Category: Sports News

We begin ranking the individual tiers within SunsRank today with the depth pieces. I’ll start by acknowledging that this isn’t a perfect science, and it certainly isn’t a perfect polling system. There will be players you voted for in a different tier. That’s fine. I’m going off the majority of the voting for each individual player. So if there is somebody you believe belongs in the Wild Card tier and they ended up here with the depth pieces, rank them higher within the confines of this group.

The goal with SunsRank is to cut the steak into pieces rather than shove the entire thing down our throats at once. Stretch it out a little. Enjoy the meal. Then, once everything has been consumed, we can step back, look at the plate, and figure out how it turned out.

Based on the voting, here is everyone who landed in the Depth Piece tier. Need a reminder of what that means? Absolutely.

These are your end-of-the-bench players who provide depth when needed. Their roles may be limited, but injuries, matchups, and circumstances can create opportunities for them to contribute.

Get it? Got it? Good. Let’s eat.

The Depth Pieces

CJ Huntley

The second-year big man out of Appalachian State returns on another two-way contract. His journey has already been an interesting one. The Suns brought him in after he went undrafted and signed him to a two-way deal. They later waived him, only to bring him back once Jamaree Bouyea earned a fully guaranteed contract with the team.

He’s certainly a unique prospect, someone who brings strength, athleticism, power, and a touch of shooting. Given the right opportunity, he could thrive. The goal now is to continue developing him as a prospect in hopes that one day he can make a real impact.

Jamaree Bouyea

Bouyea will be an interesting player to watch this upcoming season because he provides depth at the point guard position. He has that dog in him that helped personify the 2025–26 Phoenix Suns, and with a pending decision still looming on a potential Jalen Green extension, Bouyea could eventually provide some long-term depth if needed.

His contract still isn’t guaranteed, though, so he remains one of those fringe players who will constantly be fighting to stay relevant and employed. If the Suns need to make any moves around the edges of the roster, Bouyea could find himself involved.

Koby Brea 

Another second-year two-way player, Koby Brea is an intriguing prospect because of the three-point shooting he can bring. But he still needs to continue developing other areas of his game, and we can expect to see plenty of him with the Valley Suns this season.

The hope is that he continues to grow, and we’ll be watching closely to see how much that development occurs and whether he can eventually become a long-term piece within the organization.

Pat Spencer

Pat Spencer comes to the Phoenix Suns with the most experience of anyone in this tier of depth pieces. He spent time with the Golden State Warriors and brings a hard-nosed approach at the point guard position while also being capable of knocking down the three-ball.

He may not bring much size, but he does bring heart, physicality, and effort. That aligns with the current direction of the Phoenix Suns and what this team is trying to be.

Those are the Depth Pieces. It is now up to you to put them in order of who is better than who.

In the early 2000s, the Minnesota Timberwolves committed one of the biggest scandals in NBA contract history. The confusion first started when forward Joe Smith, a former first overall pick, signed a small deal with the Timberwolves.

Now, players taking pay cuts is nothing new, and certainly not illegal by any means. However, then General Manager Kevin McHale had promised Smith a larger deal when the Wolves acquired his Bird rights after three seasons of minimum deals. With the typical restrictions lifted, McHale promised Minnesota would give Smith the deal he so badly wanted and may have even deserved.

The Wolves were docked five first-round picks, Glen Taylor was fined a lot of (and still not enough) money, Joe Smith’s deal was voided, and McHale was banned from team operations for a year.

You know who probably should’ve brushed up on their NBA history?

The Los Angeles Clippers.

Funny enough, if they had done that, they’d realize that they could’ve asked so much more of Kawhi Leonard than they ended up doing if they were going to cheat this badly anyway. Instead of asking Kawhi for a pay cut, they gave him the biggest extension they could, and then gave him even more money (hence the cap circumnavigation).

Instead of asking for anything back, the Clippers gave Leonard everything and more. Unfortunately for them, the more is not allowed. Between no-show endorsement deals and funneled funds to Swiss bank accounts (okay, they may not be Swiss), Kawhi had fewer responsibilities off the court than he did on it.

If we’re still comparing these Clippers to those early 2000s Minnesota squads, Los Angeles rolled out the Joe Smith offer to someone they were already treating like Kevin Garnett. They somehow above-and-beyonded themselves into a crippling punishment.

