![[Pablo Torre] The SEC has opened an investigation into Daktronics concerning Kawhi Leonard, according to the scoreboard-maker's CFO on their earnings call today.](https://external-preview.redd.it/O0OL31k_hbroubB8XpPYoOqnrb7ZU23VRIWfWhJIsTk.jpeg?width=108&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=5e077f7da3be9a5611b9ef03b88105512a6ba4df)
According to Pablo Torre:
The SEC has opened an investigation into Daktronics concerning Kawhi Leonard, according to the scoreboard-maker's CFO on their earnings call today.
This is in addition to requests for information, re: the Clippers, from the NBA.
"We take these requests seriously and are cooperating."
Full video is the latest Game Theory Podcast episode on Youtube.
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Befitting the current media environment, the latest twists in the Kawhi story have given everyone in the sports news business a safe quarter for their suspicions: Ballmer’s critics eagerly await Torre’s next missive, which they hope will further expose the league’s own perfidy. Meanwhile, sources closer to the owner and to the league seem assured that the NBA’s findings will vindicate all parties and puncture Torre’s own reputation in the process. If that happens, it will presumably complicate things for the Times as well.
Days before that first Kawhi story broke, The New York Times struck a seven-figure licensing deal with Torre and Meadowlark Media to host Pablo Torre Finds Out on The Athletic. The deal presaged the increasingly complex nature of the Times’s relationship with its sports media franchise. Much like ESPN’s own licensing deal with Pat McAfee, the Times’s new partnership with outside talent raised questions about the consistency and integrity of its editorial product. Would Torre be held to the Times’s exacting standards, or did he get to play by his own rules? Torre’s Kawhi reporting was undeniably strong, but, as a podcaster, it came with a layer of prosecutorial insinuation and anonymous sourcing that wouldn’t have survived the Times edit desk. However the Times intended to manage this awkward choreography, it was happy to claim Torre as one of its own—especially after Pablo Torre Finds Out won the Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting for its work exposing the Clippers alleged evasion of the salary cap. The Times and its publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, proudly touted this as the first-ever Pulitzer for The Athletic. Torre gamely accepted the association with the Times, which he described as “an honor in and of itself.” But, as Times and Athletic sources acknowledged to me this week, the prizewinning reporting actually started long before the licensing deal and was produced independent of the Athletic.
Source: https://puck.news/the-new-york-times-in-the-era-of-the-journalism-influencer/
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Shortly after the allegations arose, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said it's up to the NBA to prove wrongdoing during its investigation. "I would be reluctant to act if there was sort of a mere appearance of impropriety. ... I think that the goal of a full investigation is to find out if there really was impropriety," he said.
Ballmer has insisted repeatedly in conversations with confidants that he will not accept a league result that asserts he or the team intended to circumvent the salary cap and would instead bring the matter to arbitration, according to multiple sources with knowledge of his thinking. However, the conversations between Kelley and Buchanan are ongoing, and it's unclear what NBA punishment Ballmer or the team might be willing to accept or if they choose to fight findings through arbitration.
Meanwhile, in projecting what a new Lakers front office could eventually look like, multiple sources around the league suggested to ESPN that the recently retired Chris Paul could have a role.
Paul and Iger became close while the point guard played for the Clippers and Iger was a season-ticket holder.
Their relationship has only strengthened over the years, sources said, with Iger hosting a book launch event at his house in 2023 for Paul's memoir, "Sixty-One," and Paul visiting Iger at his Disney office in Burbank, California, in March to support his friend when he cleared out his belongings to close out a 52-year run with the company.
Source: https://imgur.com/a/1bTXYmZ
Pablo Torre goes in on Farbod Esnaashari and other Clippers beat writers on X:
One of my favorite subplots of the Clippers investigation are the team-approved beat writers who keep praying that we lose interest, apparently unaware that we are constantly working on multiple stories
Marc Stein:
> A return to the Clippers, league sources say, has not been ruled out for Bradley Beal, who has also drawn interest from Miami. The 33-year-old played in only six games last season for the Clippers last season before needing season-ending surgery to repair a fracture in his left hip.
