Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors' Bold Move for NBA Relevance

Kawhi Leonard is still, officially, a Los Angeles Clipper. Training camp is less than three weeks away. The paperwork isn’t done. The suspensions and fines are still fresh. The NBA’s cap-circumvention investigation has left Steve Ballmer’s franchise stripped of five draft picks, docked $30 million and facing lengthy bans for its most powerful figures.

And yet, in Toronto, there isn’t much panic. Only anticipation.

The expectation around the league remains that Leonard will be a Raptor again, with Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick heading to Los Angeles. The holdup is procedural: the Clippers must appoint a team governor and a new top basketball executive to sign off on a deal that was agreed to on June 30 and has sat in limbo ever since.

The irony is sharp. Ballmer’s organization is hammered for the phony endorsement deals that funnelled millions to Leonard, the player himself walks away with a $700,000 fine and a clear path to a lucrative extension in Toronto, and the Clippers — desperate for picks — are left to accept the best (and only) serious offer on the table.

Toronto is sending two unprotected firsts, a first-round swap and two seconds. No one else was willing to go that far for a 35-year-old star who has made it clear the team he wants to extend with is the Raptors. No one is emptying the cupboard for a one-year rental.

There’s another layer here. Trent Redden, the Clippers general manager and the presumed lead decision-maker with Lawrence Frank suspended for six months, is the same executive who steered the Leonard-Raptors talks in the first place. The relationships are built. The framework is in place.

The deal is still expected to happen. The date on the press release is the only mystery.

From Cleveland heartbreak to a giant swing

The last time we saw the Raptors, they were walking off the floor in Cleveland, beaten in Game 7 of a first-round series that turned into a statement of intent.

They had fallen behind 0-2 to a heavily favoured Cavaliers team that went on to reach the Eastern Conference finals. They did it without Immanuel Quickley, sidelined by a hamstring issue, and with leading scorer Brandon Ingram hobbling on an ankle that eventually needed surgery and struggling to handle the physical defence thrown at him.

It was a disappointment, yes. It was also a glimpse of something more.

Toronto had won 46 games in the regular season, punched back from a deep series hole and pushed a contender to the brink while missing their point guard and relying on a compromised No. 1 option. It hinted that this group was closer to relevance than most believed.

The front office saw enough. They didn’t nibble at the edges. They went almost all-in.

Leonard, the architect of the franchise’s lone championship run, is the bet. The Raptors are trying to keep pace with, and maybe overtake, a suddenly brutal Eastern Conference.

Training camp opens Sept. 29 in Quebec City. Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Miami Heat arrive for the first pre-season game on Oct. 3. The runway is short. The stakes are not.

Can this team win it all?

That’s the obvious question when you push chips in for a 35-year-old with a medical file as thick as Leonard’s. Since 2017-18, he has played in just 56 per cent of his team’s games. Trading for him and extending him screams one thing: win now.

The problem? Everyone else in the East seems to have heard the same message.

The New York Knicks just steamrolled their way to a title and open the season as favourites. The Philadelphia 76ers somehow walked out of free agency with LeBron James, then swung a trade for Jaylen Brown and added depth everywhere. The Heat landed Antetokounmpo. Boston and Cleveland still loom. The Indiana Pacers, Eastern Conference champions in 2025, get Tyrese Haliburton back and expect to rejoin the fight.

Detroit just won 60 games. Atlanta, Orlando, Charlotte, even the revamped Washington Wizards — they’re all chasing playoff spots. Last year, the Raptors fattened up on soft opponents. Those nights will be scarce now.

An NBA title? A Finals berth? That’s a towering bar, even if Leonard reproduces his Clippers form. A top-four seed in this version of the East would be a significant, and realistic, achievement.

Who’s the best player now?

Instinct says Leonard. He’s coming off one of his finest seasons, averaging a career-high 27.9 points for the Clippers and earning all-NBA honours for the seventh time.

But Scottie Barnes has kicked the door down.

The 24-year-old earned first-team all-defence for the first time last season and then detonated in the playoffs. Against Cleveland, he averaged 24.1 points, 8.6 assists, 6.1 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 1.1 steals over seven games. He played with a relentless, all-court ferocity that screamed all-NBA potential and nudged his name toward future MVP conversations if he can sustain that level.