Despite sacrificing so much more than those Wolves teams, the Clippers will be giving up five first-round picks, the same initial punishment as Minnesota received. While the Wolves had two of those picks returned based purely on how god-awful they were, the Clippers will continue to try to push for playoff contention.

Additionally, owner/team governor Steve Ballmer will pay a 30 million dollar fine and will be suspended from team events for a year. While the Kawhi Leonard trade will still go off without any real hitch, this leaves the Clippers with just two first round picks in the near future, both from the Toronto Raptors, whose young core likely outgrows any costly regression from Leonard.

All of that is fine and good, but there’s a far more important question to be asked for Wolves fans…

Are we finally not the most pitiful team in NBA history?

Your next SB Nation collapse video, and subsequent hatewatch, is here

It’s hard to imagine that Minnesota could finally not be the most snakebitten team in the NBA. Hell, the Washington Wizards haven’t done much since Wes Unseld in the 60s and 70s, with deserved credit given to Elvin Hayes. The New Orleans Pelicans can’t even put together an all-time team without stealing history from the team whose identity they adopted.

For years, deservedly or undeservedly, the Wolves have carried that weight. They’re still last in franchise winning percentage after all. However, maybe we need to recontextualize this. Bad teams waste fans’ time. Awful teams waste talent and the optimism that it brings, while also wasting everyone’s time as well.

In that way, who is better suited for this role than the Clippers? The aforementioned Pelicans have wasted more young talent and draft picks than any other franchise in the 21st century, but have they ever had the expectations to crush optimism? No, they exist in perpetual basketball purgatory, feeling joy only when they know it will end crushingly and soon.

Could it be our very own Wolves, who wasted away for 20 years before they took a high schooler built like a string bean and watched him turn into one of the 20-30 best players of all-time? They built up a contender around him, and then ruined everything by trying to beat the proverbial NBA dealer to sign a player who barely even fit their team.

They wasted prime after prime. Karl-Anthony Towns, Kevin Love, and Andrew Wiggins all came and went without meaningful difference to the sad, cold status quo.

Building a winner in Minnesota was misery and seemed impossible for years. It’s not anymore. That optimism isn’t crushed and it carries a flame that changes everything.

Conversely, what about this is new for the Clippers?

This is a team that has frequently built teams good enough to win a ring that ruins their own chances. The Lob City era, the early 2013 days, or whatever this era was called, and even the last chance run with Kawhi and James Harden.

Each of those rosters had enough talent to finally break the drought that last the entirety of the Clippers’ franchise history.

And yet they didn’t.

Los Angeles is where optimism goes to die. When they’re bad, they’re hopeless (shout out Michael Olowokandi). When they’re good, they’re simply not good enough.

The NBA returned two of the Wolves’ five rescinded draft picks after everyone found themselves feeling pity for the team that had fallen below the dregs of the league.

The Clippers will get no such pity. They did each and every bit of this. They killed the hopes of their fans while cheating the whole time. They’re headed by the richest man in the sport, who has consistently used his checkbook to prove he is right.

The Wolves had their history saved because of empathy. The Clippers deserve none.

And shout out to Kawhi Leonard for wasting Steve Ballmer’s money and escaping to Canada. May he have an autobiography ghostwritten one day.

You got to hand it to baseball on this one, the dog days of August sounds a lot better than the dog days of March. This is the conclusion to our 2026-27 schedule preview; previous installments can be found here, here, and here. The Sixers’ final 20 games of the upcoming season will feature their final West Coast trip of the season along with three back-to-backs.

This final stretch of the season will start just like the previous, with a nationally televised bout in Boston against Jaylen Brown’s old team on March 7. They’ll have to come right back down to Philly to play the Utah Jazz on the 8th. With the Celtics game being on ABC that game will surely be the priority when it comes to player participation, but the Jazz could be a trickier opponent than in years past. The only saving grace for this back-to-back is that the game in Boston is a 1:00 p.m. ET game, so the Sixers can get a couple extra hours of rest on the front end.

After that they’ll head up and down the middle of the country for more games on national television against the Spurs in San Antonio and the Timberwolves in Minnesota. After coming home to take on the Raptors, they’ll get a bit of a reprieve with a home game against the Bulls and a train ride to D.C. to take on the Wizards, but those games are also a back-to-back.

