Caught. Nabbed. Busted.The LA Clippers spent the last year insisting they had nothing to fear from an NBA investigation into cap circumvention and that everything would be fine.Narrator voice: Everything was not fine.A half-decade-old scheme to funnel extra money to Kawhi Leonard has come to light, with the help of an investigative report from the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast, and the Clippers are screwed.First, the basics. After a yearlong investigation that culminated in a 35-page summary report from the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the league brought down the hammer on the Clippers on Wednesday.For what it deemed were four separate instances of violating the league’s collective bargaining agreement by engaging in cap circumvention to fill the pockets of star forward Kawhi Leonard from 2020 to 2022, the league stripped the Clippers of five first-round picks, fined the team $30 million, suspended owner Steve Ballmer and president of business operations Gillian Zucker for a full year and suspended president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank for six months. Leonard was also required to pay the league $700,000 in unreimbursed expenses, and his agent at the time, Dennis Robertson (aka “Uncle Dennis”), was banned from the NBA five years.The Clippers, for their part, have stuck to their story and vowed to keep fighting, but it is not clear how. There is no appeals process for this, and courts generally give leagues wide latitude to enforce their own rules.What’s more, the information in the Wachtell report is damning, and the Clippers’ only attempt at a factual refutation has been to call it a “witch hunt.” Also, it was common knowledge through the league that Uncle Dennis was asking for preposterous and blatantly illegal side benefits in the summer of 2019, which Leonard then began receiving in 2020 ahead of his next free agency, according to the report.To say the burden of proof is now on the Clippers would be a massive understatement.The Kawhi Saga: What the NBA's investigation into the Clippers revealedMike Vorkunov and Jeshua KiddRegarding the lack of appeals process, an important clarification is in order, because my initial understanding of the NBA investigation’s endgame was incorrect. Article XIII, Section 3 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement was misunderstood by me and others, including people I know with legal backgrounds, to allow for a system arbitrator to hear a case before penalties for cap circumvention may be levied by the commissioner.That particular part only applies to penalties applied to a player, not to a team or its management, something that is poorly explained in this section (page 340 of the CBA), but is spelled out in the document clearer in Article XXXII (not until page 470, but in a gripping romp like this tome, it feels sooner).Because Leonard and the NBA Players Association signed off on his repaying $700,000, there was no further process that would require an arbitrator. Leonard, who made tens of millions in off-the-books, no-show endorsements, made out like a bandit with this settlement, especially since his $51 million contract for the coming season was not voided.The only relevant remaining section of Article XIII is the part that describes the penalties for cap circumvention. The menu Adam Silver had to choose from includes: