After being hit with one of the largest penalties in NBA history as a result of the league’s salary cap circumvention investigation, the Clippers opened their media day by apologizing to their fans, Ben Golliver writes for ESPN.

“Our fans deserve to hear from us before this, and for that we’re sorry,” interim president of basketball operations Trent Redden said. “We’ve been listening to the thoughts, the concerns, and feeling the emotions of our fan base. They mean everything to us. Their pain through this time is real, and we feel it and we hear them, as well as our staff members who are proud to be part of this organization. We hope to fulfill our promises to them to build their trust and move forward.”

Redden added that head coach Ty Lue will remain a key voice in personnel decisions and the coach’s judgment will be crucial as the team enters a rebuild.

For his part, Lue reiterated his faith in the suspended Steve Ballmer and his desire to remain with the Clippers, notes Andrew Greif of NBC News (via Twitter).

“My loyalty to (Steve) is to the end,” Lue said.

We have more from the Clippers:

• Darius Garland has been an All-Star and has played on teams with major aspirations, but for the first time, he is going to be The Guy, Janis Carr writes for the OC Register. He knows that means that, beyond his on-court responsibility, he will have to shoulder a large burden as a mentor and tone-setter for the rest of the group, a role he has already embraced by bringing the team together for a “Call Of Duty” tournament and taking rookie Keaton Wagler under his wing. “I’m trying to install some confidence in Keaton,” he said. “He’s just got to go through all the adversity. Everybody’s going to make mistakes out of 82 games, so just want him to carry it (confidence) with him, carry it on his sleeve and remember it’s always going to get better for him and (fellow rookie) Baba Miller.”
• The revelation that Brandon Ingram would miss the start of the season with a partially torn Achilles tendon was a blow to the team’s hope for a strong start, but he’s already getting light work in to prepare for the season, writes ESPN’s Anthony Slater. Prior to the team’s first practice at the University of Hawai’i on Tuesday, Ingram was on the court going through shooting practice and defensive slide work with assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy. He then watched the team go through its full-contact practice.
• There are a lot of questions facing the team as they begin the next era of Clippers basketball, Carr writes. That includes who will step up as the center of the future, whether Brandon Ingram can help fill in for Kawhi Leonard in more ways than just isolation scoring, how Wagler fares with the pressure of being a top-five pick, and more.