Once they get back from the nation’s capital, they’ll see the Spurs for the second time in 10 days. For whatever reason the schedule seems to bunch opponents together like that, but it gives us two chances to see the Joel Embiid vs. Victor Wembanyama matchup.

After facing the reigning Western Conference champions at home, they’ll set out for their final trip out West of the season. It’ll start with a back-to-back against the Jazz and Warriors before circling back to hit Portland and Denver. There’s one off day before the Nuggets game and two after, so they’ll be eagerly waiting to see if Embiid plays his first game in Denver since 2019.

They’ll come back home to see the Warriors and Atlanta Hawks again with another trip to Washington in between. Their final road trip of the regular season will go to Toronto and Miami before finishing up the regular season against the Charlotte Hornets.

Between the Spurs, Wolves, and Celtics there are some tough teams to close out the season, as well as some teams like the Raptors and Heat that could be frisky. This is typically the time of the year you want to play those teams as they’re in cruise control trying to get to the playoffs healthy.

The games against non-playoff teams will be pretty telling in how the new lottery rules have changed the league. Usually by this time of year, lottery-bound teams have thrown in the towel, but the league really wants that to be different this season.

In this stretch of games, the Sixers will already be playing two teams that have lived in the lottery this decade, but look to be giving things a proper try this year in the Jazz and Wizards. They’ll see the Hornets again who will have a tough time cracking the postseason in this Eastern Conference, but surely they’ll be vying for Play-In tournament positioning for the second year in a row.

Of course with the amount of miles on the Sixers’ stars, they will probably be one of those teams just trying to get through this part of the season to make it to the playoffs healthy. Making a top-six spot looks to be a tricky task in this Eastern Conference, but as long as the Sixers are able to do that, their biggest concern will be getting to the playoffs in one piece. With the Eastern Conference being perhaps the deepest it’s ever been and the league really shaking up lottery rules, the end of this regular season could look a lot different than what we’ve become accustomed to.

3/7: @Celtics

3/8: V Jazz (B2B) 

3/11: @Spurs

3/13: @Timberwolves

3/15: V Raptors

3/17: V Bulls

3/18: @Wizards (B2B)

3/21: V Spurs

3/23: @Jazz

3/24: @Warriors (B2B)

3/26: @Trail Blazers

3/28: @Nuggets

3/31: V Warriors

4/2: @Wizards

4/4: V Hawks

4/6: @Raptors

4/8: @Heat

4/11: V Hornets

“I can’t believe this just happened!”

You either said it or you heard it, on a day you never thought would come—when the Bucks traded away a player we got to watch grow up, a player who became a multi-time All-Star and fixture in the community, and who helped Milwaukee raise its first championship banner as an organization in 50 years.

That day was February 5th, 2025, when the Bucks traded away Khris Middleton. Some fans could claim that the writing was on the wall, but I, for one, buried my head in the sands of the second apron and never thought, injuries and all, they could trade away the franchise’s all-time greatest Robin to our all-time greatest Batman. I mourned the loss of our champion with what is probably a familiar pattern for most Wisconsinites who are grieving: shouting the lyrics of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” while nursing a High Life.

Afterward, I began bargaining with myself and the entire basketball world that Kyle Kuzma could help the Bucks chase one more ring so long as health was on our side. Through the blown Achilles, a waive-and-stretch, and countless Shams bombs that gave me heartburn, it was not until around the trade deadline this year that for me the reality sank in: the championship era was over. Looking back on it now, however, the real end of the era was February 5th, 2025. June 22nd, 2026, then, was a bittersweet day, marking a new beginning. Many outlets have extensively covered the bitter, so instead let’s focus on the sweet, and how that day came to mark the new beginning for the Milwaukee Bucks.

Growing up a Bucks fan and watching us move through the different eras of coaches and potential franchise faces, I can think of many times that felt exciting as a fan, especially the early years of Giannis and Khris that were first overshadowed by the sale and potential relocation. Once that passed, however, watching what Giannis and Khris were able to do was nothing short of exhilarating. Now that we are in the new halcyon days, I am looking at a roster and coaching staff that is full of positive questions and upside potential.