The Raptors made the decision on July 9 to press pause rather than complete the trade until the NBA announces a resolution to the long-running external investigation it has commissioned into allegations of salary-cap circumvention by the Clippers to pay Leonard beyond his contract dating to 2021. Yet league sources tell The Stein Line that Leonard continues to operate under the belief that he will be able to join the Raptors for training camp.
Hopeful that the additional of Leonard can soon be finalized to compete with rest of a resurgent Eastern Conference, Toronto is scheduled to begin the season with its annual Media Day scheduled for Sept. 28 before team practices commence the following day in Quebec City, Canada.
Sources say that Leonard's agent, Harrison Gaines, has maintained frequent contact with the NBA Players Association while the firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz — which was hired by the league office last September — proceeds with an investigation that has consumed 11 months.
And Leonard, sources say, strongly believes that the trade will ultimately go through, enabling him to rejoin the Raptors in time for training camp. The trade was agreed to, sources say, with the idea that the 35-year-old would also negotiate a multiyear extension with Toronto to extend the reunion beyond the coming season. Leonard is due to earn $50.3 million in 2026-27 in the final year of his current contract.
Sources add that the Clippers, meanwhile, are prepared to go to arbitration depending on the severity of the potential penalties that the league office could order after digesting the investigation's complete findings. At a mid-July news conference at the league's annual summer league in Las Vegas, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he could not provide a firm timeline for a resolution to the long-running saga, saying only "this summer" when asked when he anticipates clarity on Leonard’s future.
https://open.substack.com/pub/marcstein/p/the-kawhi-leonard-latest?r=1m9zg&utm\_medium=ios
Per league sources, there’s a belief the investigation has already moved beyond its fact-finding stage and the parties involved — specifically the Clippers and the NBPA (which is monitoring the situation to see what if any consequences befall Leonard) — are working quietly to get the entire issue resolved, something Silver hinted at back on July 14 when he last spoke publicly on the issue.
The most likely outcome?
A negotiated settlement where the NBA gets to enforce some version of its rules, Ballmer can save face and Leonard can play for the Raptors.
Whether Torre’s latest finding is new information to the NBA’s investigation or not — a report in The Athletic last month said a second no-show endorsement deal was already part of the investigation — the sense is that it won’t affect the next stage of the process, namely figuring out what the league is going to do with the information it has collected.
But all along, there has been a quiet confidence that the trade would ultimately go forward and league business would be able to resume in time for training camps opening on Sept. 28.
Keep in mind that the only month on the NBA calendar where the league goes relatively dormant is August. Don’t underestimate a collective will to leave it all until the first week of September when everyone is back at work.
Even reports last week, in a story in ESPN that the investigation could “drag into 2027” if the NBPA and/or the Clippers took whatever punishment Silver decided on to a potentially lengthy arbitration process, were interpreted positively as an indication that the parties involved were setting the parameters for negotiating a more acceptable — or at least tolerable — outcome for all concerned.
Which is always worth keeping in mind for Raptors fans trying to understand if the Leonard trade will ultimately go through or not: everyone involved in this saga, from the Clippers, to the Raptors, to Leonard, to the league itself, shares a common interest in putting it behind them.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/grange-clues-suggest-kawhi-leonard-will-end-up-with-raptors/
Edited to reflect The Athletic article
The Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard, who are currently under investigation for potential salary cap violations related to payments outside of the league’s salary cap, also received millions in a second questionable sponsorship deal, according to a report by the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”
The podcast, citing multiple anonymous sources inside the Clippers and the Intuit Dome project, reported a previously unknown deal with Daktronics, the company that manufactured the Intuit Dome’s Halo video screen and others in the sports world.
The Clippers have been under investigation by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, with a focus on a $28 million endorsement deal given to Leonard by Aspiration, a former Clippers sponsor, since September. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has maintained that he was defrauded by Aspiration and its co-founder, Joe Sanburg.
The Los Angeles Clippers and Jalen Pickett have agreed to a two-way deal, league sources told @hoopshype . The 26-year-old guard spent the past three seasons with the Denver Nuggets where he shot 39% from 3-point range. Pickett was the 32nd pick of the 2023 NBA Draft.
CHICAGO — As the Chicago Bulls approach the fall with an open roster spot, they’ve been linked to LA Clippers restricted free agent guard Bennedict Mathurin. The Bulls’ reported interest in Mathurin, though, has been overstated, according to a league source who was granted anonymity to describe ongoing deliberations.
