{"id":204551,"date":"2026-07-10T11:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T15:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=204551"},"modified":"2026-07-10T11:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T15:36:08","slug":"kawhi-leonard-trade-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/07\/10\/kawhi-leonard-trade-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard Trade Placed On Hold By Raptors As NBA Investigation Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

A two-time NBA Finals MVP, Kawhi Leonard<\/a> is on the short list of players who have won the award while playing for two different teams, winning it with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014 and the Toronto Raptors in 2019.<\/p>\n

However, injuries have sidelined him<\/a> since he joined the Clippers in 2019, fresh off his championship win in his sole year in Toronto, notably a right ACL tear, a right meniscus tear, and several others.<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard Trade Placed On Hold By Raptors As NBA Investigation Continues<\/h2>\n

Despite this, Leonard appeared in 65 games last season, averaging 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists, playing 32.1 minutes a night. He was tied for seventh in MVP<\/a> voting with Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And while news of Leonard being traded to the Raptors broke on June 30th, a recent development has become an unexpected roadblock to this transaction.<\/p>\n

So what is the latest to know about the Kawhi Leonard trade to the Raptors?<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Put On Hold<\/h3>\n

The Clippers and the Raptors agreed to a trade<\/a> that would send Brandon Ingram<\/a>, Gradey Dick<\/a>, two unprotected first-round picks (2031, 2033), a 2027 first-round pick swap, and two second-round picks (2030 and 2033) for Leonard. Both teams involved made the trade details public by the end of June.<\/p>\n

The Raptors, however, released a statement on Thursday, saying that while they “remain eager” to bring Leonard back to Toronto, they will wait until the NBA’s investigation of the Clippers’ alleged circumvention of salary cap rules is complete.<\/p>\n

“Regarding our planned trade with the LA Clippers for Kawhi Leonard, the NBA league office informed us that as a result of the ongoing investigation involving the Clippers, we would assume the risk of any potential outcome of the investigation impacting Kawhi,”\u00a0 the Clippers statement read via X<\/a>. “In light of this, we will wait until the league’s investigation is complete. The Raptors remain eager to bring Kawhi back to Toronto and look forward to a swift resolution for our players, our organization, and our fans.”<\/p>\n

The NBA informed the Raptors that the ongoing investigation into the Clippers could complicate any trade involving Leonard, according to an anonymous league source<\/a>. Despite complications, including both teams making the trade public, the NBA did not change its stance and continued the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a specific timeline for the conclusion of the investigation but expect the firm to finalize its work in the coming weeks,\u201d an NBA spokesperson told\u00a0<\/span>The Athletic yesterday.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If the investigation proves the Clippers guilty, Leonard’s contract could be voided, which is the main hurdle preventing this trade from going through.<\/p>\n

The Aspiration Investigation<\/h3>\n

Leonard and the Clippers are alleged to be involved in an under-the-table deal with an environmental company, Aspiration, to circumvent the NBA salary cap.<\/p>\n

According to reporter Pablo Torre<\/a>, Leonard agreed to a $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration through his LLC (Limited Liability Company), KL2 Aspire, in April 2022. An anonymous employee, who purportedly worked for Aspiration, told Torre that the payment to Leonard “was to circumvent the salary cap”.<\/p>\n

However, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who previously invested $50 million in Aspiration, has denied knowledge of the deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last Word On Raptors Putting Kawhi Leonard Trade On Hold<\/h3>\n

Despite the heavy cloud of the NBA’s investigation hanging over Leonard and the other players involved in the deal, it has seemingly not affected their adjustment to their new teams. Leonard was in Toronto for Kyle Lowry<\/a>‘s retirement ceremony, while Dick was brought to the Clippers’ facility in the Intuit Dome.<\/p>\n

There is much to see and many more questions to answer regarding Leonard, Ballmer, and the Clippers’ relationship with Aspiration. However, the NBA’s investigation will have a significant impact on this trade.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images via Reuters Connect<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A two-time NBA Finals MVP, Kawhi Leonard is on the short list of players who have won the award while playing for two different teams, winning it with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014 and the Toronto Raptors in 2019. However, injuries have sidelined him since he joined the Clippers in 2019, fresh off his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5724,"featured_media":204636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,27,62,3,14],"tags":[168,50509],"class_list":["post-204551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-clippers","category-nba","category-news","category-raptors","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-nba-trades"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5724"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204551"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204638,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204551\/revisions\/204638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}