Which takes us to the biggest, ugliest, most confounding part of this: The possibility of voiding Leonard’s contract. This is the most direct penalty available given the violation, but unfortunately, it’s also the most problematic for the rest of the league.
This problem arises from two sides. First, is the league actually penalizing the Clippers by voiding the contract, or is it doing them a favor? Leonard is due to make $50 million next year and, while still an elite player when healthy, has constantly missed time with injuries. (You’ve no doubt already heard the jokes about Aspiration being his second no-show job). Without Leonard’s money on the books, the Clippers will have max cap space in the summer of 2026 and could either completely pivot to a new roster or even, perhaps, try to poach LeBron James from the rival Lakers.
That brings up the second aspect of voiding the contract: Could they leave the $50 million on the Clippers’ 2027 cap and still void the contract? Amazingly, for a document of this size, the exact mechanics of how this works aren’t clearly spelled out, and the definitions in Article I of the CBA don’t include “void contract” as an entry. Opposing teams are surely rooting for this penalty, but to me that seems an unlikely endgame — it’s basically double jeopardy, giving the Clippers the cap hit without the player.
A more interesting question, perhaps, is whether the commissioner could put the money Leonard received from Aspiration onto the Clippers’ 2026-27 cap, as this had never been charged to their books in any previous season. That would eliminate the double-jeopardy concern above and still deprive L.A. of a cap-space bonanza; it would also partly satisfy complaints from other owners that the Clips should pay luxury tax for the Aspiration money that Leonard received in previous years.
Finally, we get to the most vexing part of voiding the contract, and why I ultimately think it’s a big problem for the league: The mayhem that would ensue in the free-agent market.
So, can you imagine if Kawhi Leonard were suddenly an unrestricted free agent halfway through the season, one who is forbidden from re-signing with the Clippers? What if he decides he just likes being in L.A. and signs with the Lakers for the minimum? What does that do for competitive balance? For that matter, what if he signs anywhere for a meager salary — won’t that be hugely distorting to the playoff chase?
I presume 28 other owners would be absolutely howling if Leonard joined a contender while making a small exception, but there’s no good way for Silver to ensure any kind of market-rational outcome for a midseason free agent of this caliber. The only end run I could see around this would be to suspend Leonard for the season, which seems both unduly harsh and a precursor to a nasty fight with the players’ union.
In some ways it’s much easier, from the league side, if it can drag the whole process out until the spring and then void the contract once the regular season has ended, setting up an orderly process for Leonard to find his next team in the summer. Failing that, it might be easier for the league to keep Leonard’s contract on the Clippers’ books and instead hammer them with a cap charge for the extra money Aspiration funneled his way, or come up with other novel punishments.
In a vacuum, I’m sure the league would likely prefer to establish the precedent of voiding the contract. In reality, it could prove so problematic to execute fairly with a player of this caliber in the middle of a season that the league decides they’re better off not bothering.
—
Also from the article:
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
33 comments
http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap17.htm#Q112
>112. What does it mean when a contract is voided?
>It’s when a contract is canceled, i.e., rendered “null and void” because its terms were broken. This is not the same as merely terminating a contract by waiving the player (see question number 64). When a player is waived, some of the terms of the contract remain in effect — for example, the player is still paid any remaining guaranteed salary. When a contract is voided, none of its terms remain in effect. It’s treated the same as if the contract had never existed.
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“Teams hope for an actual penalty; alas, that is unlikely.”
I don’t know the limits of the punishments within the rules but the hammer needs to be dropped hard enough so a player or organization never attempts this again.
I mean, I don’t feel bad for the Clippers or Kawhi in this situation. If Joe Smith’s contract was voided, Kawhi’s can/should be too. Just because Kawhi is a superstar/wanted by other teams doesn’t mean anything. He/Clips could have just not broken the rules and they wouldn’t be in this situation.
And also, what is the punishment if not a void of contract? Everyone gets a slap on the wrist and comes back next season?
Also, he should be suspended anyways in addition to the contract being voided, so it’s not like he’d turn around and sign with the Lakers for this coming season.
The punishment should be:
-Contract voided
-Lose some picks
-Magic Johnson fined
-Mavs bench fined
-Technical foul on Tatum
Id rather the league establish the precedent of voiding a contract instead of establishing the precedent of cap circumvention but who am I to be picky
>The only end run I could see around this would be to suspend Leonard for the season, which seems both unduly harsh
??? No it isnt..
Why would suspending Leonard for this be “unduly harsh”? From what I’ve seen, he was very aware of what he was doing and should 100% be punished for that.
Void there contract with LA and send em back to San Deigo.
I’m glad this article is out to point out the obvious. The Clippers would love to void that contract. That Kawhi/PG window is closed, but they can’t really tank until 2029 because their picks have all been traded away. So they need to ride out a few years of Harden/Beal and just try to be entertaining. THEN they can look at tanking and drafting OR package up those 2030+ picks for someone new.
