u/Suge1

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.

Source

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.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7498147/2026/08/06/kawhi-leonard-clippers-scandal-daktronics/?unlocked\_article\_code=1.3lA.-Qfd.Q9z-lT0bHe1k&source=user\_shared\_article&smid=ta-ios-share

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.

https://imgur.com/a/VmyiQg1

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.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7484371/2026/07/31/bennedict-mathurin-bulls-free-agent-nba/?unlocked\_article\_code=1.2FA.3Gva.a6IT6O1vN\_l2&source=user\_shared\_article&smid=ta-ios-share

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. 

Source: https://www.hoopshype.com/story/sports/nba/2026/07/31/nba-intel-james-harden-peyton-watson-jonathan-kuminga-benn-mathurin-more/91120190007/

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.

https://open.substack.com/pub/marcstein/p/even-more-late-night-nba-intel-albeit?r=1m9zg&utm\_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=solid

> LAS VEGAS—The tipping point to put on hold the trade of Kawhi Leonard to the Raptors came when it was time for Toronto to officially sign off on the conditions of the deal.

> According to multiple NBA sources, when the Raptors had to commit in writing to assume any risk of any penalties Leonard might incur from an investigation into his Los Angeles Clippers contract, they decided to pause on the transaction.

> Why the Raptors and Clippers pulled back from officially completing a deal last week that had been finalized weeks before had been a mystery since it became public.

> The sources, granted anonymity to allow them to speak freely about the delay, said Tuesday that the Raptors knowing they might be on the hook for future penalties was one thing; having to sign off on formal conditions was enough to make Toronto decide to “just wait” until the probe is completed.

Source: https://www.thestar.com/sports/raptors/raptors-paused-kawhi-leonard-trade-after-balking-at-signing-liability-clause-sources-say/article_2b7a99be-2b90-4aa7-9ce1-5f34ef0b31e3.html

The Nuggets have made an intriguing low-cost acquisition to address their need for more perimeter defense by coming to terms Sunday on a deal with a player regarded as the top defender in Europe: Alpha Diallo.

Denver was among the NBA teams, league sources say, that explored signing Diallo before the in-season trade deadline in February when his EuroLeague club AS Monaco Basket began to face serious financial issues that have only spiraled since.

Diallo finished the season with Monaco and inked a deal to move to Dubai Basketball for the 2026-27 campaign after earning EuroLeague Defensive Player of the Year honors last season, but a July 15th NBA out in Diallo’s Dubai deal — we've written about a similar NBA out clause recently in Lonnie Walker IV's contract with Maccabi Tel Aviv — enabled the Nuggets to make what appears to be a promising bargain signing.

The Nuggets, mind you, still have two restricted free agents of their own to hash out deals with: Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones.

And some fresh rumbles have been relayed to The Stein Line that the Bucks are joining the Clippers and Hawks on the list of teams trying to pry Watson away from the Nuggets via sign-and-trade.

https://open.substack.com/pub/marcstein/p/late-night-nba-free-agency-and-trade?r=1m9zg&utm\_medium=ios

Source - EuroHoops

Hapoel Tel Aviv announced on their social media that they have reached an agreement on the arrival of forward Amir Coffey.

Coffey spent his entire career in the NBA, where from 2019 to 2025 he played for the Los Angeles Clippers, then moved to the Milwaukee Bucks, and later the Phoenix Suns.

After completing his stint with the Suns, Coffey is heading to Europe, and the 29-year-old basketball player has signed a one-year contract with Hapoel.

Hapoel’s announcement:

Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv Basketball Club is pleased to announce the signing of American forward Amir Coffey for the upcoming season, until the end of the 2026/27 season.

Coffey (29, 2.01 m) joins Hapoel after seven seasons in the NBA, during which he played for the Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns. Throughout his career in the world’s top league, he recorded 369 appearances during the regular season, with averages of 6.2 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game, shooting 52.8% from two-point range and 38.2% from three-point range.

Professional manager, George Chinas: “I want to thank our owners for their assistance in making this move. Amir is a veteran and well-known NBA player who will help us in our efforts to win the championship and the state cup, as well as to replicate our successful campaign from last season in the EuroLeague.”

Team coach, Dimitris Itoudis: “I welcome Amir to our red family. His experience and size provide us with a multi-dimensional player who can play in multiple positions, score, rebound, and also defend well. We are very happy that Amir is joining Hapoel.“

Dallas is sending Middleton to the Wizards via sign-and-trade as part of a larger six-team deal that includes, in total, the Mavericks, Wizards, Clippers, Pistons, Bucks and Grizzlies. It involves previously agreed upon deals such as John Collins, Gary Harris and Taurean Prince (Detroit), Isaiah Stewart (Memphis), Santi Aldama (Mavericks), Caris LeVert (Bucks), etc.

Dallas is sending Middleton to the Wizards via sign-and-trade as part of a larger six-team deal that includes, in total, the Mavericks, Wizards, Clippers, Pistons, Bucks and Grizzlies. It involves previously agreed upon deals such as John Collins, Gary Harris and Taurean Prince (Detroit), Isaiah Stewart (Memphis), Santi Aldama (Mavericks), Caris LeVert (Bucks), etc.

Source: https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania