{"id":830986,"date":"2026-09-08T21:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/830986\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T21:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:12:18","slug":"latest-on-kawhi-leonard-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/830986\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On Kawhi Leonard Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shortly after the NBA announced the findings<\/a> of its cap circumvention investigation into the Clippers last Wednesday, Shams Charania of ESPN stated that the trade sending Kawhi Leonard<\/a> to the Raptors would likely be completed within \u201cthe next couple of days<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The two teams reached an agreement on that blockbuster deal on June 30<\/a>, but the Raptors opted against finalizing the trade<\/a> immediately after the moratorium period ended in July as they waited to see whether Leonard would have his contract voided or face a suspension as a result of the NBA\u2019s probe. As Charania pointed out on Wednesday though, the ramifications for Kawhi amounted to a $700K fine, which won\u2019t affect Toronto, so there appeared to be nothing standing in the way of the deal being processed as initially planned.<\/p>\n

Six days later, however, the two teams have yet to officially announce the trade. So what\u2019s the hold-up?<\/p>\n

Sources tell Jake Fischer and Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link<\/a>) that one key reason for the delay is that the Clippers are still \u201cworking through\u201d their new front office structure after team owner Steve Ballmer and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank were suspended for one year and six months, respectively.<\/p>\n

There has been an expectation<\/a> that general manager Trent Redden will step up and run the basketball operations department in Frank\u2019s absence, but the Clippers will also need to name a new interim governor to replace Ballmer. Both of those new decision-makers would have to formally sign off on the deal before it can be completed.<\/p>\n

There has also been some speculation that the Raptors may seek to reopen the terms of the trade agreement, recognizing they have more leverage now than they did in June. The Clippers, who were forced by the NBA to forfeit five future first-round picks for violating the league\u2019s cap circumvention rules, need the two first-rounders they\u2019re acquiring from Toronto in this deal more than ever, so perhaps they\u2019d be willing to compromise on the two second-rounders or the 2027 pick swap that are also expected to be part of the trade.<\/p>\n

But ESPN\u2019s Brian Windhorst said during Tuesday\u2019s Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link<\/a>) that he wouldn\u2019t count on the terms being amended.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn talking to people, I think that trade is going to go through, and I think it\u2019s going to go through as is,\u201d Windhorst said. \u201cI was scolded for implying \u2013 or maybe not implying, but wondering whether \u2013 the terms could get altered. \u2026 People say in the NBA, your word is important. So, they\u2019ve agreed on this trade and I think they\u2019re going to go through with it as constructed.\u201d<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, the statement that Leonard put out last Wednesday through agent Harrison Gaines and the NBPA characterized the trade as essentially a done deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate,\u201d Leonard said in that statement.<\/p>\n

Leonard is in Miami for an organized mini-camp for Raptors players, sources tell Fischer (Twitter link<\/a>), who adds that Toronto is waiting on L.A. to move forward with the trade. The star forward can only take part in individual workouts until that happens, tweets<\/a> Stein.<\/p>\n

The agreement the two teams reached in June called for the Raptors to acquire Leonard in exchange for Brandon Ingram<\/a>, Gradey Dick<\/a>, unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, second-round picks in 2030 and 2033, and the right to swap the least favorable of the Clippers, Nuggets\u2019, and Thunder\u2019s 2027 first-round picks for Toronto\u2019s 2027 first-rounder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shortly after the NBA announced the findings of its cap circumvention investigation into the Clippers last Wednesday, Shams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,4441,6351,529],"class_list":["post-830986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-brandon-ingram","tag-gradey-dick","tag-kawhi-leonard"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117237484666039373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830986","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=830986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}