As a coach, Taylor Jenkins has a pedigree for building teams that push the pace, are defensive minded, and show a ton of grit. At their peak under Jenkins, the 2021–22 Grizzlies became the first team in the NBA’s recorded steals-and-blocks era to lead the league in rebounds, steals, and blocks in the same season. This hardworking, relentless, possession-hunting style feels like what he was referencing when in his opening press conference he talked about the team making Milwaukee proud. Of course, in his first year as a head coach with Memphis he had Ja Morant coming in as the second overall pick to headline the roster. The Bucks’ roster does not have Darryn Peterson incoming, but Jenkins still chose to come back to the NBA with the opportunities he saw on this roster, even without having Giannis (or Khris) around.

That could be because, in a player like Ryan Rollins, Jenkins knows he will have an incredibly intriguing young guard to work with. Nathan Marzion recently noted that since 1994 there have been just 10 players who, at age 23 or younger, notched a season with at least 17 PPG and 5 APG, while shooting a 55% eFG (with a minimum of 50 games played):

• Penny Hardaway
• Tony Parker
• Steph Curry
• Nikola Jokic
• Domantas Sabonis
• Bam Adebayo
• Luka Doncic
• Tyrese Haliburton
• Alperen Sengun
• Zion Williamson

Rollins became the 11th last season, and given his 27.1% assist percentage last year, he won’t need to take a drastic step forward to become one of the better two-way lead guards in the NBA. On the defensive front, Rollins ranked 10th overall in steals last season with 110 and 13th in steals per game for players with at least 2,000 minutes played last season. For good measure, Rollins also had one more block last season than Dyson Daniels, which speaks to his ability to effectively guard above his size. At 23, it is pretty safe to say he has likely not yet found his ceiling.

Alongside him, Rollins will get to work with Kel’el Ware as his five of the future, who brings something different to the role. Brook Lopez is a Bucks legend, but in his 469 games played for Milwaukee he averaged just 5.2 RPG. Last season, Myles Turner became the butt of many jokes while on his way to averaging 5.3 RPG. The Kryptonian is not merely unique for Bucks fans because he is another stretch big, but because he is an elite rebounder. Last season, his total rebound percentage was 21.1%, good for fourth overall just behind Victor Wembanyama, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Donovan Clingan, and was sixth in offensive rebounding rate at a clip of 13.1%. Prior to Jenkins’ time in Memphis, offensive rebounds were not as highly valued as other aspects of the game, and they were certainly a weak point for the Bucks last season, so getting a specialist on the offensive glass is definitely exciting. Rollins and Ware, therefore, are able to bring familiar ingredients to Jenkins’ recipe for success: extra possessions, rim pressure and protection, floor spacing, and a capable playmaker. It might not be same exact cake as in Memphis, but I am sure it will make for a sweet combination.

Now, this is not to say there is a clear path ahead, because there isn’t: we don’t know who will start around these two for the short or long term, and we likely still have some deals to be made this summer. But even so, there are plenty of other players worth getting very excited about. Going back to 2022 we have added a player selected in the first-round every year: Ousmane Dieng in 2022 (Ryan Rollins in the second round), then Jaime Jaquez Jr., Ware, Kasparas Jakucionis, and, of course Brayden Burries and Nate Ament in 2026. Together, these represent an impressive young cohort with the potential to be at least high-level role players. Overall that feels like a great way to speed-run a rebuild—oh, and we have that guy named after a Jack Harlow song returning home on his Herro’s journey. At what point would keeping him become a long term asset? Could he net a big return at the trade deadline? These are exciting questions to begin to wonder about and find answers for.

Finally, it is probably safe to assume that Jenkins did not take this job just to guide the team through a long, cumbersome rebuild. We all should maintain realistic expectations about the wins this year could yield, of course, but I also don’t see Jenkins spending half or more of his contracted years in Milwaukee wasting away outside of the play-in, either.

So, the question analysts seem to be asking now that the dust has settled is “Who are the Bucks after trading away Giannis?” Thankfully, that is an answer we already have: we are Milwaukee, a big small town where folks work hard and genuinely care about how their sports teams represent them. We want to play a hardworking, gritty style of basketball that does not lack effort. The product last year certainly did not pass the sniff test, but despite the future being unclear, through the beer goggles that were needed to get through last season, the future is certainly bright.

Blurry, but bright.

Of course, an essential component to that bright future is Brayden Burries. Let us know what you believe his ceiling is below:

In the summer of 2019, the Los Angeles Clippers grabbed every single chip they could find and pushed them into the middle of the table. 

The result was Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and a revamped roster ready to compete for an NBA championship. A complete transformation of the team and superstars to put on the marquee.

