Report: 76ers keep 2029 pick swap rights with Clippers after NBA’s cap circumvention punishment

The 76ers are holding onto their 2029 first-round pick swap right with the Clippers, even after the NBA came down hard on Los Angeles this week for salary cap circumvention.

The league confirmed that the 76ers’ top-three protected swap right with the Clippers in 2029 is unaffected by the punishment. That’s the last remaining piece of the 2023 James Harden trade, and it’s staying exactly as it was structured.

Why the 76ers didn’t lose anything here

The Sixers own top-three protected first-round swap rights with the LA Clippers in 2029. I am told by an NBA spokesperson that that will remain the case; LA is being stripped of the Indiana Pacers' 2029 first-rounder.

TLDR: Sixers' 2029 Clippers swap will remain exactly in tact.

— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) September 2, 2026

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The NBA stripped the Clippers of five first-round picks, covering 2029 through 2033, as part of the fallout from the league’s investigation into Kawhi Leonard and the team’s alleged cap circumvention scheme. That’s a brutal penalty for a franchise already dealing with a wrecked reputation around the league.

For most years in that stretch, the picks simply vanish from the Clippers’ control. But 2029 was more complicated because of the obligations already tied to it, including the 76ers’ swap. Rather than touch the Sixers’ rights, the NBA is instead voiding the 2029 first-rounder the Clippers owed to the Pacers from the Ivica Zubac trade. That pick gets wiped out, and the 76ers’ swap stands untouched.

It’s a clean outcome for Philadelphia. No changes to what was already on the books, no renegotiation, no fine print. The swap remains top-three protected, same as it’s always been.

The rest of the Clippers’ punishment

Beyond the picks, the league hit the Clippers with a $30 million fine. Owner Steve Ballmer was suspended for one year. President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker also got a one-year suspension. President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank was suspended for six months. Leonard himself was ordered to pay back $700,000, and his uncle, Dennis Robertson, was banned from conducting NBA business for five years.

None of that changes anything for the 76ers directly. But it does close the book on a swap that’s been sitting on the franchise’s draft asset sheet since the Harden deal, and it does so in the 76ers’ favor. The pick swap survives exactly as constructed, top-three protection intact, heading into what’s already shaping up to be a loaded 2029 draft class given the number of teams now picking with restrictions or forfeitures attached.

For a franchise that hasn’t had much go its way lately, keeping this asset clean is a small but real positive.

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