The collective sigh of relief we fans of the league let out when the NBA announced its sanction against the Los Angeles Clippers in the Kawhi Leonard case has caused us to lose focus on an open matter. The Milwaukee Bucks are being investigated for the contract they handed Gary Trent Jr. this summer. After signing him to two consecutive veteran minimums, the franchise decided to give him $64 million over four years after the worst season of his career. This development instantly sparked talk of a potential salary-cap circumvention case.
Investigators’ work continues, but given the severity of the Clippers’ sanctions, the question arises whether uncovering evidence would warrant a similar punishment. Joe Vardon reports today in The Athletic that yes, with some caveats.
The Bucks cannot be fined $30 million because that amount is four times the maximum fine for salary-cap circumvention, which is $7.5 million. Since the Clippers did it through four different entities, they were sanctioned four times for the same offense. Consequently, the financial penalty would stay at $7.5 million.
What is replicable is the stripping of draft picks. A punishment already imposed on the Minnesota Timberwolves earlier this century for the Joe Smith incident, as well as the suspension of all implicated executives and, this time indeed, the suspension of Trent Jr.’s contract.
Needless to say, this would be catastrophic for any franchise, but especially for a team like Milwaukee, which has just been stripped of its best player in franchise history and whose finances are kept together by a thread due to the sacrifices made for him.
To conclude, it’s worth noting that even in the absence of a pertinent investigation, Bradley Beal’s most recent contract with the Clippers also carried the scent of salary-cap circumvention.
