For the majority of the summer, the news was really good for the Los Angeles Clippers. They restocked the team with two former All-Stars in Bradley Beal and Brook Lopez. The Clippers will host the All-Star Game in their new arena, the Intuit Dome. The team got a real power forward by trading for John Collins and brought back the franchise’s greatest player, point guard Chris Paul.
But then Pablo Torre reported on the highly suspicious endorsement deal between superstar Kawhi Leonard and Aspiration, a Clippers jersey sponsor that received highly suspicious investments from owner Steve Ballmer and co-owner Dennis Wong. Now the NBA is investigating, and a promising Clippers season is starting under a cloud. Here are three big questions the Clippers need to answer to get their season on track.
1. What is going to happen with the NBA’s investigation?
The NBA reportedly won’t conclude its investigation of the Clippers and Leonard until after the All-Star Game in February, which means the team will have the scandal hanging over its head for at least four months. Expect questions from the media all season long, even if Leonard himself is notoriously quiet. Meanwhile, the Clippers won’t know if they’ll face severe penalties from the NBA or what those penalties might be.
If they determine the Clippers circumvented the salary cap, the NBA could suspend Ballmer, assess fines or take away the Clippers’ future draft picks. Could the Clippers try to preemptively trade some of the picks they do have — swaps with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Philadelphia 76ers in 2027 and 2029, plus their own picks from 2030-32 — before the NBA takes them away?
2. How much do the Clippers’ older players have left?
There are five former All-Stars on this Clippers team, but the key word is