With Kawhi Leonard Era in the Rearview, the Clippers Have to Move Forward. Here’s How.

Two weeks after the NBA brought the hammer down on the Clippers for circumventing the salary cap in order to pay Kawhi Leonard, owner Steve Ballmer finally waved the white flag.

Amid reports the billionaire planned to fight the league’s punishment, Ballmer released a conciliatory statement apologizing for what occurred. He still made sure to note there are “disagreements” with the findings of the NBA’s investigation, but declared his and the organization’s intention to “put this chapter behind us.”

Shortly thereafter, Leonard was officially traded to the Raptors in a deal that was initially agreed to in July; the superstar will leave the mess he helped create in Los Angeles to return to Toronto. But the franchise benefits. The Clips received Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, and rights to swap with Toronto in the first round of the 2027 draft in exchange for Leonard.

That means it’s all done. Finally. A saga launched by investigative reporting from Pablo Torre in September 2025 has come to its conclusion. The Kawhi era in Los Angeles is no more. Now the franchise is left to pick up the pieces.

The future does not look very bright with the looming dark cloud of the NBA’s penalties on the horizon. The Clippers will be stripped of a first-round pick in each draft from 2028 through ’33. First-round draft picks are the lifeblood of NBA franchises—simultaneously a buffer for when seasons go awry, assets to use in trades and a pipeline for championship-caliber talent. Without them, the Clippers’ margin for error is almost nonexistent. And any hopes of history repeating itself in the form of the NBA giving a pick or two back for good behavior (like they did for the Timberwolves the last time cap circumvention was an issue) were dashed this week; Adam Silver said firmly the discipline is final when asked directly if that was a possibility.

Can the Clippers move out of the storm and find sustained success in calmer waters? It will be a delicate process. One wrong decision has the power to send the team into a spiral of doom akin to Nets of the 2010s, who completely bottomed out for several seasons but took years to recover because they owed their picks to the Celtics.

But there are paths to winning. The Leonard scandal doesn’t have to be a death penalty to their hopes of respectability in the coming years. Contending for a championship may be out of reach, but building a team with the potential to reach such heights without banking on the draft lottery. It’s hard! Yet possible.

Here, we’ll examine the best ways for the Clippers to do so. But first we must take stock of what the organization is working with, now that Leonard is gone and the hammer’s already been brought down.

What the Clippers have right now

Brandon Ingram will be a big part of the Clippers this year. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The penalties the NBA gave out are harsh but make for long-term concerns. In the near future, Los Angeles isn’t in horrendous position. Things aren’t great, but the team isn’t starting from the bottom rung either.

The Leonard trade is the primary reason why. Sending the superstar wing to the Raptors allowed the Clippers to alleviate their draft pick concerns going forward; they landed two unprotected first-rounders from Toronto in 2031 and 2033. Also included was the right to swap first-round picks in 2027. The draft pick situation is now as follows:

2027: Owe swap rights to Thunder, own swap rights with Raptors (i.e. can swap with Raptors after Thunder swap with Clippers)
2028: No pick
2029: Owe swap rights to 76ers, but not if it’s a top-three pick
2030: No pick
2031: Own Raptors pick
2032: No pick
2033: Own Raptors pick

As you can see, Los Angeles still doesn’t have complete control over any of its own first-round picks until 2034 (!) but at least have the ability to make picks despite the cap circumvention penalties. It’s not a barren landscape.

In terms of the on-court product, the Clippers will enter this season pairing Brandon Ingram with Darius Garland. The two All-Star talents are not flawless players by any means, but they are established producers when on the court. But it’s Keaton Wagler who represents the biggest reason to be excited. The sixth pick in the ‘26 draft, Wagler is a lottery talent with All-Star potential. His path to superstardom isn’t clear but his development will be the most interesting part of the next few seasons for the Clippers.

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The rest of the roster is an assortment of low-end role players. But coach Ty Lue remains on the sideline, and he is widely respected for his ability to get the most out of the roster at hand. He raises the floor, which is a tremendously valuable trait for the Clippers—both in terms of ensuring the on-court product remains exciting and to maximize the talent at their disposal.

So, that’s what they’ve got. The foundation is laid. What’s the best way to take advantage of it?

How the Clippers can move forward

Keaton Wagler is the Clippers’ most exciting young player going forward. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Here are the four tenets Los Angeles must adhere to—not only to survive these upcoming seasons, but also to have a chance at thriving.

Focus on development above all else.

It may be tempting for the Clippers to pursue short-term gains given the future could hold any number of disastrous outcomes. But even if the wins start rolling in and L.A. makes a playoff push, the front office can’t burn the few assets the team still has in order to make incremental improvements. The long view must be held at all times, which means the development of whatever young talent the Clips can get their hands on should be a priority too.

For this season, that means ensuring Wagler gets as many opportunities as possible. It’ll be easy to fade into the background alongside two veteran teammates who need the ball in their hands to make an impact, but Lue has to be on top of that. Both Wagler and the team need to find out what he can bring to the table. His touches can’t be sacrificed in pursuit of the few extra wins that might result from letting Garland and Ingram dominate the offense.

