Celtics very Realistically could have potential top pick with Clippers pick

[Kane3387]

There is a provision in which the owners can vote to strip Sterling of the Clippers.  The NBA can buy the team at a fair price and then sell it.  Sterling will sue to block the deal, and tie it up in the courts.  Celtics pick first in 2015!

This is why there's so much pressure on NBA commissioner Adam Silver to deliver a devastating blow at his 2 p.m. ET news conference. Sterling's inclination will be to keep the team, keep the NBA mired in courts and the Clippers franchise will never survive it. Rivers will never return as president and coach under Sterling, sources told Yahoo Sports, and that'll start the beginning of a player mutiny that could result with several top Clippers also demanding out of the franchise.

Several league officials ? including owners and Board of Governors members ? told Yahoo Sports they believe Silver has been studying the nuclear option on Sterling: a provision in the NBA's bylaws that would allow Silver to summon a vote of league owners to strip Sterling of his ownership. The NBA would run the Clippers until the team could be sold.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/how-nba-could-deliver-knockout-blow-to-donald-sterling-093958859.html

[PhoSita]

I really doubt the NBA would try to make Sterling give up the team.  Too easy for Sterling to make it a painful, drawn out process.

More likely they suspend Sterling from having anything to do with the team for the foreseeable future, and simply hope that he dies sooner rather than later.

[hpantazo]

If Sterling is stripped of ownership, as he should be, then Doc and the players stay though, and our pick is in the 20's somewhere.

[Smokeeye123]

I would never say this very realistic but our chances of getting a good lottery pick next year went from about 0% to 1%

[BigAlTheFuture]

That would probably be one of the craziest things to ever happen to this franchise. Getting a first overall pick for a head coach. All hail Danny Ainge.

[jambr380]

I really doubt the NBA would try to make Sterling give up the team.  Too easy for Sterling to make it a painful, drawn out process.

More likely they suspend Sterling from having anything to do with the team for the foreseeable future, and simply hope that he dies sooner rather than later.

This seems most likely to me as well. The court of public opinion has already taken care of Sterling. I doubt he will be allowed to show his face through at least the playoffs. Depending on how much remorse he shows, this could extend into next year; however, the off-season is quite long. If he handles this with professionalism and in an apologetic manner, he may not die as the most hated man alive.

[McHales Pits]

Time to start scoping top prospects in next year's draft...

[footey]

I think the punishment that Silver delivers will be on the owner, not the team that he owns. Ban him from attending any games, require him to give, or subsidize, 10% of the seats to minority community members.  Make him acknowledge the harm of his words through public symposium.  Remove him from all management decisions affecting the franchise.  I am hoping that is the angle that Silver will take.  I wish him (Silver) well.  I think there will be limits under the charter, and private ownership rights, to what he would like to do.   If you force him to sell the Clippers, would he require the profits to go to charity?  I doubt that would be enforceable.

[merkins]

Celtic Draft Luck (CDL) dictates that as part of the penalty imposed by the NBA, the Los Angeles Clippers will forfeit their first round draft picks through 2015.

[footey]

I would never say this very realistic but our chances of getting a good lottery pick next year went from about 0% to 1%

That, literally, is an infinite improvement!

[NextCeltic34]

I BEEN saying this to everyone I know man....

This draft pick is going to be a lottery pick without doubt now.

Doc is out, and you know these dudes ain't gon stick around either.

Especially with this punishment. Even with a suspension, he is still the owner... these guys ain't gon play there.

[nickagneta]

Celtic Draft Luck (CDL) dictates that as part of the penalty imposed by the NBA, the Los Angeles Clippers will forfeit their first round draft picks through 2015.

This seems more likely. I think its more likely all picks are stripped of the Clippers rather than the team is blown apart making the pick a top pick.

[Quetzalcoatl]

The NBA wouldn't penalize us for this.  They would probably push it back to the 2016 season or something; taking a pick from us on a technicality would be pretty odd.  The league has total discretion over it and so I don't see them doing something arbitrary like that.

This is really the best outcome from a cynical Celtics fan's perspective though.  Paul and Griffin both have national ad campaigns that are as valuable as their contracts and Doc rivers will almost certainly resign.  Just about everyone on that team of importance will leave and we will probably get two lottery picks next year in an even more loaded draft.

I at least think we should band together and write State Farm, GameFly and Kia to tell them to tell Paul and Blake to demand trades.   

[Kane3387]

Looks like silver will push for the board if governors to enforce the selling of the clippers by sterling!

He will take it to court I bet!

Woah... This might actually be real.

The ban is independent of the ownership of the team. Silver said the process of forcing Sterling to sell, which would require three quarters of the Board of Governors to vote in favor, will begin immediately.

?I fully expect to get the support from the owners to remove him,? Silver said.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursnation/2014/04/29/silver-bans-sterling-for-life-will-urge-nba-owners-to-force-clippers-sale/

Sterling will fight this.

[footey]

I think this outcome was brilliant by Silver.  He did the maximum punishment, and is trying to force the sale of the team.  I think this will make the players and coaches more comfortable with staying there, since Sterling has been banned, and the NBA will do everything it can to force him to sell the team. I don't think this will have any material impact, one way or the other, on the value of our pick.  Let me know what I am missing.