The Los Angeles Clippers were hit with a hammer in the fallout from the NBA investigation into the team, owner Steve Ballmer, and superstar Kawhi Leonard for salary cap circumvention.

The league ruled there was some level of cap circumvention, suspending Ballmer for one year, President of Business Operations Gillian Zuckerberg for one year, and President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank for six months. Ballmer was also fined $30 million.

Leonard is being forced to pay $700,000 in restitution, but faced no punishment regarding his contract or playing status.

Finally, the league took five future first-round picks from the Clippers in the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, and 2033 NBA Drafts.

Speaking on his podcast, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green gave his thoughts on the punishment.

"Here's where the NBA dropped the hammer, FIVE FIRST ROUND PICKS... it's crippling to a franchise... it may stick the Clippers in purgatory for a long time to come and it makes you think what certain players like Darius Garland, how are they gonna look at being in this place now? Ty Lue, how does he look at being in this place now?”

The Clippers were already short draft capital after trading five unprotected or protected first-round draft picks, and two pick swaps in 2019 to the Oklahoma City Thunder to acquire Paul George. The historic trade, which also featured Shai Gilgeous-Alexander going from the Clippers to the Thunder, was done to pair Kawhi with a second superstar.

If the Clippers don’t give up as much as they did to get George, Kawhi wasn’t going to join the team.

The Clippers are expected to be at the bottom of the Western Conference this season, and not having control of their first-round picks for the foreseeable future is going to cost them more than if they happened to be a championship contender.

The Clippers can either try to field the most competitive team possible, which is going to be difficult with no draft capital to trade for better players and not having expiring contracts after this season to acquire cap space.

They can try to trade guys like Darius Garland, Brandon Ingram, Derrick Jones Jr, and even Keaton Wagler to get more draft capital, but that won’t make them better and still leaves them without their own picks.

Draymond is 100% right in that this leaves the organization in purgatory and will have players and coaches questioning their future.