NBA strips Clippers of 5 first-round draft picks, fines Steve Ballmer $30M in Kawhi Leonard salary cap circumvention probe - Yahoo Sports

The NBA season is one week away, and there's one game I can't stop thinking about. On Nov. 2, Kawhi Leonard's Toronto Raptors will travel to Los Angeles to play the Clippers, his former team and the subject of the NBA's harshest-ever punishment over the cap shenanigans they did to sign him back in 2019. The spectacle of Leonard, back in L. A. in a Raptors uniform, will be so weird, and I'm curious to see how the basketball media will cover it. Speaking of basketball media, that's the true subject of this week's episode of Only If You Get Caught. If you've read Defector's coverage of the story, you're probably familiar with the many media angles to the scandal: how investigative podcaster Pablo Torre broke the story, how ESPN helped Clips owner Steve Ballmer run cover, and how the Worldwide Leader duffed its big scoop about a supposedly light punishment for the team. This is the most interesting part of this story, so we pulled in Torre himself to talk it though and reflect on the role of the media in the whole saga.

Kawamura was waived by the Clippers on Monday. Competing on an Exhibit 10 contract, Kawamura tallied 10 points in Saturday's preseason loss to the Raptors but will ultimately fall short of earning an Opening Night roster spot. The guard is now a likely candidate to see action with the G League's San Diego Clippers. Clippers' Yuki Kawamura: Provides spark off bench