Kawhi Leonard didn't want to join the Toronto Raptors in 2018. At that point, the then-San Antonio Spurs star was hoping to force his way back to his native Southern California. He was traded north of the border effectively as a one-year detour. He won a championship with the Raptors, but immediately signed with the Los Angeles Clippers as a free agent in the summer of 2019.
It was inarguably the most successful rental trade in NBA history, but it was still a rental trade. Teams rarely want to give up substantial assets for players who are not willing to commit to playing for them long-term. With Leonard on an expiring contract, the fear that he could possibly leave again as a 2027 free agent will inevitably limit his market. On Thursday, Marc Stein and Jake Fischer reported that Leonard was only interested in extending with two possible destinations: his former teams, the Raptors and the Spurs.
Well, now, according to Fischer, the Raptors and Clippers have indeed held "real" trade conversations involving Leonard moving back to Canada. The exact return package, for now, is not clear, but Fischer noted a preference in sending Brandon Ingram back to Los Angeles instead of RJ Barrett as part of the necessary matching salary.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer reportedly does not want to trade Leonard. However, a deal makes plenty of sense on paper after the Clippers started a youth movement by trading James Harden for Darius Garland and Ivica Zubac for Bennedict Mathurin and a collection of draft picks. The Clippers still owe control over their first-round draft picks through 2029 thanks to the deal that got them Harden originally, so adding future draft capital should be a priority.
While the Clippers have maintained their innocence, it is worth remembering that the NBA is investigating the sponsorship agreement between Leonard and Aspiration for possible cap circumvention. If the Clippers are found to be guilty, they could lose more draft picks.
The Raptors control all of their own first-round picks moving forward. They could potentially offer as many as four first-round picks and three first-round swaps for Leonard, though the final price would surely be lower than that since he is about to turn 35 and has a lengthy history of injuries. The Clippers will probably ask for Collin Murray-Boyles, a breakout rookie from last season, but the Raptors will almost certainly keep him out of the deal as a necessary piece for next year's roster and beyond. Settling on appropriate asset value through draft picks should be doable.
The bigger question here relates to salary. The Raptors have very limited room beneath the first apron. If they were to make a trade in which they take in more money than they send out, they will be hard-capped there. Any trade in which Barrett's expiring deal is the primary outgoing salary would almost certainly do that, limiting Toronto in building any depth around Leonard.
Realistically, the Clippers are going to need to take back one of Ingram, Immanuel Quickley or Jakob Poeltl, all on less-than-desirable long-term deals, to make this work. The goal for the Raptors would, presumably, be to send out more money than the $50.3 million they'd be taking in with Leonard so that they could instead trigger a second-apron hard cap and have more room to build out their roster.
The Raptors, it seems, are hoping to make Ingram that salary, and that makes sense for both sides. Ingram could replace Leonard at small forward for the Clippers. He is not nearly as valuable, but he's a reigning All-Star scorer at the position and could at least help Los Angeles win some regular-season games as they wait out the draft picks they owe other teams. Nonetheless, if the Clippers view the $82 million or so that Ingram is owed over the next two seasons as bad money, they will demand extra capital to take it.
The Raptors are coming off a surprisingly successful season. Scottie Barnes had a career year, and they won 46 games en route to the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference. Despite a variety of injuries to players like Ingram and Quickley, the Raptors managed to push the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games in the first round. Clearly, Toronto believes it is ready to make a leap into genuine Eastern Conference contention, and while Leonard's age and injury history represent risks, he is the best single player available this offseason. If they can swing a deal to bring him back, they'll immediately become one of the biggest threats in the conference to the defending NBA champion New York Knicks.
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