Kawhi Leonard trade: The Raptors are taking a risk that paid off once before. Why not again?

Everyone loves a good reunion, and Kawhi Leonard is returning to the Toronto Raptors.

When last we saw Leonard sporting dinosaurs, in his lone season in Toronto, he led the Raptors on a magical run to the 2019 NBA championship, the franchise’s first-ever title.

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It had cost them DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a first-round draft pick (Keldon Johnson), and it was worth every penny, because they won. But Leonard did immediately leave Toronto at the altar in 2019 free agency, choosing instead to team with Paul George on their hometown Los Angeles Clippers, where controversy ensued over seven years.

Leonard, in coordination with the Clippers, remains under investigation by the NBA for allegedly circumventing the salary cap. A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by Pablo Torre uncovered an alleged no-show job that earned Leonard an additional $50 million.

Leonard received $291.7 million from the Clippers, and allegedly more, over seven years. He is owed $50.3 million this coming season and presumably wants much more. As Chris Haynes reported, Leonard is already working on a two-year contract extension in Toronto.

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Beyond the controversy, though, there is plenty of injury concern about Leonard. He left the San Antonio Spurs in 2019 with what was termed as right quadriceps tendinopathy, a chronic condition in his leg. But the Raptors gambled and managed the then-27-year-old, who delivered 60 games in the regular season and 24 even better ones in the playoffs.

Leonard was phenomenal in the 2019 postseason, averaging a 31-9-4 on 49/38/88 shooting splits, defeating Joel Embiid’s Philadelphia 76ers (thanks to a buzzer-beating Game 7 winner from Leonard), Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks and Stephen Curry’s dynastic (albeit injury-plagued) Golden State Warriors en route to his second Finals MVP award. (He also took home the honor in 2014, when his Spurs won the title.)

Was that lightning in a bottle? Due to injury, Leonard missed 40% of the Clippers’ regular-season games and 30% of their playoff games in his seven seasons, including their only trip to a conference finals in 2021, when his right…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/kawhi-leonard-trade-the-raptors-are-taking-a-risk-that-paid-off-once-before-why-not-again-221901262.html

Author : Ben Rohrbach

Publish date : 2026-06-30 22:19:00

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