Plus, Kawhi is so impactful when he does actually play that it’s sorta bullshit if he goes to a contender for cheap. And it’s not like he’d sign with a garbage team.
Also……knowing what we know now, was he really hurt all this time? Or just cranky because his under-the-table checks didn’t get deposited on time. The ACL was real, but he’s missed a lot of time for things like soreness or tightness and maybe he was healthy the entire time?
Hopefully this stuff gets addressed in the next CBA. When you think about it, it’s pretty unusual that these athletes have a primary employer AND can pull all this money on the side. Most of us aren’t allowed to moonlight or consult on the side if we have a full-time salaried position with a company. Basically, if you were caught doing it, you just get fired. One place that does allow a lot of consulting are universities: Their professors consult and do expert witness stuff all the time, but the university always has a conflict of interest committee that reviews the situations to make sure the professor is doing their main job and that their consulting gigs aren’t hurting their responsibilities to students or to carry out grants on the universitys behalf.
And the NCAA now has Deloitte reviewing NIL deals to see if they are real or bullshit. If the fucking NCAA can manage to do that, the NBA/NBAPA could too.
Voided and suspended is important. You can’t let him just walk away and sign with a new team.
suspend the player, hammer with the cap charge, add fines and picks.
Clippers have been implicated in how many issues (going back to the Mavs?) Clearly brushes with the law have not deterred them
How about banning him from the league for 3 years?
> it’s basically double jeopardy, giving the Clippers the cap hit without the player.
What is this nonsense. This is not even close to the meaning of double jeopardy. It is possible for people or legal entities to receive more than one penalty for a single infraction, let alone the multiple infractions the Clippers appear to have committed.
Void the contract, ban Leonard for multiple years, leave the cap hit, suspend Ballmer for multiple years, fine, dock firsts, and we are good.
“how can they stop a team from having the player while also still paying the players cap space”
…suspend the player for the rest of his contract
how is this complicated
I think the bigger problem for the league is killing the idea of circumvention working in the future. They have to restore faith and they don’t want these questions to be a season by season distraction…because the way this works with the media is this: I’m sure there are already 50,000 ‘reporters’ looking at other teams, other deals and other players
Does the NBA really want to start answering all of this?
So they kinda need to nuke the Clippers
If the league don’t wanna void Kawhi’s contract then the next most appropriate punishment would be to force the Clippers to sign Ben Simmons to a max contract and hire Doc as the head coach for the next 5 years.
He should be suspended regardless
I’m pushing 50 and have been a lifelong fan of the NBA and I gotta tell you, if they don’t give a real punishment for this I’m just going to assume that everything is now rigged, especially with how pervasive gambling has become.
Silver needs to come up with an actual harsh punishment and needs to do it soon or people are going to end up walking away.
Void contract. Have it still count against cap. Suspend Leonard. Suspend Ballmer. $250M fine and loss of draft picks
Ok, so the NBA should have clear and fixed punishments for specific rules violations.
Its like these analysts forget that kawhi can also he suspended himself for trying to circumvent the CAP
Clippa keep cap hit, no player, and he cant sign with an nba team for 1-2 years
John Hollinger being an absolute clown of a reporter? I’m shocked.
Hollinger likes always being wrong.
Kawhi, Ballmer, and anyone else involved should be suspended for at least one season and the contract voided.
The contract should be voided and the money should count against the clips salary cap.
Idk what the CBA says but as a lay person this seems cut and dry.
I don’t understand why people are advocating that either nothing happens to Kawhi or he gets punished minimally. All of this is because of him! He wouldn’t sign with a team unless they met his demands. So his punishment should be just as severe because again we wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t trying to make backroom deals! Hell, where would he have gone if Ballmer didn’t agree to his demands?
If the Celtics had to pay Reggie Lewis’s full cap hit after he fucking died then the Clippers can deal with Kawhi’s voided contract on their books too.
If Silver wasn’t feeding us BS, he gave Jontay Porter a lifetime ban for committing a “cardinal sin”.
He referred to cap circumvention as a cardinal sin, so the punishment seems right there.
He won’t do this though because obviously no Kawhi = less Clippers relevance = less viewership
>The only end run I could see around this would be to suspend Leonard for the season, which seems both unduly harsh and a precursor to a nasty fight with the players’ union.
Unduly harsh? He knew exactly what he was doing. I consider giving him a whole year off appropriate. HE created a HUGE problem.
I mean Ballmer should have to sell the team. It’s that simple.
You HAVE to punish Leonard by voiding the contract. IMO they should void the contract, retain the cap hit, pay the luxury tax that was evaded, lose X draft picks, and then suspend Leonard for the year.
Obviously Kawhi needs to be banned. Why would you let him get off Scot free for this?