But in the NBA, when you go all-in to win a championship in the present, there’s always a price to pay down the road. 

And now somebody has come to collect and count those chips. 

The total cost to sign Leonard and trade for George is almost impossible to comprehend: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, five first-round picks sent to Oklahoma City, two first-round pick swaps, another five first-round picks forfeited to the NBA and a $30 million dollar fine. 

Oh, and toss in Danilo Gallinari, multiple front-office executives suspended — including the team owner in Steve Ballmer — and the fact that one of those picks to OKC became Jalen Williams, and what once looked like the greatest night in Clippers history has now aged like milk under the boiling Southern California sun. 

All that for one Western Conference Finals appearance and still zero NBA championships in franchise history. 

The Clippers technically signed Leonard as a free agent in July 2019, but by acquiring George from the Thunder, they lost out on four unprotected first-round picks, a future MVP in SGA and several players. Leonard was the one who reportedly wanted George, and made it a condition of his signing with Los Angeles. 

That signing, and ultimately his re-signing in 2021, has now made us all look back on this controversy under a microscope. 

The NBA concluded Wednesday that the Clippers and Leonard violated the league’s salary-cap circumvention rules, hammering LA with the forfeiture of five more first-round picks — 2029 through 2033 — and a $30 million fine. Ballmer was suspended for one year, president of business operations Gillian Zucker for one year without pay and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank for six months. Meanwhile, Leonard was fined $700,000.

Put everything together and the Leonard pursuit can reasonably be framed this way: 10 first-round picks lost, two additional first-round pick swaps, 2024 & 2025 MVP Gilgeous-Alexander, Gallinari, $30 million dollars and multiple suspensions.

Of course, the human cost of that 2019 roll of the dice by Ballmer and the Clippers looks even worse. 

Gilgeous-Alexander became a superstar. Williams became an All-Star-caliber cornerstone. George eventually left Los Angeles without delivering a championship. Leonard’s Clippers tenure became defined as much by injuries and postseason absences as the brilliance that convinced Ballmer to mortgage the future for him in the first place.

There once was a time when the Clippers could defend the price they paid. Leonard was fresh off an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors, taking down the Golden State Warriors dynasty in the process. George was once an MVP finalist and from LA. For perhaps the first time in franchise history, the Clippers appeared to have assembled the perfect superstar pairing since Shaq and Kobe. 

But they never reached their full potential; their high-water mark was the 2021 Western Conference Finals, reached after Leonard tore his ACL and never even played in the series. 

Now the final accounting of that 2019 summer looks like something pulled from an NBA horror story. 

And not a single NBA Finals game to show for it. 

Seven years ago, the Clippers swung for the fences. 

And now they’re paying the price for it.

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I spent Wednesday evening racking my brain for a way to combine “karma” and “Kawhi” but the best I came up with was “Kawharma” which sounds more like Middle Eastern meat cooked on a spit. It’s still apropos as Kawhi Leonard is cooked.

Shams Charania posted the news as soon as it broke:

“BREAKING: The NBA has ruled on the Los Angeles Clippers in for salary cap circumvention investigations on Kawhi Leonard after yearlong probe — stripping the franchise of 5 first-round picks, issuing a $30 million fine to owner Steve Ballmer and suspensions for Ballmer, Lawrence Frank and Gillian Zucker, sources tell ESPN.”

Leonard was personally fined $700,000. While that may be years of accumulated salary for us mere mortals, it comes out to 2.5% of $28M he took under the table through his Aspiration deal. Consider the estimated $20M he made through additional off-the-books deals, and the $700,000 slap on the wrist becomes roughly 1.4% of what he made. He made a $50M salary and $50M in “consulting” doubling his income in a fashion

The internet went viral with comments. One of the best was figuring out what signing Kawhi Leonard has cost the Los Angeles Clippers now. Originally, pundits pointed out that his demand to bring in Paul George cost the Clips Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, five first-rounders, and two pick swaps. Now the Clippers are in even deeper due to their relationship with Leonard.

Leonard did not act alone. He was represented by his uncle Dennis Robertson whose name is well known among Spurs fans. Part of the outcome of this investigation has left Uncle Dennis banned from business dealings involving the NBA.

Last summer, Leonard requested a trade from Los Angeles to Toronto. The trade was held up due to the investigation as the Raptors were informed they could end up liable for any retribution involving Leonard. he is now expected to head to Toronto to play out the remainder of his career.

