The Los Angeles Clippers are in serious talks to hire Brian Shaw as an assistant coach on the staff of Tyronn Lue.

Shaw spent last season as head coach of the G League Ignite. 

Shaw last worked in the NBA from 2016 until 2019 as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers under Luke Walton. Previously, Shaw was head coach of the Denver Nuggets.

Kawhi Leonard underwent surgery for a partially torn ACL in his right knee. The Los Angeles Clippers did not announce a timeline for his return.

Leonard will likely become a free agent this offseason.

Leonard suffered the injury in Game 4 of the second round and no diagnosis was announced. 

If Lonzo Ball signs a significant offer sheet with a rival team in restricted free agency, sources tell The Athletic that the New Orleans Pelicans are unlikely to match.

The Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Clippers are among the teams expected to pursue Ball.

Ball had a productive season with the Pelicans in 20-21, averaging 14.6 points while shooting 37.8 percent on three-pointers.

The Pelicans acquired Ball in 2019 as part of the Anthony Davis trade.

An extensive report from ProPublica documents how sports franchises are uniquely valuable to their owners due to how they are able to deduct almost the entire sales price against their income during the ensuing years and pay less in taxes.

"Teams’ most valuable assets, such as TV deals and player contracts, are virtually guaranteed to regenerate because sports franchises are essentially monopolies," writes ProPublica.

While a team's franchise rights never expire, they get treated as though they have a finite life span for taxes purposes. In the past two decades, the average value of basketball, football, baseball and hockey teams has grown by more than 500%.

IRS records obtained by ProPublica show the Los Angeles Clippers, owned by Steve Ballmer, have reported $700 million in losses for tax purposes from 2014 until 2018. Ballmer is able to not pay tax on any profits made by the Clippers and he can also use the write-off to offset his other income. 

Ballmer’s spokesperson declined to answer specific questions, but said “Steve has always paid the taxes he owes, and has publicly noted that he would personally be fine with paying more.”

Ballmer's $2 billion purchase price for the Clippers was shocking at the time, but he thought it was a sound investment. 

“It’s not a cheap price, but when you’re used to looking at tech companies with huge risk, no earnings and huge multiples, this doesn’t look like the craziest thing I’ve ever acquired,” he said at the time. “There’s much less risk. There’s real earnings in this business.”

Two years later as the league negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement, Ballmer was more bearish about the NBA's finances. 

“I’m a new owner and I’ve heard this is the golden age of basketball economics. You should tell our finance people that,” he told a reporter in 2016. “We’re sitting there looking at red ink, and it’s real red ink. I know, it shows up on my tax returns.”

The Portland Trail Blazers have identified a number of candidates for their lead assistant coaching position to help aid new head coach Chauncey Billups, sources told Shams Charania of The Athletic. 

Vinny Del Negro, Scott Brooks and Lionel Hollins are under consideration. All three coaches have previous head coaching experience.

Del Negro and Neil Olshey previously worked together with the Clippers in 2010.

The NBA suspended Patrick Beverley for one game next season for "forcefully pushing Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul from behind and knocking him to the court during a stoppage in play."

The shove occurred towards the end of the Suns' series-clinching win in Game 6.

Beverley has apologized to Paul via Twitter. 

The Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat are planning to make a "hard push" to acquire Kawhi Leonard this summer, sources told Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer.

Leonard can exercise his player option and become a free agent. 

The Mavs are reportedly the most "serious threat" to land Leonard due to Luka Doncic's presence, the ability to create max cap space, and Leonard's relationship with Nico Harrison.

Leonard previously attempted to recruit Jimmy Butler to the Clippers before the team traded for Paul George. While the Heat cannot create max cap space, they can work out a sign-and-trade similar to the one they used to acquire Butler.

O'Connor adds that Leonard is likely to stay with the Clippers.

League sources add that Leonard no longer travels via helicoptor from his home in San Diego as he did before Kobe Bryant's passing. 

Patrick Beverley is facing a suspension to start next season after pushing Chris Paul in the back towards the end of Game 6, sources told Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports.

Beverley was ejected from the game following the shove.

“I just think it built up on Pat,” C.J. Paul, Chris' older brother, told Yahoo Sports. “That’s not a way to end it. I don’t know why he did that. I’ve looked at the play a few times and all Chris did was look at him, and that look was everything. That’s when you knew he took his heart."

Beverley sent an apology to Paul via Twitter on Thursday. 

The Los Angeles Clippers will have Early Bird Rights on Reggie Jackson, but his play in the playoffs may make him unaffordable due to cap restraints. 

"This year was my best year," said Jackson, who averaged 18.1 points and 41.5% 3-point shooting in the postseason entering Game 6.

"First thing I told these guys was thank you for saving me," he said. "I appreciate every guy in that locker room. I appreciate Paul for getting on that phone last year, at the end the season -- [when I] was talking a buyout with Detroit.

"I'm thankful for everything I've experienced being here; this city making me feel at home. This organization welcoming me, my quirks, my strengths, my weaknesses; I wonder if I would still be playing without this team."

The Los Angeles Clippers extended the Western Conference Finals to six games despite being without Kawhi Leonard the entire series due to a knee injury. The Phoenix Suns eliminated the Clippers in Game 6, but Paul George reflected on how the series may have played out had Leonard been available. 

"We'd be going on," George said. "Talk about one of the best players in the league being out, yet we were inches away from getting to the next round.

"So, definitely it's a 'what if' on this. Fact of the matter is we didn't do enough to win, and that's the reason we're going home."

Leonard suffered an undisclosed knee injury during Game 4 of the second round.

George answered some of his harshest critics with his play in the series without Leonard. 

"Nothing that I didn't know already," George said of what he learned from this postseason. "The narrative of me not being postseason player or all that, I never understood it."

"[But] I came up short again," George later added. "I'm proud of what we did as a team. I wasn't out to prove nothing to nobody but to show up as a leader for this team and to put us in position to get to where we got to. Again, came up short. My good wasn't enough. There's room for improvement ... I'll look back. I'll reflect."