The astronomical cost of the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard gamble is finally tallied

In the summer of 2019, the Los Angeles Clippers pushed every chip they could find into the middle of the table.

The result was the acquisition of Kawhi Leonard, a trade for Paul George, and a revamped roster ready to compete for an NBA championship. It represented a complete transformation of the franchise, putting elite superstars on the marquee.

But in the NBA, going all-in to win a championship in the present always comes with a heavy price to pay down the road.

And now, somebody has finally come to collect and count those chips.

The total cost to sign Leonard and trade for George is almost impossible to comprehend: star player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, five first-round picks sent to Oklahoma City, two first-round pick swaps, another five first-round picks forfeited to the league, and a staggering $30 million fine.

To toss in Danilo Gallinari, multiple front-office executive suspensions—including team owner Steve Ballmer—and the fact that one of those picks traded to Oklahoma City became All-Star Jalen Williams, what once looked like the greatest night in franchise history has now aged like milk under the boiling Southern California sun.

All of that for just one Western Conference Finals appearance and still zero NBA championships in franchise history.

The Clippers technically signed Leonard as a free agent in July 2019, but acquiring George from the Thunder cost them four unprotected first-round picks, a future MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and several other players. Leonard was reportedly the one who demanded George as a condition of signing with Los Angeles.

That signing, and his subsequent re-signing in 2021, has now placed the entire controversy under a harsh microscope.

The NBA concluded on Wednesday that the Clippers and Leonard violated the league’s salary-cap circumvention rules, hammering Los Angeles with the forfeiture of five additional first-round picks—spanning 2029 through 2033—and a $30 million fine. Team owner Steve Ballmer was suspended for one year, president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended for one year without pay, and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was suspended for six months. Meanwhile, Leonard himself was fined $700,000.

Put everything together, the Leonard pursuit can be reasonably framed as follows: ten first-round picks lost, two additional first-round pick swaps, future MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, $30 million, and multiple front-office suspensions.

Of course, the human cost of that 2019 roll of the dice by Ballmer and the Clippers looks even worse.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has become a bona fide superstar, and Jalen Williams has developed into an All-Star-caliber cornerstone. Paul George eventually left Los Angeles without delivering a championship. Meanwhile, Kawhi Leonard’s tenure with the Clippers became defined as much by devastating injuries and postseason absences as the brilliance that originally convinced Ballmer to mortgage the team’s future for him.

There was once a time when the Clippers could defend the price they paid. Leonard was fresh off an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors, having taken down the Golden State Warriors dynasty in the process. George was an MVP finalist hailing from Los Angeles. For perhaps the first time in franchise history, the Clippers appeared to have assembled the perfect superstar pairing since Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

But they never reached their full potential. Their high-water mark was the 2021 Western Conference Finals, a series reached after Leonard tore his ACL and never even played in it.

Now, the final accounting of that 2019 summer looks like something pulled from an NBA horror story.

And they have not a single NBA Finals game to show for it.

Seven years ago, the Clippers swung for the fences.

And now, they are paying the price for it.

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