From Million Dollar Fines To Voiding Kawhi's Contract Altogether, The Potential Penalties For The Kawhi Leonard Scandal Could Very Well Reshape The NBA

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Without a doubt, one of the biggest stories in the sports world and definitely the biggest current story in the NBA is the Kawhi Leonard/Clippers Scandal. With each passing day, we continue to get more and more fuel to the fire as one side tries to deny and invalidate all of Pablo Torre's reporting only for him to then immediately respond with even more damning evidence. 

Honestly, as someone with zero rooting interest in the Clippers and is just here for the chaos, it's been incredible to follow.

Given that Adam Silver officially talked about the formal investigation and what might have to happen in order for them to come up with the punishment, the next question then becomes what is actually possible? This is all a bit of uncharted waters, especially in this new CBA world. Whether or not you think the league and Silver will do anything about this or drop the hammer, it's first important to understand what's even on the table in terms of punishment based how it's written in the new CBA

• 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

Option #1 of fining the Clippers up to $7.5M? I'm not sure Steve Ballmer would even notice. I imagine he has that in his pocket right this second. Would something like that even deter the other super wealthy owners from also trying something like this if it lands them a superstar? I'm not so sure

Option #2 of fining Leonard up to $350K. Again, who cares? Leonard made $49M last year and has made over $328M in just basketball contract money alone. That's a nothing burger as well.

Option #3 of forfeiting draft picks. Now we're talking. This matters, of course, because as an expensice roster (which the Clippers are) it becomes crucial that you are able to find cheap playable talent to put around your expensive core. The main way to do that is through the Draft, and when you then factor in the age of the Clippers roster, should things go south, you could be talking about high lottery picks. Of all the options so far, this would be something that the team would actually feel, and given how important picks are in this new CBA world, that might be enough to deter others from trying similar shenanigans.

Option #4 of suspending Ballmer for a year and a $1M fine is again, whatever. So we go a year without clips of Ballmer losing his shit in the crowd. The horror! Yawn.

Option #5 of voiding Kawhi's contract. Now we're talking baby! This is what I would think most would consider "the hammer" being dropped by the league, and if this is on the table, I have questions. If Kawhi's contract is voided, what about his cap hit? Would the Clippers still be on the hook for that money? If not, isn't there a case to be made that this could actually work out in their favor, as they get out from an injury-plagued player and then have max space to replace him moving forward? Would that really be all that terrible for the Clippers moving forward? If his cap hit has to remain, the Clippers would basically be penalized twice, which I'm not sure other owners would be down for should they too find themselves in a similar spot one day.

Then there's the whole reality of what this would do to the rest of the league. Should Kawhi hit the market, what's to stop him from signing with the Lakers or any other big market team for the minimum? The NBA wants parity and competitive balance right? Well, what if OKC is now able to bring in Kawhi for low money? That option does in a way make this whole competitive balance argument a little tougher, because when healthy Kawhi Leonard is a superstar. Given that almost everyone is out of their money from the offseason, it's not like there's a massive contract waiting for Kawhi. He'd be had for MLE money or the minimum, which would be insane. 

So if you're an owner of a rival contending team in the West that isn't the Lakers, and you want the Clippers punished, I'm not sure this would be the route you would choose. We saw Joe Smith's contract get voided when his whole scandal happened with the Wolves, so I get why this is an option, I just don't think it's where Silver and the league ends up. If it is, well then we are about to get a new level of chaos never seen before in the NBA. 

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Option #5 of returning the fugazi job money? OK. Big deal.

So, in the end, if there is a punishment that's on the horizon, I think we'll see some sort of combination of hefty fines, loss of draft picks, and the Ballmer suspension. How many draft picks will be the kicker, and while that might not seem like a hefty punishment, I can't stress enough how much draft picks matter in 2025, even 2nd round picks. They are actually more important than ever before given the new roster building restrictions, and taking those away from a team in my opinion would be enough to prevent something like this from happening again. Unless that owner truly doesn't give a fuck, which I guess is always a possibility when you're talking about adding a player of Kawhi's level.