How Much Did the Clippers Pay for Leonard? The Loss of Five First-Round Picks Sparks Debate

On June 18, 2021, the Los Angeles Clippers reached the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history. Terance Mann had just scored 39 points against the Utah Jazz, and the Clippers were moving toward the franchise's first Western Conference Finals appearance.

But there was one problem: Kawhi Leonard, wearing casual clothes, was sitting in a luxury suite after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

The Clippers had spent years building toward this moment. Leonard was supposed to be the person who led the team to this stage. However, their biggest playoff breakthrough came while he was sidelined.

Five years later, the cost of that gamble has become increasingly difficult to ignore. To build around Leonard and Paul George, the Clippers sent out Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and significant draft assets, paid Leonard hundreds of millions of dollars in salary, watched injuries affect his playoff availability, and have now lost five first-round picks due to NBA penalties over alleged salary-cap circumvention.

And the Clippers are fighting back.

The Clippers said in an official statement: "We strongly reject the NBA's investigative findings. This was a seriously biased investigation designed to prove a predetermined conclusion rather than one based on facts and evidence." The team also said it planned to "vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every available avenue."

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver expressed the opposite view: "I am deeply disappointed by the team's blatant violation of the rules, and I am also disappointed by the institutional and leadership failures at the Clippers that led to this improper conduct. The severity of the penalty reflects the seriousness of the violation."

This leaves the Clippers with a complicated question: Was betting on Leonard in 2019 worth it? What did this gamble ultimately cost them?

The Gamble That Changed Everything

The Clippers did not enter the market in the summer of 2019 through a traditional free-agent signing.

Leonard had just won a championship with the Toronto Raptors and was named Finals MVP. He