The Los Angeles Clippers went for broke this summer, and not only did it pay off, things went better than they ever could have imagined. Los Angeles landed its top free agent target, getting Kawhi Leonard to hop on board, and swung a trade that made Paul George a Clipper, too. It’s immediately one of the best 1-2 punches in the league, and while they gave up a ton to land George, the team may be the favorite to win a championship this season.
The pursuit of Leonard has been well-documented, with reports indicating for some time that the Clippers wanted to bring the Los Angeles native home. In fact, there had been reports that Los Angeles was openly scouting Leonard during Raptors games, and in recent days, there has been chatter that the Clippers were asked to violate the CBA by Leonard’s camp, although that has not been confirmed.
This isn’t a particularly big concern of those in Los Angeles, as we learned on Wednesday afternoon, when the team introduced Leonard and George to the media. Following all the fanfare, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank spoke to the press and addressed the rumblings of impropriety out of the organization.
Clippers’ Lawrence Frank on Kawhi Leonard pursuit & NBA’s tampering investigation: “We didn’t recruit. … We know the rules, we follow the rules.” pic.twitter.com/iof3JajkCI
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) July 24, 2019
It’s been reported that the NBA is investigating tampering that may have occurred this summer. The extent to which that will happen is unclear — the report indicated it’ll focus on deals that may have been agreed to before free agency opened up — but if it goes beyond that and the Clippers’ pursuit of Leonard comes under scrutiny, the team seems optimistic that things will end up ok.
