{"id":835326,"date":"2026-09-14T21:30:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/835326\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T21:30:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:30:37","slug":"clippers-kawhi-leonard-trade-finally-goes-through","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/835326\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard Trade Finally Goes Through"},"content":{"rendered":"

After much mystery, Kawhi Leonard is officially heading back to the Toronto Raptors.<\/p>\n

The trade was initially agreed upon more than two months ago on June 30, but the NBA\u2019s investigation into salary cap circumvention by the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> threw a wrench in things.<\/p>\n

\"NBA:Mar 27, 2026; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) in the first half against the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect (Reuters)<\/p>\n

As Leonard was the player for whom the cap had been circumvented, there was some belief that he could face some personal punishment.<\/p>\n

Once that punishment was revealed to just be a $700,000 fine, though, it seemed that Leonard would be in Toronto sooner rather than later, though it took nearly two weeks to finally get the deal done<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So what happened?<\/p>\n

\"\"Related coverageMystery Surrounds Kawhi Leonard\u2019s Status After Salary Cap Circumvention PunishmentRead more \u2192<\/a>\u2018Internal logistics\u2019 blamed for delay<\/p>\n

ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania said<\/a> the trade, which involves the Clippers getting back Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks, one first-round pick swap and two second-rounders, was finalized after the Clippers gave final approval on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Raptors-Clippers trade was agreed upon on June 30, paused amid the NBA investigation, and now will be processed after the Clippers gave the final sign-off Monday after utilizing the last 13 days to absorb the league\u2019s punishment and work through internal logistics,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely that those logistics include putting in place new executives.<\/p>\n

Pablo Torre<\/a>, whose investigation ultimately led to the record punishment for the Clippers, said with Ballmer and Gillian Zucker, one of his top executives, both suspended for a year, \u201cthe NBA first needs to approve the Clippers\u2019 temp governor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minority owner Dennis Wong was floated as an option, but he also invested in Aspiration, one of the businesses involved in the salary cap circumvention, Torre reports.<\/p>\n

NBA insider Jake Fischer reports on Monday that it ultimately was another team executive who stepped up.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Steve Ballmer accepted the NBA\u2019s ruling last night, it took until this afternoon for the Clippers to fully move forward with general manager Trent Redden leading the team\u2019s communication with Toronto to get this blockbuster back on track,\u201d he reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A lot remains unresolved with the Clippers \u2014\u00a0even who\u2019s in charge during Ballmer\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

That said, with the Raptors trade finally settled, perhaps the team can focus on internal matters and get the Clips back on track ahead of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After much mystery, Kawhi Leonard is officially heading back to the Toronto Raptors. The trade was initially agreed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,529,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6],"class_list":["post-835326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-basketball","tag-clippers","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117271529303474134","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835326","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=835326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}