Jun 10, 2026; New York, New York, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard De'aaron Fox (4) brings the ball up court against the New York Knicks during the fourth quarter of game four of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
The Los Angeles Clippers have suffered greatly for their role in the cap circumvention scheme involving Kawhi Leonard. After being stripped of five first-round picks and $30 million, they’ve essentially been set back by a decade, and there’s no easy road to recovery.
Still, not all hope is lost for the Clippers, and there are ways they can mitigate the damage if they play their cards right. In a recent episode of his podcast, NBA analyst/insider Bill Simmons proposed one such method of recouping assets. It requires sending Darius Garland to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for De’Aaron Fox and draft capital.
“De’Aaron Fox is starting a four-year, $221 million deal,” said Simmons on his podcast. “If I’m the Clippers, I’m at least calling the Spurs and being like, ‘Yo, we have Garland, we love him. But if you want to talk about flipping four years of Fox for two years of Garland, and throwing some of your stuff at us, we’re happy to have the conversation.’ And then if you’re the Spurs, you’re like, ‘Well, we messed up this Fox thing. We didn’t realize we were gonna get Harper when we did the wink-wink with the Fox extension. We are gonna have money to pay Wemby and Castle, and eventually Harper. Could Garland be a two-year stopgap now instead of four, and could we use some of our picks and other stuff to basically get out of those last two years?”
The Clippers have officially finalized the Kawhi Leonard trade, pocketing multiple picks in the process. While it hardly makes up for what they lost, it’s a good start to improving their situation. They can take it even further, however, by trading Garland. As much as they’d prefer to keep the young point guard, he’s one of their most tradeable assets right now (besides Brandon Ingram), and the Spurs might be willing to send some picks back in a deal.
The problem for the Spurs is their logjam in the backcourt, with Fox, Stephon Castle, and young guard Dylan Harper all competing for minutes. Out of those three, it was Harper who stepped up in the last playoffs, leading to questions about Fox’s future. It doesn’t help that he still has another four years and $221 million left on his contract, making him one of the highest-paid players in the league.
At least with Garland, he’s only got two years, meaning the Spurs would be free of his contract by the summer of 2028. It would give them some added flexibility and potentially set up a follow-up trade for more help on the wing.
For the Clippers, getting back Fox on top of whatever picks are attached would be a win in more ways than one. While not a direct upgrade over Fox, Garland still brings a lot to the table as a young and versatile guard with career averages of 18.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, 6.7 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.1 blocks per game on 45.4% shooting from the field. He could keep the team competitive while allowing them to add some picks with his arrival.
Ultimately, there’s much that remains to be seen with the Clippers, but they have options on how to navigate this tough stretch. As it stands, nothing is off the table as they look to stay competitive and build a new team identity.