{"id":621202,"date":"2026-02-24T05:33:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T05:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/621202\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T05:33:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T05:33:28","slug":"nba-execs-wondering-if-kawhi-leonard-clippers-will-part-ways-this-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/621202\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Execs Wondering If Kawhi Leonard, Clippers Will Part Ways This Offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBA executives are wondering if Kawhi Leonard<\/a> and the Los Angeles Clippers will part ways this offseason, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Clippers are no longer a championship contender after trading James Harden<\/a> to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Ivica Zubac<\/a> to the Indiana Pacers at this year\u2019s trade deadline. <\/p>\n

Leonard turns 35 in June. The swingman will make $50.3 million next season in the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n

The Clippers signed Leonard in the offseason of 2019. Leonard\u2019s stint with LAC has been disappointing, as the franchise hasn\u2019t reached the NBA Finals and Leonard hasn\u2019t been able to stay healthy.<\/p>\n

If the NBA finds the Clippers guilty of circumventing the salary cap for Leonard, the forward\u2019s contract could get voided and he would become an unrestricted free agent and free to sign with any team of his choice.<\/p>\n

A company called Aspiration allegedly paid Leonard $48 million for a no-show job intended to circumvent the NBA salary cap. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested $10 million in Aspiration in March 2023. The billionaire had invested $50 million in Aspiration 18 months prior.<\/p>\n

Ballmer introduced Aspiration to Leonard in November 2021, three months after the Clippers had agreed to a four-year, $173 million extension with Leonard. Two months earlier, in September 2021, the Clippers announced a lucrative $300 million partnership with Aspiration.<\/p>\n

Aspiration paid Leonard $1.7 million days after Clippers minority owner Dennis J. Wong made an almost $2 million investment in the company. This took place in December 2022. Leonard also got $20 million in Aspiration shares directly from co-founder Joe Sanberg.<\/p>\n

Ballmer and the Clippers invested $118 million in Aspiration in 18 months. LAC\u2019s chief financial officer signed off on a $21 million payment from the team to fund various carbon projects for Aspiration in June 2022. The $21 million was enough for Leonard\u2019s first quarterly payment as part of his no-show endorsement deal with Aspiration. It also hit Aspiration\u2019s fundraising target.<\/p>\n

Pablo Torre of Pablo Torre Finds Out<\/a> broke this story last offseason. He reported that Ballmer donated $1.875 million to Aspiration 1.5 years after the Clippers deal ended and Leonard was also personally guaranteed another $20 million in Aspiration equity.<\/p>\n

Leonard is a two-time champion, two-time Finals MVP and two-time Defensive Player of the Year. He was named a top 75 player of all time in 2022. The California native holds career averages of 20.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.6 blocks per game with the San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors and Clippers. <\/p>\n

Latest NBA News & Rumors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA executives are wondering if Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers will part ways this offseason, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,529,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,3101,6050],"class_list":{"0":"post-621202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-clippers","10":"tag-kawhi-leonard","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-clippers","13":"tag-laclippers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangelesclippers","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-nba-news","20":"tag-nba-rumors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116123979659331870","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}