A current front office member is expected to run the Clippers front office while Lawrence Frank serves his six-month ban.
Trent Redden has spent nine years working under Lawrence Frank in the Los Angeles Clippers front office, and Frank's suspension is expected to put Redden in charge for the first time.
Jake Fischer said on a Bleacher Report livestream on Tuesday that there is an expectation Redden will take Frank's place in the interim, and the team also has to name an interim governor to stand in for Steve Ballmer.
The Clippers have not announced anything themselves, so treat it as a report and not a press release.
The league handed down its ruling last Wednesday.
Ballmer is suspended from all league and team activities for one year, president of business operations Gillian Zucker is suspended without pay for one year, and Frank is suspended without pay for six months for his involvement with the endorsement arrangements and for approving expenses the league ruled impermissible.
The team also forfeits its first round picks from 2029 through 2033 and pays a $30 million fine, while Kawhi Leonard has to pay the league $700,000.
Law Murray of The Athletic has said the organization did not see that ruling coming, and Fischer went further on Tuesday.
"The Clippers are still licking their wounds here in how they want to move forward. They are also very upset," Fischer said.
Who Trent Redden Is
Redden is not a new face in the building, since he came to the Clippers in 2017 as an assistant general manager when Frank was putting together a new front office, and he was promoted to general manager in June of 2023 after Michael Winger left for Washington.
Before that he spent 11 seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers and was the assistant general manager when that 2016 team went 57-25 and beat Golden State in seven games in the Finals.
Tyronn Lue coached the second half of that season, so the coach and the man expected to run the front office already have a championship together.
What Changes and What Stays the Same
The Clippers have gone 415-303 in the regular season over Frank's nine seasons in charge, so Redden is stepping into a job that has mostly produced winning basketball.
Six months from the ruling runs into early March, and the trade deadline is Feb. 11, which means Redden would be the one deciding whether the expiring contracts on this roster get moved for picks this winter.
The more pressing job is the Leonard trade.
The Clippers and Raptors agreed on June 30 to send Leonard to Toronto for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first round picks, two second round picks and a pick swap, and as of Tuesday night the deal still had not been finalized.
Fischer and Marc Stein reported that the unsettled front office is the prime reason for the delay, and Adams wrote that both new decision makers would have to sign off before it can be completed.
The punishment has drawn plenty of blunt reactions from former players, but the front office does not have six months to lick its wounds, because camp opens on Sept. 29 and a trade is waiting on a signature.
