Clippers say NBA investigation not impacting team's decisions - ESPN

While the LA Clippers continue to await the results of the NBA's investigation into Kawhi Leonard and a California company he had an endorsement deal with, the team maintains that the looming decision hasn't impacted «anything that we do.»

That includes a pair of somewhat surprising trades last week that sent James Harden to Cleveland and Ivica Zubac to Indiana.

«We haven't learned anything more than we have in September,» Lawrence Frank, president of basketball operations, said of the investigation Monday. «We know it's out there, we know at some point there'll be a decision made. We very much feel the same thing that we told you back in September, that we're on the right side of this. It really doesn't impact anything we do on a daily basis.»

Last September, a report by journalist Pablo Torre alleged the Clippers violated the NBA's salary cap rules through a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and a now-bankrupt California-based sustainability services company called Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC. Leonard has denied any wrongdoing, saying he didn't receive all the money he was owed from the company, and the Clippers have also strongly denied that they broke any rules.

It's been a strange season for the Clippers, who began the year 6-21 but recently surged up the standings, winning 19 of their past 25 heading into Tuesday night's game against Houston. Amid the winning streak, the Clippers decided to move Harden and Zubac — something Frank said was not originally in the plans until Cleveland called asking for Harden and Indiana sent a «Godfather-type offer» for Zubac.

The Clippers received Darius Garland in exchange for Harden and two first-round picks along with fourth-year wing Bennedict Mathurin for Zubac.