Draymond Green suggests dangerous precedent in Kawhi Leonard, Clippers scandal

Draymond Green has never been shy about challenging the NBA’s power structure, and the Golden State Warriors veteran is now taking aim at one of the league’s foundational economic rules: the salary cap.Discussing the NBA’s investigation into alleged salary-cap circumvention involving Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers, Green argued that a light punishment should encourage more players and teams to test the system.The scrutiny around Leonard intensified recently with a report about another sponsorship arrangement involving Daktronics, the company that supplied technology for Intuit Dome.“If the punishments aren’t steep, everybody should do it,” Green said on The Draymond Green Show.“If it’s just gonna be a slap on the wrist, then everybody should do it, and every player should be trying to do it.”Green went further, suggesting the controversy should reopen the entire debate over limiting player compensation.“Let the punishment be getting rid of the salary cap,” he said.There is a reasonable labor argument buried inside Green’s provocation.

The NBA’s 2026-27 salary cap is $164.961 million, with a second apron at $221.686 million.Star players drive a huge portion of the league’s value, and the system places limits not only on team spending but, through maximum salaries, on what its best players can command.But Green’s suggestion that everybody should exploit the same avenue if the punishment is weak is harder to defend.If the Leonard allegations are proven to involve prohibited compensation outside his NBA contract, that would not be a clever loophole.

It would be circumvention of collectively bargained rules.There is a difference between finding an advantage inside the rulebook and deciding a rule is worth breaking because the penalty is manageable.The latter could create an arms race in which the richest owners and teams with the most valuable outside relationships have the easiest time creating hidden compensation.Eliminating...