What can the Clippers do now? Rebuilding after NBA’s harshest penalties won’t be easy, but there’s a blueprint

The death penalty doesn't exist in basketball, but the Los Angeles Clippers came about as close to it as any NBA team ever has. On Wednesday, the league stripped the Clippers of five first-round picks for violating the CBA's rules against cap circumvention, and with the NBPA agreeing to the punishment, the Clippers lack a straightforward path to arbitration and an appeals process. They may attempt to fight this out in court, and appear eager to do so, but for now, the Clippers have been struck with the most severe penalty the NBA has ever handed a team for any rules violation.

The question now is where they go from here, and they technically can't even begin charting a new course at the moment. Owner Steve Ballmer has been suspended for a year, and head of basketball operations Lawrence Frank has been suspended six months, so any big-picture strategic changes will have to wait until after the trade deadline, when at least Frank returns to his post. Ballmer will now presumably miss not only the 2026-27 season, but the active portion of the 2027 offseason as well.

Yet the team will still need to move forward, and it will attempt…

Original source: https://www.cbssports.com/