Players signing is lower than the market price to compensate from off-court to avoid the salary cap. The league did not consider the maximum salary like small cards.

TA famous reporter John Hollinger analyzed the incidents of Leonard and the Clippers suspected of evading the salary cap based on the labor-cap agreement.

It is understood that Article 13, paragraph 1b of the Labor and Capital Agreement stipulates that:

If the team enters into an agreement with any sponsor, business partner or third party that pays or agrees to pay the players signed by the team under the agreement (even if the compensation is ostensibly designated as non-basketball services), it constitutes a violation of the above provisions*.

(*Note: The above provisions mean prohibiting evasion of the salary cap)

The original text of the labor-cap agreement

Hollinger said that it is clear that Leonard can obtain tens of millions of dollars from a company through an endorsement contract through an endorsement contract, which is the sponsor of the Clippers, and Clippers boss Ballmer once invested $50 million in the company. While no agreement was found between the Clippers and the company, stating that the company would pay Leonard, it was obviously an indirect evidence, which looked bad.

But the next part transfers part of the burden of proof to the Clippers, giving the Clippers a chance to defend themselves:

When the team has the following circumstances, it can be inferred that such agreements are reached with the sponsor, business partner, or third party: (1) the compensation from the sponsor, business partner, or third party is far exceeding the fair market price; and (2) the compensation determined in the contract between the team and the player is much lower than the fair market price.

Leonard's 28 million endorsement contract obviously far exceeds the fair market price. Even if he honestly planted trees to complete his endorsement obligations within the time specified in the contract, this number far exceeds the average endorsement contract, not to mention that Leonard has no need to do anything. But Leonard signed a maximum salary contract in 2021. Although theoretically, that maximum salary is just the rule maximum salary, and the number is still lower than the market price, this does not meet the article "(2) The compensation determined in the contract between the team and the players is far lower than the fair market price." When formulating these terms, the league was worried that the stars would sign basic salary or small-scale exceptions, and then secretly stuff the money into their pockets through huge off-court contracts, without considering that maximum-paid players would do such things.

The labor-capital agreement is too focused on an unreasonable contract as indirect evidence, but does not consider that an unreasonable sponsor contract should be equally strong evidence. This is also reflected in the subsequent provisions of the labor-management agreement:

Violations of the above provisions can be proved by direct or indirect evidence, including but not limited to the inability to reasonably interpret the player contract or any other provisions or provisions without breach of the above provisions.

All the above provisions have certain loopholes, which makes the alliance unable to file a lawsuit with a third-party arbitration institution. The Clippers may still be ruled to violate the rules, but this is not a foregone conclusion. In the absence of new evidence, it is likely that it will end up with some kind of arbitration agreement between the league and the Clippers.