the Clippers. It’s about the integrity of the cap, the credibility of the commissioner’s office, and whether Adam Silver is willing to risk short-term headaches to preserve long-term order.