The Kawhi Leonard homecoming just hit a serious wall. The Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers had a deal in place to send Leonard back to the city where he won a championship, and now that deal is frozen in place while the league sorts out one of the messiest investigations in recent memory.
The Clippers put out a statement on Thursday confirming that the trade cannot go forward until the NBA finishes its ongoing look into Leonard’s finances. That investigation, tied to Leonard’s alleged relationship with Aspiration, has already dragged on for about ten months. Toronto did not want to eat that risk, and honestly, who could blame them?
Here is the sticking point. The league told both sides that if the trade got finalized right now, the Raptors would have to take on any penalties that come from the Clippers’ contract with Kawhi. That is a nonstarter for Toronto’s front office. Ownership is not going to sign up for punishments that stem from something they had nothing to do with.
The Clippers’ statement was direct. They said the two sides reached an agreement in principle on June 30 to send Kawhi to Toronto. Since then, the Clippers have been told the trade can only close if the Raptors’ ownership group takes on the risk of penalties tied to Kawhi’s contract. So both teams are stuck waiting on the league.
Toronto also issued a statement making it clear they still want Kawhi back. The Raptors said they remain eager to bring Kawhi back to Toronto once the investigation wraps up. That is a big deal, because a lot of people assumed this delay might kill the trade entirely.
The investigation itself is heavy stuff. The Clippers have been accused of using an outside company to funnel money to Leonard in a way that would circumvent the salary cap. The Clippers have denied any wrongdoing, and they did so again in Thursday’s statement. But denials only carry so much weight when the league is still digging.
What could happen if the NBA finds the Clippers guilty? One scary possibility is that Leonard’s contract gets voided outright. That would obviously be a nightmare for the Raptors if they were the team holding the bag when the ruling came down. It would also be a franchise-level catastrophe for the Clippers, who could face draft pick forfeitures, fines, and potentially even Adam Silver’s version of the hammer.
There have been signals recently that the investigation is nearing its final stages. That is really the only reason both teams are willing to keep the trade on ice rather than blow it up and move on. If the NBA rules quickly and clears the way, the Kawhi to Toronto move could still happen before training camp opens.
For Raptors fans, this is a cruel form of purgatory. Toronto has been trying to get back to relevance for a while, and pairing Kawhi with Scottie Barnes and the rest of the young core made a lot of sense on paper. For Clippers fans, this hold is arguably even worse. They already thought they had moved on from Kawhi, and now they get to sit through more uncertainty about their franchise’s future.
The bottom line is that neither team can move until the league moves. Everyone involved is playing the waiting game.
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.
