As the Toronto Raptors patiently await the fate of Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers, here\u2019s what sports history suggests could be in store for all parties involved.<\/p>\n
The closest comparison is Joe Smith, who played 16 years in the NBA between 1995 and 2011. Before the 2000 season, it was discovered that Smith and the Minnesota Timberwolves had committed salary circumvention. The Timberwolves promised the forward a lucrative long-term deal if he agreed to three one-year contracts of $3 million each.<\/p>\n
The league\u2019s punishment mostly affected the franchise, rather than Smith. While Smith\u2019s one-year contracts were voided, he didn\u2019t have to pay anything back. He also lost his Bird Rights, which only affected Minnesota. However, in addition to a fine, the Timberwolves ultimately lost their first-rounders for the next three years. Timberwolves Owner Glenn Taylor and General Manager Kevin McHale were asked not to leave the team until the following summer.<\/p>\n
While there\u2019s an obvious discrepancy in the amount of money involved, how the NBA handled the Smith debacle suggests that Leonard won\u2019t have to pay a single percentage of the money he earned. Additionally, the Clippers could likely end up losing draft picks while receiving a fine.<\/p>\n
If Leonard\u2019s contract is voided, Raptors fans should consider that as the nightmare scenario. Toronto wouldn\u2019t have the financial space to offer Leonard anywhere near his market value, and it\u2019s likely the 2019 Finals MVP would choose another team to start with a clean slate.<\/p>\n
The Devil is in the details<\/p>\n
If the NBA looks outside of its sandbox for guidance, the NHL rejected a deal between the New Jersey Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk during the 2010 off-season. The league concluded that the Devils\u2019 17-year, $ 102 million contract illegally circumvented the salary cap because of its back-end structure, despite other organizations using similar strategies.<\/p>\n
The Devils were fined $3-million and forfeited a first-round pick, and a third-round pick.<\/p>\n
The NFL had a similar experience when the league office punished the Denver Broncos in 2004 for salary cap circumvention between 1996-98. The details of the findings include the Broncos organization and their players agreeing to deferred payments. Denver won back-to-back Super Bowl titles in 1997 and 1998. The franchise was fined nearly $1-million and lost its third-round pick in the ensuing draft.<\/p>\n
These examples further suggest that the Clippers will lose draft picks and receive financial penalties.<\/p>\n
A majority of the suspensions in NBA history are due to physical altercations and drug or substance incidents. Ron Artest\u2019s involvement in Malice at the Palace (86 games), Latrell Sprewell\u2019s altercation with Head Coach P.J. Carlesimo (68 games), and Gilbert Arenas\u2019 locker room incident (50 games) are the three longest player suspensions. Meanwhile, former Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver (93 games) and Golden State Warriors minority owner Mark Stevens (65 games) have the longest suspensions for non-players.<\/p>\n
If Leonard is suspended, it could end up being anywhere from one to 30 games. Stephen Jackson (Malice at the Palace) and Miles Bridges (domestic violence) both received 30-game suspensions. While there isn\u2019t precedent for salary circumvention, there have been rare suspensions for player conduct deemed detrimental to the league\u2019s reputation. This includes two separate suspensions for Ja Morant with the Memphis Grizzlies (25 games, eight games), Kyrie Irving with the Brooklyn Nets (eight games), and Jimmy Butler with the Miami Heat (seven games).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Toronto Raptors patiently await the fate of Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers, here\u2019s what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,6,681,46995,5038,36437,680,476,65037,3820],"class_list":["post-807509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-raptors","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-raptors","tag-raptors-rumors","tag-raptors-analysis","tag-raptors-roster","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-toronto-raptors-discussion","tag-torontoraptors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117065597787453014","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807509","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=807509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}