The Los Angeles Clippers gave president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank a multi-year extension on Tuesday. The contract is believed to be a four-year deal, per The Athletic’s Joe Vardon and Sam Amick.
Clippers Have Been A Playoff Contender
Vardon reported in early December that owner Steve Ballmer was expected to give Frank and other front office members extensions despite the team’s struggles.
Frank, 55, has served as the Clippers’ front office president since 2017. He was an assistant coach with the Clippers from 2014-16 after head coaching stints with the Brookyln Nets and Detroit Pistons.
His peers voted him Executive of the Year in 2020 when the Clippers finished 49-23 and reached the second round of the playoffs in the 2020 Orlando bubble.
Los Angeles’ deepest playoff run under Frank was in 2021, when the Clippers reached the conference finals with current head coach Tyronn Lue and lost in six games to the Phoenix Suns.
In the years since that run to the Western Conference Finals, the Clippers have not won a playoff series and have been eliminated in the first round in each of the last three seasons.
Los Angeles Allegedly Circumvented Salary Cap
The Clippers once again had playoff aspirations entering the 2025-26 campaign.
However, the season was spoiled when NBA insider Pablo Torre dropped a bombshell report in September about Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers, and Aspiration, a former team sponsor that filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
Leonard reportedly signed a $28 million endorsement deal for Aspiration, but the six-time All-Star allegedly didn’t do any work for the company, leading to speculation that the agreement was just a route for Leonard to earn additional money on top of his NBA salary that would have helped Los Angeles circumvent the salary cap.
The Clippers also lost Bradley Beal to a season-ending hip injury in early November. Then on Dec. 3, Chris Paul was released more than a week after he announced this season would be his last.
Despite injuries, the Paul decision, and the off-court controversy, the Clippers started the year 6-21 but have since gone 15-3 to improve to 21-24 and ranking 10th in the West.
The turnaround has been orchestrated by veteran stars Kawhi Leonard, who is averaging 28.1 points per game, and James Harden, who is putting up 25.6 points and 8.1 assists per outing.
