LA traded away James Harden and Ivica Zubac despite a winning streak, claiming the looming NBA investigation changes nothing
The LA Clippers are operating in a weird state of denial right now
While the NBA investigates whether the team violated salary cap rules through a $28 million endorsement deal between Kawhi Leonard and a now-bankrupt California company called Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC, the Clippers are telling everyone that the investigation doesn’t affect how they do business. Except they just traded away two key rotation players in the same week, and those decisions seem to suggest that maybe everything is affecting how they do business.
Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations, was adamant Monday that the team hasn’t learned anything new about the investigation since September. “We know it’s out there, we know at some point there’ll be a decision made,” Frank said. “We very much feel the same thing that we told you back in September, that we’re on the right side of this. It really doesn’t impact anything we do on a daily basis.” That’s a confident statement, especially when you’re sitting on an ongoing investigation that could result in salary cap penalties, fines, or worse.
The scandal itself is pretty straightforward, or at least that’s what the Clippers want everyone to believe
Journalist Pablo Torre reported last September that the team structured a massive endorsement deal as a way to circumvent NBA salary cap rules. Leonard has denied any wrongdoing, claiming he didn’t actually receive all the money the company was supposed to pay him. The Clippers have also strongly denied that they broke any rules. Leonard’s position is basically that he got scammed by the company, so the Clippers couldn’t have violated the salary cap by funneling him money he never got. It’s a defense, anyway.
What’s genuinely strange is the timing of these trades
The Clippers started this season 6-21, which looked like a complete disaster. Then they caught fire, winning 19 of their last 25 games heading into Tuesday night’s game against Houston. That kind of momentum usually means you’re supposed to stay the course, add around the margins, and see where this thing goes. Instead, the Clippers decided to blow up the roster.
They shipped James Harden to Cleveland in exchange for Darius Garland plus two first-round picks. They sent Ivica Zubac to Indiana for Bennedict Mathurin. Frank claimed these weren’t planned moves Cleveland called asking for Harden, and Indiana sent what he described as a “Godfather-type offer” for Zubac. The language is telling. Godfather offers are ones you allegedly can’t refuse. Except the Clippers could have. They had a winning team. They had momentum. Instead, they traded away continuity.
The Zubac trade stung the most because he was basically Clipper royalty
He’d grown up with the franchise after coming over from the Lakers years ago. He set career highs last season and became one of the league’s top defensive big men. More importantly, he was the longest-tenured active player on the team. That means something in locker rooms. When Frank told him the night before the trade that Indiana was getting aggressive in pursuit, Zubac apparently understood what that meant. His final visit to the Clippers facility turned into what Frank described as a “six-to-eight-hour lovefest,” with teammates, coaches, and staff saying goodbye. There were tears.
Making it worse: Zubac’s wife had just given birth to their first child. The timing was brutal.
Harden’s situation was different but equally complicated
At 36, he’d been carrying minutes and load during stretches when Leonard was injured. Trading him for 26-year-old Darius Garland was framed as a way to “win now and still get younger.” Frank said Harden and the team had discussed what the next couple years looked like, but ultimately decided a youth injection made more sense.
Leonard was “hurt and disappointed” about both trades, Frank admitted. But he’s been “a great partner” through this, understanding that sustained success sometimes requires really hard decisions. The question is whether those hard decisions are actually sustainable, or whether they’re cover for something bigger brewing beneath the surface.
