Voiding Kawhi Leonard's Clippers contract is the most direct penalty available to the NBA.It’s also the most problematic for the rest of the league, writes @johnhollinger. pic.twitter.com/rI1zncw2Nb— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) September 17, 2025
Can you imagine if halfway through season Kawhi becomes a UFA?
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September 17, 2025 5 Comments
From the above article:
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.
Training camp is just around the corner, nobody has any cap space, and the league is likely weeks — if not months — away from completing its investigation. That’s before it even gets around to setting up a hearing with an arbitrator and deciding the case; we might be halfway through the season before we get any kind of resolution.
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.
So, that’s the landscape facing Adam Silver right now if he and an independent arbitrator both deem the Clippers guilty of cap circumvention. If so, the loss of several draft picks and a fine and year-long suspension for Ballmer are almost a given.
The real question is what happens with Leonard’s contract. 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.
Read a good piece about the situation today on ESPN. Minimum contract, maximum baggage.
There’s no way he shouldn’t be suspended for a year, maybe 2. This is 100% his and that POS uncle of his’ doing along with Ballmer. None of them should be allowed near an NBA court again, much less again this season. And the league will never allow him to become a Laker, they’ll come up with some reason, and knowing him, he’ll go to whomever has the most available cap space.
I absolutely agree, Stan. It takes two to cheat on the salary cap. This is the one type of situation where the League cannot back down out of fear for the players. In the end, we’re talking about the integrity of the sport that’s made them millionaires. Any penalty that the Clipper s are given should also be given to Kawhi Leonard.