Everything else should feed into this priority. The moves the Clippers make going forward should be about the future, because that’s what’s in the most danger with the NBA penalties—and where the most success can be found given the current state of the organization.

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Prioritize a flexible cap sheet.

There are opportunities abound for NBA teams to add talent if they have the cap space to do so. Thus, the Clippers must prioritize a flexible cap sheet in the coming years and wield the space they have to bring in talent. Right now, they’re well-situated to have that kind of space in short order. This year L.A. is well over the $164.9 million cap, but as of now the organization is slated to only be $13 million over next offseason before making decisions on Rui Hachimura’s $14 million team option or Gradey Dick’s restricted free agency, which comes with a cap hold. Both Ingram and Garland’s deals will be up in the summer of 2028 as well, which will free up over $80 million in cap space.

NBA free agency isn’t what it once was, with the best talent getting moved via the trade market instead. But good players can still be signed—and it doesn’t require huge stroke of luck to find them. It’d be nice if the Clippers hit on some scrap heap signings or hit a home run with a Jalen Brunson-type bet on someone like Ajay Mitchell. But high-end rotation players like Alex Caruso, Dillon Brooks and Isaiah Hartenstein have changed jerseys in free agency over the last few years.

It’s very hard to find championship-caliber talent in free agency these days. But finding NBA-caliber rotation players is quite feasible. The more such players L.A. acquires, the better off the franchise will be. It leads to a better on-court product and more opportunities on the trade market.

Be opportunistic on the trade market.

Speaking of which! In direction connection to the cap space tenet, the Clippers must also be as opportunistic on the trade market as possible. We aren’t talking about trying to trade for the next disgruntled superstar to hit the block; those players will be out of reach for Los Angeles given its lack of assets. But the Clippers should be in discussion for trades of all other types, from their own players to the unwanted talents of other teams.

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If Garland or Ingram play well enough this season that a contender comes calling with an offer for their services, the front office has to pull the trigger. Both can contribute to the team right now, and Garland is young enough that he might stick around long enough to see the Clippers contend again. But as it stands, their greatest value comes as possible trade targets for other teams, who could be willing to give up picks to help restock L.A’s cupboard or talent more in line with the long-term contention timeline the organization has to operate on. They can’t be too quick to trade these guys, lest they fail to maximize their value, but they also cannot hold onto them in hopes of a perfect deal. Should the right opportunity come, the Clips must recognize it and act accordingly.

The same goes for everybody on the roster other than Wagler as the one young player on the roster who could wind up a good or even great player.

On the other side of things, they can now use their cap space (and lack of immediate championship expectations) to take in unwanted talent from other teams. This offseason alone has offered numerous examples of what such deals can provide to smart front offices. The Clippers themselves are one such example—the Cavaliers had to get rid of Max Strus to trade for Peyton Watson, so Los Angeles jumped in to give Strus a new home while only having to give up a second-round pick to make it happen.

Such opportunities litter the NBA landscape every offseason. There are good players who wind up on the trade block due to reasons entirely unrelated to their on-court skill, whether they’re victims of a cap crunch in the second apron era or have to be sacrificed as part of a larger transaction. These opportunities should be where the Clippers thrive so long as they have a working telephone and cap space.

Leave no stone unturned in the scouting department.

Finally, there has to be a strong emphasis throughout the organization on finding diamonds in the rough on draft night.

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First-round picks are the easiest way to find those diamonds but they aren’t the only way. The second round and undrafted free agent markets will permit the Clippers significantly more bites at the apple and, in the case of the latter, allows for complete control of the process as opposed to the complicated nature of the picks L.A. does have. It’s hard to find good players in those areas, but not impossible.

Brunson, Nikola Jokić and Austin Reaves currently stand out as the best possible outcomes for players who were taken outside the first round. Given they are such outstanding exceptions to the general rule that NBA superstars are exclusively produced at the top of the draft, the Clippers can’t expect to find such players. But helpful players? Players who might be a long-term fit next to Wagler or good enough to use as trade chips for a star trade down the line? It’s realistic to believe Los Angeles can find such players.

In the last five years, here are some names you know who entered the league through the second round or undrafted free agency:

Herb Jones
Miles “Deuce” McBride
Ayo Dosunmu
Neemis Queta
Andrew Nembhard
Max Christie
Moussa Diabate
Ajay Mitchell
Collin Gillespie
Jose Alvarado

Will any of those guys be the best player on a title favorite? No. Do they offer modern NBA skills that help win games? Absolutely. Would players like them prove a boon to the Clippers as they rebuild the franchise? 100%.

Finding success in the NBA isn’t a straightforward formula. Luck is always involved. The best-run teams in the league consistently win because they are focused on putting their organizations in a position to get lucky. Los Angeles currently find itself way on the opposite end of the spectrum in that regard following the cap circumvention disaster.

But by leaning on these tenets, the Clippers could get lucky. It only takes one big stroke of fortune to change everything. And even if they don’t, good results always follow good process.

There hasn’t been much good process in L.A. of late. It’s time for that to change.

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