Leonard scored 28 million! The Clippers have just been promoted to favorites to win the championship, Leonard may be suspended, and it is difficult for Harden to win the championship

During this offseason, there are many NBA star players coming to China. From Curry to Harden, from Edwards to Gordon, James, who has not seen for a long time, has also come, including the taciturn Xiaoka. After coming to China, he looks very kind to the fans, far from what the media described. The European Championship is in full swing, and there is still one month before the new season's preseason starts. At this stage, the Clippers are hit by a bolt from the blue! According to column reporter Torrey on a podcast, there was an yin-yang contract between Leonard and Clippers boss Ballmer to evade the salary cap, and the league has officially intervened in the investigation. What is the worst outcome? The first round pick is confiscated and the players are suspended! Clippers Statement: Ballmer did not evade salary cap behavior. What is the fact? In the summer of 2019, after leading the Raptors to win the championship, Leonard chose one of the next three: Lakers, Clippers and Raptors. After a week of struggling, the Raptors and Lakers missed the key stage of strengthening. They finally signed a contract with the Clippers. The salary contract was a three-year, $103 million short-term contract. The specific three-year salary was: 32.74 million + 34.38 million + 34.38 million. What level? In the 19-20 season, the highest salary in the league was Curry's 40.23 million, and Leonard was ranked tenth. This price was not high, because after leading the Raptors to win the championship, the US media generally ranked Leonard as the first in the league, but the salary was not as good as Paul George, Griffin and Lowry. After signing the contract, NBA senior executives also suspected that there were hidden operations here, but no specific evidence was found after the investigation. No, the evidence is here. According to Torre, in March this year, a carbon neutral company called Asp declared bankruptcy. In the specific application documents, the creditors include Clippers boss Ballmer, and Leonard's company KL2, and the registrant is Leonard. Leonard's endorsement contract on Asp is $28 million, but he doesn't have a job position, he just gets money. And this company called Asp is built by Ballmer with 50 million yuan in funding! During the agreement period, the company paid 7 million yuan to KL2 every year, with a total of 28 million yuan in four years! In the words of an executive of the company, they don’t understand why this is the case, but they can’t ask questions even if there are any questions. The alliance immediately launched an investigation, and Ballmer and Ka may not be able to escape the certain evidence in front of him.

NBA had such a precedent before. The No. 1 pick in 1995 Joe Smith refused the Warriors' contract renewal of 80 million yuan, and then joined the Timberwolves for 1.75 million yuan in one year. Then he signed two consecutive one-year contracts. In this way, after obtaining the bird rights, he could get an 86 million yuan contract. After the details of this matter were finally exposed, the Timberwolves were severely punished for the first round for five consecutive years (01-05, and later the league returned the first round in 2003 and 2005). But Joe Smith has only two choices: renew his contract with the Timberwolves but is suspended for one year, or play in other teams for one year, and can return to the Timberwolves in the future. In the end, Smith was sent to the Pistons and returned to the Timberwolves a year later, only 6 years and 34 million contracts! From a reasonable point of view, after Xiao Ka joined the Clippers, he was troubled by injuries, and he may really not be worth the maximum salary.

But the Clippers did benefit from it (save a lot of luxury taxes). Last year, Leonard took the initiative to cut his salary and renewed a three-year, 150 million contract with the Clippers. There are big problems in it. Why is Leonard always willing to cut his salary in the Clippers? The Clippers sent Powell away during the offseason, welcomed Collins + Lopez + Bill + Paul. According to US media forecasts, the Clippers are also the fifth most popular team to win the championship in the new season. If the Yin-Yang contract is confirmed, the first-round pick will be light (the Clippers will have 5 first-round picks in the next 7 years), but what should I do if Leonard is suspended? Half of the sky collapsed! Whether it is Paul or Bill, they join the Clippers because they are interested in Harden's regular season guarantee ability and the team's stable performance is guaranteed. The key is that Leonard has the ability to raise the upper limit and lead the team to win the championship.

If Leonard is unable to play next season, nothing will be left. Of course, according to the analysis of the US media, NBA president Stern must have handled the most zero tolerance for this kind of Yin-Yang contract; and the NBA league led by Xiao Hua is related to Spinach, and his excessive dependence on broadcast contracts, including various ways to maximize commercial value, may not really dare to use Los Angeles teams, let alone a Hall of Fame super giant of Leonard. But there is a very embarrassing question that no one can escape: Ballmer's interest chain to transfer money to Leonard's company was created, what do other teammates think? Can the Clippers still unite, including Harden, who took the initiative to cut his salary and renew his contract this summer, and Bill, who came to join him with a sharp salary cut?

No matter what the Clippers and Leonard will get in the end, the problem of solidarity in the new season of the Clippers locker room is a huge hidden danger. In addition, from the contract given to Harden and the attitude of not renewing the contract, next season may be the last window to win the championship. Once it doesn't work, the entire team is likely to be rebuilt directly. The only way to rebuild is to send Leonard away in exchange for future young assets. For Harden, since he left the Rockets, he has become a mess wherever he goes. He worked very hard and was willing to reduce his salary and role positioning, but he was always far away from the championship. Perhaps his dream of winning the championship would be shattered.