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It’s more than just smoke, there is a real fire — things are ramping up toward a Leonard trade.
As always, it comes down to money. While the Clippers signaled they were pivoting to a new era — trading away James Harden and Ivica Zubac at the deadline — the plan was to keep Kawhi Leonard around. Owner Steve Ballmer reportedly didn’t want to trade him… and then the sides started talking contract extension. Leonard, 35 (as of Monday, happy birthday!), will make $50.2 million this season, and the sides are far apart on what his next contract should look like. The Clippers want him to take a much larger pay cut than he is ready to coming off an All-NBA season.
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All of which pivoted to the Clippers talking about trading Leonard, with Toronto and Dallas as the frontrunners. Either way, it’s a reunion: A return to Toronto, where he led the team to a title in 2019, or Leonard reunites with the architect of that Toronto title team, Masai Ujiri, in Dallas.
Here are the latest reports on Leonard.
Kawhi Leonard fits in perfectly with the Toronto front office’s apparent effort to have everyone on the roster be between 6’6″ and 6’9″.
Toronto and the Clippers are “seriously engaged in trade talks surrounding Kawhi Leonard,” reports ESPN’s Shams Charania. Leonard is reportedly willing to sign an extension with the Raptors (something he did not do after winning the title in 2019). Undoubtedly, parallel to the trade talks, the Raptors and Leonard’s camp are working on the extension numbers, and nothing gets done until a handshake deal is in place.
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Brandon Ingram is reportedly a key player coming back to Los Angeles (although there are reports LA prefers RJ Barrett), but the Clippers will want draft assets as well. With the looming investigation into Aspiration and alleged salary cap circumvention between the Clippers and Leonard nearing its end, Los Angeles could see many of its own draft picks taken away as punishment and will need the ones it trades for.
Ingram, alongside Darius Garland, would be the kind of floor raiser Los Angeles would want as they work to retool the roster (because nobody wants…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/kawhi-leonard-trade-rumors-toronto-153755319.html
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Publish date : 2026-06-29 15:37:00
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