{"id":841971,"date":"2026-09-23T14:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T14:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/841971\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T14:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T14:15:17","slug":"lets-not-act-like-this-is-not-a-massive-risk-kawhi-leonards-115-million-toronto-raptors-deal-gets-durability-questions-from-nba-analyst-nba-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/841971\/","title":{"rendered":"“Let’s not act like this is not a massive risk”: Kawhi Leonard\u2019s $115 million Toronto Raptors deal gets durability questions from NBA analyst | NBA News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\""Let'sKawhi Leonard agrees to $115 million contract extension with Raptors. Image via: Soobum Im\/Getty Images Kawhi Leonard’s next chapter with the Toronto Raptors comes with a hefty price tag. The two-time NBA champion signed a two-year, $115 million contract extension on Tuesday, locking him in through 2027-28 with a player option for one more season. The deal closes out months of quiet talks that dragged on while Leonard dealt with fallout from the Los Angeles Clippers’ salary cap scandal.Leonard has battled knee and ankle trouble through much of his career, and the injury history is already shaping how NBA insiders view the contract. Analysts on ESPN wasted no time questioning whether Toronto just took on a massive risk.<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard secures a stunning $115M contract extension with Toronto Raptors<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard is officially back in Toronto, and the numbers show the Raptors are serious about keeping him there. The two-time Finals MVP agreed to the two-year extension after ESPN’s Shams Charania reported the update through Leonard’s agent, Harrison Gaines of SLASH Sports. The deal pushes the $115 million star’s full Raptors package to three years and $165 million, with the added player option for 2028-29.”Toronto Raptors All-NBA star Kawhi Leonard has agreed on a two-year, $115 million contract extension with the franchise, plus a player option for the 2028-29 season, his agent Harrison Gaines of SLASH Sports tells ESPN,” ESPN’s Shams Charania shared.Leonard is set to earn $50.3 million in 2026-27 before his pay jumps the following season. Toronto and the forward reportedly stayed in steady contact about his long-term plans ever since the July trade brought him back to the franchise, and the expectation now is that he wants to finish his career there. Family plays into that decision too. Leonard’s son was born in the city, and the star has said as much himself. “My son was born here,” Leonard said, explaining why the reunion felt right.<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Tim MacMahon issues striking questions on Kawhi Leonard’s $115M contract<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Tim MacMahon pointed out that Leonard has never finished a full 82-game season, and over the last nine years he has cleared 70 appearances just once. Load management has followed him for years because of recurring knee and ankle issues, and MacMahon does not think the new deal erases that risk.”Let’s not act like this is not a massive risk,” MacMahon said on ESPN’s NBA Today. He noted Leonard has topped 60 games only three times in nine seasons, one of which came during his lone title run in Toronto.For comparison, MacMahon called Kevin Durant’s two-year, $90 million extension a far more modest deal, pointing out Leonard is making $25 million more for a player entering his mid-30s with an extensive injury history. \u201cBut $115 million for a player with those durability issues, right? In his mid-30s. That is a massive contract. That’s not a discount deal. A discount deal is Kevin Durant: a two-year, $90 million extension. This is $25 million more than that,” he said.<\/p>\n

Brian Windhorst shares his honest thoughts on Kawhi Leonard’s contract<\/p>\n

Brian Windhorst is not interested in relitigating Leonard’s turbulent year with the Clippers. On ESPN, the veteran insider argued that fans should focus on what Leonard showed on the court rather than the scandal that followed him out of Los Angeles. Leonard averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and close to two steals a night last season, numbers that earned him an All-Star nod and a spot on the All-NBA Second Team.Windhorst pointed to Leonard’s fit next to Scottie Barnes, who broke out last season, as another reason for optimism in Toronto. “There is reason for the Raptors to totally celebrate having him locked in,” Windhorst said. At 35, Leonard has played 65 or more games in two of the last three seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard agrees to $115 million contract extension with Raptors. Image via: Soobum Im\/Getty Images Kawhi Leonard’s next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,99555,529,99554,99556,44223,6,99557,681,680,476,3820],"class_list":["post-841971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-raptors","tag-basketball","tag-espn-nba-analysis","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-kawhi-leonard-contract-extension","tag-kawhi-leonard-injury-issues","tag-kawhi-leonard-salary","tag-nba","tag-nba-injury-history","tag-raptors","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-torontoraptors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117320779649827231","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841971","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=841971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}