TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Kawhi Leonard\u2019s return to the Toronto Raptors could be back on now that there\u2019s a resolution to the NBA\u2019s investigation into salary cap circumvention rules during the seven-time All-Star\u2019s time with the Los Angeles Clippers.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the NBA imposed a sweeping punishment against the Clippers for violating salary cap circumvention rules, including suspending owner Steve Ballmer for one year, fining the team $30 million, forcing the organization to forfeit five first-round draft picks and fining Leonard $700,000.<\/p>\n
Leonard was not suspended for any games, raising questions about what’s next for the two-time NBA Finals MVP.<\/p>\n
The Raptors and Clippers struck a deal on June 30 on a trade that would send Leonard back to the team he helped lead to the 2019 NBA championship. The Raptors agreed to send Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-round draft picks, two second-round picks and pick swaps to the Clippers.<\/p>\n
In July, the trade was put on hold pending the outcome of the NBA\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n
The Raptors have declined to comment on the status of the deal to acquire Leonard now that the league has announced the fallout from its investigation.<\/p>\n
Leonard, 35, is coming off the highest-scoring season of his career, averaging 27.9 points while playing 65 games last year with the Clippers.<\/p>\n
A seven-time All-NBA selection and two-time NBA champion, Leonard is considered one of the game\u2019s top defensive players. He also won the 2014 NBA title with San Antonio.<\/p>\n
In Toronto, Leonard would join a roster led by two-time All-Star Scottie Barnes, Canadian star RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and talented youngster Collin Murray-Boyles.<\/p>\n
The Raptors finished 46-36 in 2025-26 and took the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games in a first-round playoff series defeat. It was Toronto\u2019s first playoff appearance in four years.<\/p>\n
So far this summer, the Raptors have signed general manager Bobby Webster to a multiyear contract extension and promoted him to executive vice president, and agreed to a multiyear extension with coach Darko Rajakovic.<\/p>\n
On July 7, Leonard was in the front row at Kyle Lowry\u2019s Toronto news conference when Lowry announced he was retiring as a member of the Raptors. Ingram attended a Clippers Summer League game in Las Vegas on July 10.<\/p>\n
The NBA began investigating in September 2025 whether a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC \u2014 a company that filed for bankruptcy last year \u2014 broke league rules, following a report by journalist Pablo Torre. Earlier this year, Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to defrauding investors and lenders of at least $248 million.<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full NBA coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Kawhi Leonard\u2019s return to the Toronto Raptors could be back on now that there\u2019s a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,10295,4441,10760,6351,3715,44310,529,3844,6,18659,29499,29496,29494,29497,29498,73117,13843,969,474,4075,4074,534,3677,680,98348],"class_list":["post-827151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio-spurs","tag-basketball","tag-bobby-webster","tag-brandon-ingram","tag-darko-rajakovic","tag-gradey-dick","tag-immanuel-quickley","tag-joseph-sanberg","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-kyle-lowry","tag-nba","tag-pablo-torre","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32001-ap-online-basketball-news","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40776-ap-california-sports-only","tag-r-j-barrett","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sanantonio","tag-sanantoniospurs","tag-spurs","tag-steve-ballmer","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors-kawhi-leonard-trade-nba-investigation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}