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TORONTO — On Monday evening, the Toronto Raptors posted two words on social media: “He back.” The photo that followed showed Kawhi Leonard in the familiar No. 2 jersey, the same jersey he wore when he sent Toronto into a citywide delirium seven years ago with a buzzer-beater that bounced four times before deciding the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The NBA approved the trade on September 14, formally completing the deal the Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers had agreed on months earlier but could not close while the league’s cap circumvention investigation remained open. That investigation concluded with the largest franchise penalty in NBA history: five stripped first-round picks, a $30 million fine, and yearlong suspensions for owner Steve Ballmer and two executives. With its resolution, the last obstacle cleared. Leonard is a Raptor again for the first time since the summer he chose not to stay.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Kawhi back to Toronto,” said Raptors general manager Bobby Webster. “His impact on our organization, our city, and our country is undeniable, and he embodies the competitiveness and championship mindset that we value.”
The trade had been sitting in an unusual half-existence since June: agreed to by both franchises, reported across the league, but technically incomplete while league investigators worked through the salary cap case that had accumulated around the Clippers and their star. Kawhi Leonard had been photographed training alone in Miami while waiting for a situation he could not control. A team that wanted him, a franchise that had paid to get him, and a league investigation standing between all of it. That particular kind of limbo ended Monday, CTV News reported.
The resolution of that investigation cleared the way once the NBA handed down its record franchise penalty against the Clippers. Within 12 days of that ruling, Leonard had a new uniform and a new city.
What the Raptors gave up to bring this to resolution is substantial. The trade package to Los Angeles includes Brandon Ingram, guard Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, a 2027 first-round pick swap, and two second-round selections. Those are assets from the future inventory of a franchise that has not won a championship since Leonard himself delivered one. The Raptors, after months of watching the deal stall while Leonard trained alone, paid that price to make it final.
Toronto’s bet is on the version of Leonard who appeared last season, a player who gave the Clippers 65 games, his healthiest stretch since 2019. Sixty-five games, for Leonard, is a number that arrives with caveats: he missed most of two seasons with a torn ACL, missed another entirely with a knee procedure, and has played more than 60 games in a season only three times across an eleven-year career. But 65 games last season was a signal that the worst of that history may be behind him, or at least more manageable.
The roster he returns to is different in kind from the one he left. The Raptors of 2019, with Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol, Pascal Siakam, and the championship core that followed his buzzer-beater through two more rounds, no longer exist in any form on this team. In their place is Scottie Barnes, 24, the cornerstone of Toronto’s next chapter. Barnes is still developing: capable of defending multiple positions, with an expanding offensive game and the athletic foundation that sustains long careers. He is what the Raptors need to grow alongside a player who has already won everything the league offers.
The NBA’s approval on September 14 also resolved the status of the two-year extension both sides were expected to finalize once the trade cleared, worth approximately $124 million and running through the 2028-29 season. That extension had waited alongside everything else, caught in the same administrative pause as the trade itself. With league approval in hand, both the trade and the extension move forward.
Leonard’s words from earlier in the process were characteristically brief. “As I return to Toronto,” he said, “I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate.” He leaves a franchise absorbing five first-round picks’ worth of consequence for his time there. He arrives in one that paid a decade of draft capital to bring him back. Yahoo Sports reported the Raptors completed the paperwork Monday evening before making the announcement public.
What Monday’s league approval established is not whether the Raptors can win a championship. It established only that the question is now officially theirs to answer. The preseason begins October 3. Leonard will play his first game in Toronto since 2019 in a city that spent seven years wondering what might have been if the next chapter had started here instead of Los Angeles.
