Asking for Forgiveness, the Clippers’ Front Office Stresses There Is a Way Forward

LOS ANGELES—It began with an apology. Trent Redden, the Clippers freshly minted (interim) president of basketball operations, one of the last men standing after the NBA took a cleaver to L.A.’s front office, sat on a dais on Monday and, on behalf of the franchise, asked for forgiveness.

“Obviously this took a little longer than we had hoped,” Redden said. “[The media] deserved to hear from us before this, our fans deserved to hear from us before this, and for that we’re sorry. We have been listening, though. Not just being quiet. Listening to the thoughts, the emotions, the concerns, the feelings of our fan base. They mean everything to us. Their pain through this time is real. We feel it, and we hear them.”

Monday forced, er, offered the Clippers’ remaining brass a chance to address the events of a catastrophic offseason. To recap: Earlier this month, the NBA revealed the findings into a years-long investigation into allegations the Clippers circumvented the salary cap to sweeten deals for Kawhi Leonard. In a damning, 36-page report the league’s investigators, the white-shoe law firm of Wachtell Lipton presented evidence of a comprehensive plan to funnel money to Leonard through multiple team-connected companies.

In response, the league slapped the team with the most significant fine in NBA history, stripping L.A. of five first-round draft picks, fining the team $30 million, suspending owner Steve Ballmer and president of business operations Gillian Zucker for a year and sidelining president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank for six months.

Addressing reporters, Redden emphasized that there were things he could not, and perhaps would not, get into. “Steve's comments and statement are going to speak for the organization,” said Redden, referencing Ballmer’s statement accepting the penalties. Of organizational morale, Redden said “it’s been difficult.” He praised the team’s veterans for their leadership during the offseason. “We've had guys in the gym for two months now just working and trying to get better,” Redden said. Asked to outline a pathway to being competitive again, Redden stressed that he believed the team could be competitive immediately.

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“We can represent ourselves and try to win with the group we have,” Redden said. “We got a lot of guys that accomplished things in this league. A couple All-Stars and then a couple of young guys that obviously are getting better. But in terms of pathway, I think we're just figuring that out.”

And long term?

“It's different, certainly,” said Redden. “We can't load up the gun with a bunch of future picks to go acquire someone. But we'll have cap space next summer. We obviously have player development in-house of guys continuing to get better. And you've got other paths through trade and maybe signing a guy on the way up to get those bigger names or thoughts in terms of building a team that we're still figuring out. It's only been a month.”

Organizationally, Redden said, it’s all hands on deck. Mark Hughes, the assistant general manager, steps into the interim GM role. Lee Jenkins, a former Sports Illustrated writer who has been in the Clippers’ front office since 2018, “will do a lot more.”

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“Together our processes of how we go through talking to teams and drumming up ideas and figuring out what might work for us both short and long term stays the same, with Ty's [Clippers coach Tyronn Lue] input on player level and input into his system always part of it. I don't see that changing because of the guidelines that Steve and [Frank] had put in place.”

Flanking Redden was Lue. Lue has been the public face of several Clippers messes, from Leonard’s injury issues to L’Affaire Chris Paul to months of Pablo Torre-fueled reporting about L.A.’s shady behind the scene practices. Asked if he felt betrayed after the NBA effectively called his bosses liars, Lue said he had “no expectations” for what the league's findings would be, nor did Lue, who has three years left on his contract, think about jumping ship.

“I wouldn't want to be in any other place,” said Lue. “I think I've expressed that many times, even when things got hard and things got tough, that I wanted to be here, be a part of this organization. And Mr. Ballmer has been tremendous to me, to my family, to my town in Mexico, Missouri. He's been great. And so my loyalty to him is to the end. And so for me, I definitely want to be here. I definitely want to go through this challenge. And we've been through challenges before. We're going to approach it the same way.”

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Well, maybe a little different. In between Leonard-related questions, Redden dropped this unfortunate nugget: Brandon Ingram, the non-picks centerpiece of the deal with Toronto for Leonard, was out indefinitely as he recovers from surgery to repair his right heel and a partially torn Achilles tendon last May. Bradley Beal, who missed all but six games last season with a hip injury, is dealing with knee inflammation that will keep him out for the start of camp.

For the moment, the Clippers focus is developmental. Keaton Wagler, the fifth overall pick last June, has been in town all summer, working out four days a week. “He's going to get a lot of chances to make mistakes and grow from those mistakes,” said Lue. Darius Garland is healthy, and he will be joined in the rotation by ex-Cavs teammate Max Strus. The path back to relevance will be challenging. “Wouldn't be the first time the Clippers went through challenges,” Redden said.

But if there was a message L.A. wanted to deliver on Monday: There is a path back.

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