Insider Claims Clippers May Have Lost Out On Nikola Jokic After Massive Punishment

As if the massive punishment the NBA handed the LA Clippers wasn't enough, we're now getting word that the Clips' grand plans of lining themselves up to be a player for Nikola Jokic next summer have also blown up.

Insider Zach Lowe said on his latest podcast, recounting the absolute destruction of the Clippers franchise by Adam Silver's cap circumvention ruling, that the team has now lost out on that dream, as well. 

As recently as yesterday, a front office executive from another team... said, 'Hey, the Clippers are kind of quietly positioning themselves in case Jokic actually wants to leave Denver, with lots of cap space, and LA and all that.

FORGET THAT. This team is dead. DEAD. The superstars ain't going here when they're out five first-round picks, and they can't put together real trades and all that.

Jokic, the three-time NBA MVP, has put off signing an extension this summer with the Nuggets. But mostly it's thought that it's in order to be eligible to sign an even more massive, record-setting five-year, $359 million contract as a free agent next summer. 

But there are a number of teams around the league "monitoring" the Jokic situation in Denver. Particularly if they have another hugely disappointing season. Last year, with hopes of being a title contender, they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Jokic has one title. He wants more. 

Sure, you could say that the Clippers would have been a long shot anyway even if Jokic was to think about going elsewhere, but as Lowe notes, this ruling—5 first-round picks stripped, etc. etc.—is what he calls "a death knell" for the franchise. 

“The Clippers are somewhere beyond f---ed.”