The Bulls recognize how early they sit in this rebuild, and the desire for talent at any position will trump any stylistic need for a roster still discovering its long-term identity. Mathurin, who turned 24 in June, remains a talented young scorer that could be worth a flyer.
But Chicago values two things at this stage: roster flexibility and acquiring future assets. Mathurin made roughly $9.2 million this past season, and his next contract is widely expected to exceed that figure in annual value.
To create that kind of room, Chicago would likely need to commit to a sign-and-trade. Chicago has exhausted the approximately $54 million in cap space that it possessed to enter the summer, so it must either use its roughly $9.4 million room exception or execute a sign-and-trade. For a sign-and-trade to be completed, the contract length needs to be at least three years, with the first year guaranteed.
While it remains possible the Bulls use that room on Mathurin or someone else to fill their final roster spot, they remain fixated on maintaining cap and roster flexibility. Given the Bulls’ priorities, they are reluctant to enter into any long-term commitments. General manager Bryson Graham has signaled a preference for short-term deals with limited guarantees, having inked guard Norman Powell and center Zach Collins to two-year contracts with a team option in Year 2.
Many of the hypothetical sign-and-trade deals for Mathurin or other free agents require the Bulls to attach draft compensation — likely a future second-round pick or two — which also works against the Bulls’ interests.
A swing at Mathurin, though unlikely, may be palatable to the Bulls in a team-friendly scenario where his contract could be structured in a short-term, cost-efficient way. Even then, though, the Bulls aren’t married to using the room exception for a rotation player and may prefer to keep it as a trade mechanism to absorb other players’ contracts and draft picks.
Source: https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/why-the-kawhi-leonard-contract-investigation-is-taking-so-long/
For Raptors fans mainly interested in whether Leonard — whose trade to Toronto is paused as the Raptors wait until the league’s investigation is resolved before completing the deal — will play in Toronto this season, the bottom line as I see it is this:
Leonard will be with the team in training camp on Sept. 29 in Quebec City.
Granted, that’s just me trying to make sense of the whole thing, but here’s why that’s my view:
If the law firm investigating the Clippers on behalf of the NBA has definitive evidence that the Clippers and Leonard circumvented the salary cap, they likely would have provided their findings months ago.
Which isn’t to say Torre hasn’t compiled a convincing series of findings that are hard to rationally explain as anything other than an effort by the Clippers to circumvent the cap. Just that if Silver and the NBA are going to go after Ballmer, one of the most respected and influential owners in the league, they aren’t going to do it without the goods.
Denver’s price tag in any sign-and-trade scenario has shifted to at least one first-round pick and one notable player, per multiple reports, and confirmed by HoopsHype.
As of now, the Bucks, Cavaliers, Hawks, and Clippers have not offered a first-round pick to the Nuggets in sign-and-trade discussions for Watson, league sources told HoopsHype.
While the Bucks haven’t offered a first-round pick yet, they’d consider absorbing Nuggets forward Zeke Nnaji as part of a Watson sign-and-trade, HoopsHype has learned. Nnaji is owed a combined $14.93 million with two seasons remaining on his contract, including a player option for the 2027-28 season.
Sources say that the Lakers would still like to sign Kuminga and make him their starting small forward … provided that the 23-year-old is ultimately willing to accept a contract structure on the Lakers' terms.
Will the two sides be able to find a middle ground? The risk for the Lakers, of course, is that Cleveland has not gone away and who knows if a new Kuminga suitor or two materializes should the summer drag on without a resolution.
I have been repeatedly told by league sources familiar with the teams' dynamic that the Lakers and Hawks never held meaningful discussions on a sign-and-trade proposal that would have landed Kuminga with the Lakers in exchange for Jarred Vanderbilt and a 2032 first-round pick swap. It has also been stressed to me that Kuminga, to this point in free agency, isn't looking to be boxed into a three-year structure (as required by league rules to complete a sign-and-trade) at a number he deems below his market value.
There's optimism within the Kuminga camp, even after last summer's seemingly interminable wait for a new deal with Golden State in restricted free agency, that there could be more movement and more earning potential as the offseason unfolds.