Kawhi Leonard Trade: Raptors One Step Away from Blockbuster Deal

The trade that has hovered over the NBA summer like a storm cloud is finally on the verge of breaking.

Nearly three months after the framework first surfaced, the Toronto Raptors are a step away from bringing Kawhi Leonard back to Canada, a move the franchise believes can shove them back into the league’s elite. The deal is not yet official — there has been no formal trade call with league lawyers — but the last meaningful obstacles have been cleared.

On Sunday, Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer confirmed he would not fight the severe sanctions handed down by the league for salary cap violations tied to Leonard’s last contract. That decision effectively removed the largest piece of uncertainty surrounding Leonard’s status and any team attempting to trade for him.

Leonard himself has also done his part to push the move over the line. The 35-year-old has agreed to repay $700,000 (U.S.) in improperly gained money from those cap-contravention deals and, more significantly, has signed off on waiving a trade kicker in his current contract, according to sources granted anonymity because the trade is not yet official.

That concession is not small. Forgoing the trade bonus strips nearly $8 million from Leonard’s 2025-26 salary, a major personal financial hit that was required to wedge the transaction under the league’s tightened salary-cap rules. Even with that, the Raptors will sit hard against the first apron, a line that restricts sign-and-trade manoeuvres, the use of existing trade exceptions and the salary-matching flexibility in future deals.

The price, though, has never changed.

Toronto is set to acquire Leonard from the Clippers in exchange for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, second-rounders in 2030 and 2033, and a potential swap of 2027 first-round picks. The structure remains exactly as it was in June, a blockbuster frozen in place while the league untangled the Clippers’ rule-breaking.

The only thing missing now is the final phone call.

As of Monday evening, the trade call had not been scheduled, but that can be arranged in minutes once the league office, the Raptors and the Clippers are ready. The delay has never been about the basketball value. It has been about risk.

Toronto needed clarity on whether Leonard might face suspension or even see his contract voided as a result of the investigation into Los Angeles’ cap conduct. When the league dropped the hammer on the Clippers — suspensions for Ballmer and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank, a $30-million fine and the forfeiture of five first-round draft picks — the shock inside that organization slowed everything. The franchise had to stabilize before it could rubber-stamp sending out its star.

Those internal aftershocks have now settled. The league’s board of governors convened in New York on Sunday for two days of meetings, a backdrop that sharpened focus on one of the most anticipated trades of the offseason. With penalties accepted and terms unchanged, the path for Leonard’s return to Toronto is finally clear.

Once the deal becomes official, the Raptors’ work only intensifies.

Leonard will be eligible immediately for extension talks on a new deal that would begin in the 2027-28 season and could reach roughly $126 million over two years. That contract would keep him in Toronto through the end of the 2028-29 campaign, anchoring a roster that has been searching for a true top-tier star since his original departure.

There is nuance in those negotiations, too. Toronto can push for protections on the back end, including the possibility that the second year of the extension is not fully guaranteed. That would offer the club some insulation against age, injury or decline while still delivering Leonard the kind of commitment befitting a franchise-altering player.

For now, the story sits in that familiar modern NBA limbo: agreed, constructed, dissected, but not yet stamped. The Raptors know what waits on the other side of the paperwork — a reunion with the player who delivered their lone championship and a bet that, even at 35, he can still tilt the league’s balance.

All that’s left is a phone call that could redefine the next chapter of basketball in Toronto.