Best Of - Nick Wright's 2026 NFL Predictions, reaction to Clippers-Kawhi Leonard CATASTROPHE, Josh Allen hype TOO FAR

Nick Wright (0:00)

Welcome to the best of the week for What's Wright? with Nick Wright. The best takes and moments from this week on the show. Enjoy!

Demontsay (0:09)

Nearly a year from Kawhi and the Clippers situation, the verdict is out. They will lose five first round picks. Ballmer will be fined $30 million and suspended for a year, and Kawhi has to pay back $700,000, but his contract will not be voided. Do you think that they got this right?

Nick Wright (0:25)

Yeah.

I do think the NBA got it right, even if it took a long time. I think that, so let me rapid fire my takes here. First and foremost, credit where it's due, Pablo and his team deserve massive, massive credit for this.

They, this was real journalism where they discovered a real scandal and had their reporting on it buttoned up enough that it forced the NBA's hand to look into it. And now it has far reaching implications on the sport, on one of the richest people in the world and Steve Ballmer, on the Clippers, obviously. And that's because of the work Pablo and his team at his pod, Pablo Torre, finds out deserves. That is, you know, first and foremost, people had asked me previously why I wasn't talking about this as much. And the answer was, just to be totally transparent, I hadn't, I was not as interested in the machinations of the story as some people were. And because of that, I hadn't spent time, you know, reviewing all of the stuff Pablo put out, listening to all the episodes. And I kind of felt like I will, you know, let's see how this plays out. And you know, the way in at that point, it has now played out. And from the NBA's own investigation, corroborating all of the things Pablo had been, I don't even know if alleging is the right word, they hit the Clippers with about the harshest punishment any team's ever been hit with. So there is that piece of it. Back in the day, Demonsi, long before, shoot, this was around the time you were born, maybe right, yeah, late 90s.

The Minnesota Timberwolves engaged in salary cap circumvention via Joe Smith. The details on that, I don't remember exactly, but it was essentially, I think, take this under market deal right now when we don't have cap space, and then we will sign you to an above market deal when we do have cap space and we have your bird rights, that way we can keep you. Joe Smith's agent didn't want to take it on a handshake deal, so they made the Timberwolves put that agreement in writing. Wow. The two agents then, I don't know if it was a divorce proceeding or the agent split up. There was some split. I don't know if it was marriage or business, but whatever it is that in the court fight over, I think the agent splitting up and who is owed what commission, this document got produced of the Timberwolves like putting in writing, we're going to circumvent the salary cap and the NBA killed them. The NBA took away five first round picks. They then ended up giving eventually two of them back. But the reason I mention that is a lot of people feel like that was Domino one, two, Kevin Garnett eventually becoming a Celtic because the Timberwolves were not ever able to put a great team around KG. And so they kept losing in round one. They were never able to and they had no way to greatly improve the roster. And so he ends up ultimately leaving.

I think that is what we're about to see for the Los Angeles Clippers who are about to enter a decade long winter.

To have your first round pick stripped in 29, 30, 31, and 32 29, what? There's five of them. So it's also 33, I guess.

Or it's either 28, is it 28 through 32 or 29 through 33? Regardless. And I know they do have some picks coming back for the Kawhi trade, but guys don't hit free agency anymore. The way you acquire talent is either by trading your first round picks for established players or drafting players in the first round. The Clippers now can't do this. Poor Keaton Wagler is like, you got to be kidding me. This is the I just got drafted by the team fifth overall.

Demontsay (5:36)

And now they're just be punished for that. He should be able to be dispersed to a random team. Oh, that the I mean, it should have fallen.

Nick Wright (5:45)

I mean, it's brutal. It's just it's just brutal. And it is Clippers, man. It is the NBA making clear that, hey, we understand to me, my read on it is the NBA is saying, we understand there might be some gray area stuff with sponsors that a lot of teams do.