Kawhi Leonard was supposed to be back in Toronto by now. Instead, the trade is frozen in place while the NBA investigates whether the Clippers used a company called Aspiration to funnel impermissible benefits to him.
The Clippers and Raptors agreed to the deal on June 30. Toronto was set to send back Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected firsts in 2031 and 2033, a 2027 first-round pick swap, and two second-round picks. It was a legitimate blockbuster. It should have been rubber-stamped once the moratorium lifted on July 6.
It was not. Both teams issued statements saying the trade cannot be completed unless Toronto’s ownership group agrees to accept the risk of any penalties tied to Leonard’s Aspiration arrangement. That is unusual language. It means the NBA is real about this investigation, and it means Toronto is being asked to sign a blank check on whatever the league decides.
The Raptors’ ownership is not going to do that without leverage. So the trade sits.
The specifics of the Aspiration situation are complicated, but the short version is that the Clippers and their ownership group have been accused of using a partnership with the company to give Leonard money outside the salary cap. The league is investigating. Draft picks and roster fines are both possibilities. If the penalties transfer with Leonard, that meaningfully changes the value of the trade.
For Toronto, the calculus is brutal. They spent June selling their fanbase on a Kawhi reunion. He led them to their only NBA championship in 2019. Getting him back was supposed to be a legacy move for the front office. Now they are stuck saying “we still want him but our owner is not signing away future picks over an investigation we cannot see.”
For the Clippers, this is also a mess. They committed to breaking up their roster to get out from under Leonard’s cap number. Ingram is a fine player, but he is not what a team building around Wembanyama in the West needs at 32.
The most likely outcome is a modified version of the trade where the picks or the penalty exposure gets renegotiated. That could take weeks. It could take months. In the meantime, both teams have to essentially plan for two different rosters.
The player caught in the middle is Leonard himself. He has been through this before. In 2018, he sat out most of the season with the Spurs before forcing a trade to Toronto. Now, on the tail end of his career, he is watching another trade get put on ice by circumstances he did not create.
The NBA needs to move quickly here or risk turning training camp into a media disaster for two franchises. Silver has been slow-walking this because the league does not want to embarrass the Clippers before it has to. But at some point, the trade either goes through, gets modified, or gets voided. All three options are possible right now.
Kawhi in a Raptors jersey is still the best outcome for basketball. Whether it actually happens is another question.
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.
