The Clippers’ most valuable young asset is the one their new predicament makes hardest to keep. Days after the NBA gutted the franchise’s future first-round stock as punishment for the Kawhi Leonard scandal, Darius Garland has surfaced at the top of the trade-rumour lists as the piece Los Angeles is most likely to flip to start rebuilding that draft capital.
Sean Deveney of Heavy put Garland at the top of the pile of rumour-driven trade candidates.
“The Aspiration-Kawhi Leonard punishment could set into motion a series of events that winds up with Garland being placed firmly on the market as the Clippers seek to recoup as many future draft picks from the roster,” Deveney wrote. “Anyone want to give up two picks for him?”
Garland, 26, has two years and $87m left on the max rookie extension he originally signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers, a deal reported at the time to be worth up to $193m. He arrived in Los Angeles in February as the centrepiece of the James Harden trade that sent the veteran guard to Cleveland.
Read also: Man United's biggest ever sleeve deal
Silver: ‘the severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations’
The scale of the punishment is what gives the trade speculation its urgency. On 2 September the NBA announced the penalties after an independent investigation by law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz into the Clippers’ arrangement with Aspiration Partners, the sponsor whose payments to Kawhi Leonard sat at the centre of the salary-cap scandal.
The team was fined $30m and stripped of its first-round picks in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033. Owner Steve Ballmer was suspended for one year from all league and team activities. President of business operations Gillian Zucker was also given a one-year suspension without pay, and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was suspended without pay for six months. The franchise was placed under a five-year compliance and monitoring programme run by the league office.
Leonard was fined $700,000. His then-business manager, Dennis Robertson, was banned for five years from doing business with NBA teams on behalf of any player.
Commissioner Adam Silver did not soften the message.
Read also: Giroud, weeks from his 40th birthday, in line to lead Lille against Pellegrini's Real Betis
“The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations,” Silver said in the league’s statement.
Why Garland is the piece that moves
The math behind the Garland rumour is straightforward. A team that has just lost five first-round picks needs to acquire more, and Garland is the trade chip whose value most cleanly translates into future picks around the league.
He is an All-Star from 2022 and 2025, a proven starting point guard still in his mid-twenties, reportedly putting up 19.9 points and 6.4 assists per game on 47/43/86 shooting splits since the mid-season move to Los Angeles. That is the sort of profile contending teams will bid meaningful draft capital for, and Deveney’s “two picks” ask reflects a market that thinks the Clippers can extract exactly that.
For now the story sits at the rumour stage. None of the reporting names a specific team in talks, and the Clippers have not signalled publicly that Garland is being shopped. Ballmer remains suspended from all NBA and team activities for the next 12 months, and the franchise has no first-round pick of its own to spend in any draft from 2029 through 2033.
Read also: Lothar Matthaus: These are the top 5 Champions League teams
Read also: “Trump is dead”: False rumor surfaces before his major golf showcase
