What do the Clippers do now? Spend, spend, spend

L.A. has the opportunity to use its financial resources and the apron era to rebuild a competitive team.

Good morning. Has anyone heard from Aspiration investor Doc Rivers lately? Let's basketball.

The L.A. Clippers got docked their 2029-2033 first-round picks in the remarkable salary cap circumvention judgment handed down by Adam Silver following a 364-day investigation. That marks the coming of a dark age for the franchise: draft picks are an enormous tool in team-building, whether through using the picks to land cost-controlled young stars you can then control for 7-8 years of their careers, or for trading out for more established players. Just getting five future firsts – a half-decade of picks – yoinked for gross malfeasance is a real asset drain.

But all is not lost.

Last month I pitched my ideas for fair punishments for the Clippers (the NBA did not use any of my ideas, quelle surprise), and one of them was to stick a max contract-sized (30% of the cap) dead weight on their books for four years starting with the 2027-28 season. That would limit the Clippers' ability to maneuver under the aprons without hurting their chances to add younger talent and build an exciting core for their fans.

Instead, the NBA went the more traditional punishment path: they docked the picks.

That opens up a path for the Clippers to get through the next decade: spend, spend, spend.