Whos leading Clippers amidst penalties from Kawhi Leonard scandal?

Since the NBA officially announced the Clippers’ punishments for circumventing the league’s salary cap rules for star forward Kawhi Leonard, a question came to the forefront of conversations around the league: Who’s going to be running the Clippers’ basketball operations? It couldn’t be franchise owner/chairman Steve Ballmer, who was suspended from league and team activities for one year for his role in the scandal. It also couldn’t be president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank, the man who’s run the franchise’s basketball operations for nearly a decade and has been suspended for six months.This week provided clarity. The Clippers and Raptors finally pulled the trigger on the long-awaited trade that’ll send Leonard back to Toronto after leaving the Raptors for the Clippers in free agency nearly seven years ago. Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round draft picks (2031 and 2033), one first-round draft pick swap (2027) and two second-round picks are coming back to the Clippers for Leonard. The details of the trade were agreed to in late June, but put on hold on July 9 amidst the NBA’s investigation of the Clippers-Leonard scandal, with the Raptors stating it was going to wait until the league’s investigation was complete since they would’ve assumed the risk for any potential outcome of the investigation impacting Leonard. But the Clippers still needed leadership to complete the deal and make the calls to get it across the finish line. That new leadership has emerged in the form of general manager Trent Redden, a longtime Clippers executive who’s moving to the forefront of the Clippers’ front office.The Clippers have yet to name Redden, or anyone else, their interim leader of basketball operations in light of their punishments. But Redden, who led the Clippers’ communication with the Raptors, as first reported by NBA reporter Jake Fischer, appears to be poised to step into that role for the foreseeable futur...