The continued delay of Kawhi Leonard’s trade from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Toronto Raptors has become a mystery around the NBA, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic.
More than a week after the NBA announced its findings and penalties in the historic salary-cap circumvention case involving Leonard and the Clippers, the trade still has not been officially completed. Amick reported Wednesday that the Raptors, Leonard’s camp and the representatives of other players involved in the deal remain confident the transaction will go through soon.
“the reasons for the continued delay, it’s safe to say, have become a bit of a mystery to people involved in the process and around the league,” Amick wrote, citing league sources who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Leonard is already with his new teammates in an unofficial capacity. The 35-year-old has joined the Raptors for a minicamp-style retreat in Miami this week, although he has been limited to individual workouts because the trade has not yet become official.
According to Amick, the Clippers have indicated that the impact of the NBA’s disciplinary action on their front-office structure is responsible for the delay.
The NBA suspended Clippers owner Steve Ballmer for one year and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank for six months without pay following its investigation. President of business operations Gillian Zucker also received a one-year unpaid suspension.
The league determined that the Clippers and Leonard violated salary-cap circumvention rules after the organization initiated and facilitated off-court income opportunities between Leonard and four companies doing business with the team: Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance.
Los Angeles was fined $30 million and stripped of its first-round picks in the 2029 through 2033 NBA Drafts. Leonard was fined $700,000, while his former business manager Dennis Robertson received a five-year ban from conducting business with NBA teams and affiliates on behalf of players or league personnel.
The NBA did not void Leonard’s contract or suspend him, removing the most significant potential obstacle to completing the trade. Shams Charania said on September 2 that “all systems are a go” and that everything was on track for Leonard to be traded to Toronto.
Leonard also accepted responsibility for lapses in judgment by people in his inner circle while maintaining that he entered his Clippers contract and the related agreements in good faith. The Clippers, meanwhile, have disputed the NBA’s findings and argued that the investigation did not meet standards of due process and fairness.
The delay is particularly notable because the Clippers and Raptors had agreed to the trade on June 30. Los Angeles is set to receive Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-round picks, a pick swap and two second-round picks for Leonard.
Leonard’s departure ends a seven-year Clippers tenure in which he averaged 20.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists over 366 regular-season games, including 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 65 games last season.
He earned All-NBA Second Team honors and finished seventh in MVP voting in 2025-26 as the Clippers went 42-40 and finished ninth in the Western Conference.
A return to Toronto would reunite Leonard with the franchise he led to its first NBA championship in 2019. He averaged 26.6 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists during that championship season.
