The Kawhi Leonard trade to Toronto is officially back on the tracks. Shams Charania reported Wednesday that Leonard is expected to be a Raptor within the next few days, ending a months-long freeze on the deal.
The trade had been agreed to in June but got shelved while the NBA investigated the Clippers for using fake endorsement money to funnel extra cash to Leonard. That investigation ended ugly for the Clippers.
The league docked LA five first-round picks, hit them with a $30 million fine, and suspended multiple high-ranking officials. Leonard himself was not suspended and his contract stayed intact.
Toronto is sending Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, and future picks to the Clippers for the two-time Finals MVP. On talent alone, the Raptors just added the guy who won them a championship in 2019. That is the same guy who is now 35 with famously fragile knees.
Here is the thing though. Toronto has been stuck in the mud for years. Even a limited Kawhi playing 55 games instantly makes them a top-six seed in the East. He also gives Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett a real closer for the first time in their careers.
The Clippers, meanwhile, are the biggest losers of the entire summer. They lost their franchise player, five first-rounders, thirty million in cash, and any goodwill they had left with the league office. Steve Ballmer paid a fortune for a team that is now capped out around a Kawhi-less core with no draft equity.
Ingram in a Clippers uniform is a fine consolation, but he is not a top option on a playoff team. Gradey Dick is a shooter and nothing more at this stage. That is a rough return for a top-15 player.
The bigger story is what this signals league-wide. The NBA has been telegraphing for years that it would drop the hammer on cap circumvention, and it just did. Every front office paying attention should be tearing up any handshake deals with agents right now.
For Toronto fans, this is the biggest moment for the franchise since the 2019 title run. Kawhi returning to the city that celebrated him harder than anywhere else has a certain full-circle quality that is hard to ignore.
Whether his body cooperates is a separate question. But the Raptors just got aggressive in a way they have not been in half a decade, and the Clippers just got taught a lesson the whole league will remember.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.