Welcome to The Thread. Join in the conversation, start your own discussion, and share your thoughts. This is the Spurs community, your Spurs community. Thanks for being here

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Clippers fans, please join the rest of L.A. in booing Kawhi Leonard.

With your whole chests, let him hear it, the entitled scoundrel.

Greedy villain.

Selfish charlatan.

The Clippers’ star and his team found the one NBA franchise that was desperate enough to allegedly acquiesce to all of his out-of-bounds demands, to break the rules if only he would please, please pick them.

Yearning to be loved in the Lakers’ Los Angeles, the Clippers were easy marks during that 2019 free agency.

Leonard, fresh off winning his second NBA title and Finals MVP, took the Clippers and Steve Ballmer — the NBA’s richest owner, worth $152 billion, per Forbes — for a ride.

Read more:Plaschke: NBA drops the hammer on The Cheatin’ Clippers, and they can't shed the stink

Investigators have found that Leonard’s camp got the Clippers to agree, according to the findings of a nearly yearlong investigation by Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, to audacious levels of salary cap circumvention.

Billed as a hometown hero, the All-Star from Moreno Valley apparently arrived with his hand outstretched, demanding all sorts of improper perks, including an extra $10 million annually — in addition to the above-board contracts that paid him between $32 million and $50 million each season.

And then he did his Kawhi laugh all the way to the bank.

Now tack on the NBA’s $30-million fine and five first-round draft picks to the bill as punishment, announced Wednesday.

Those fans in Toronto who’d promised never to let him pay for a meal in their city again — “KaWine and Dine,” they called it — never stood a chance. They should toast their luck.

The Clippers doth protest, denying all of it. Probably because the investigation’s findings make them out to be not only cheaters, but fools.

The team’s statement: “We vehemently reject the NBA’s findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence.”

And Leonard? He isn’t taking personal accountability, but he’s accepting the NBA’s $700,000 fine and, in a statement, said he blames “lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle.”

His excuse: Everyone has a crazy uncle, right?

Leonard’s statement concluded by referencing the pending trade sending him back to the Raptors, which was put on hold in July: “As I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate.”

A clean slate? He plans to pay the fine — roughly one game’s worth of pay — pass go and roll the dice again like nothing happened. A top 50 player of all time and a Hall of Fame scam artist, this fun guy.

Who knows what deliverables he promised, but all he wrought was more frustration and misery for the team’s long-suffering, loyal fans.

For his seven seasons with the Clippers, he was a part-time worker getting paid excessive overtime.

Oft-injured, he played in only about 60% of the team’s regular-season games. Injuries stink, and so did the opacity with which the Clippers shared news of their star’s health status.

Load-of-nonsense management.

Read more:NBA hammers Clippers, Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard following investigation

With a wish list so long even Santa would’ve pushed back, he also demanded the Clippers trade future MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and five first-round draft picks to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Paul George. Because Leonard wanted a proven running mate. That didn’t only set back the Clippers, it set up the young Thunder for at least one NBA title run.

The Clippers, meanwhile, still have not won an NBA title. Still haven’t played in an NBA Finals.

But together, Leonard and the team made history with Wednesday’s punishment.

The Clippers’ one Western Conference finals appearance in 2021? That came with Leonard in street clothes, nursing a torn anterior cruciate ligament, an injury the Clippers kept secret until it was announced later that summer that their star player had surgery to repair it.

A reticent, low-wattage star, Leonard did nothing to improve the Clippers’ brand or relevancy.

He did the opposite.

The Clippers were sold a lemon. And now all they’re left with is the sour, bitter taste of having been played.

Read more:Read the NBA's investigation of the Clippers, Steve Ballmer, Kawhi Leonard

The NBA handed Ballmer a suspension from all league and team activities for one year. Clippers president of business operations Gillian Zucker was hit with the same penalty. President of basketball operations Lawrence Frank will be suspended without pay for six months.

And the Clippers didn’t have to do any of it.

Was Leonard really going to go to another team?

He didn’t want to freeze in Toronto and he would have melted under the Lakers’ purple-and gold spotlight. He also wouldn’t have been able to play king on a team with LeBron James on it.

Leonard was meant to be a Clipper. He really was. The latest chapter in a story that always ends unhappily ever after.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.