If Leonard repeats his production from last year and Barnes still has a case as the Raptors’ best player, Toronto becomes a problem for everyone.

The highs: November heat and an RJ bounce for the ages

For the first time in years, the Raptors had a season with genuine peaks.

They ripped off nine straight wins and a 13-of-14 heater in November that effectively set their trajectory. They reached the NBA Cup quarterfinals. They went into Oklahoma City in January and beat the defending champion Thunder on the road. They swept a two-game, baseball-style set against the Heat at Scotiabank Arena in April, a decisive push toward a top-five seed. They returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2021-22.

One moment stands above the rest.

Game 6, first round, back home against Cleveland. Season on the line. Overtime. Mississauga’s own RJ Barrett rises on the right wing. His three hits the back rim, rockets up, hangs in the air like it’s thinking about it, then drops straight through with 1.2 seconds left.

The building erupts. The shot saves the season and instantly draws comparisons to Leonard’s four-bounce dagger against Philadelphia in 2019. Different stakes, different round, same sense that the laws of physics briefly bent in Toronto’s favour.

The lows: elite-company problems and a fading centre

There weren’t many true valleys.

A 1-4 start with a couple of heavy losses put everyone on edge. November’s surge erased that. The more worrying pattern came against the league’s best. Toronto finished 1-12 against the top four teams in the East and 1-11 against the top six in the West.

The playoff fight in Cleveland soothed some of that concern. Leonard’s arrival should address more. But those numbers are a reminder: this team still has to prove it can trade blows with the elite over 82 games.

Then there’s Jakob Poeltl.

The veteran centre began battling back issues in training camp, never found his rhythm and appeared in only 46 games. When he did play, he rarely resembled the steady, high-IQ anchor the Raptors thought they’d locked in. His postseason was worse. He slipped to the fringes of the rotation, often watching key moments from the bench.

Poeltl turns 31 next month. His three-year, $84 million extension doesn’t even start until this season. His decline was the most troubling subplot of the year.

New faces, familiar frame

Strip away Leonard and the Raptors will look much the same.

Darko Rajakovic returns for his fourth season with a largely intact staff. The notable addition is Stephen Silas, the well-regarded former head coach who replaces James Wade on the bench.

Once the Leonard trade is finalized, Toronto will sit on 13 guaranteed contracts. With the deal pushing them close to the $209 million first apron and hard-capping them, the front office is unlikely to carry more than 14 players.

Rookie Allen Graves turned heads at Summer League in Las Vegas with his all-around game. Veteran Kyle Anderson arrives to absorb some of the leadership load Garrett Temple carried so naturally — only Anderson, who turns 33 this month, can still contribute real minutes.

Who’s gone?

Assuming the Leonard trade closes, Ingram and Dick will be Clippers.

On paper, that’s a heavy price. Ingram made the All-Star team and led Toronto in scoring. In reality, if Leonard plays 60 to 65 games and is healthy when it matters, the gap between the two is massive. Leonard is superior across almost every facet of the game, and Ingram brought his own injury concerns even in a season when he set a personal high in minutes.

Dick never built on a promising second year. By the playoffs, he’d been leapfrogged in the rotation by Ja’Kobe Walter, Jamison Battle and even two-way guard AJ Lawson. At 22, well-liked and clearly in need of a reset, he should get opportunities on a rebuilding Clippers team.

Temple has made official what he did informally in Toronto, moving into an assistant coaching role in Dallas. Big-man specialist Mike Batiste has gone back to Europe as an assistant with his old EuroLeague club. Lawson heads overseas too, still chasing the full-time NBA spot that eluded him over four seasons.

Who breaks out next?

The obvious candidate is the guy who already started to.

Walter’s third year could be a launching pad if he carries over his post-All-Star surge. In 27 games off the bench, he averaged nearly 10 points, drilled 47.6 per cent from three and swiped 42 steals. His defence is trending in the right direction. If the shooting is real, he raises Toronto’s floor as a high-impact, low-usage wing in a deep rotation.

Then there’s Collin Murray-Boyles.

The second-year big man was arguably the Raptors’ second-best player in the playoffs and an impact defender all season, even while dealing with multiple thumb injuries. Give him a healthy hand and another year of experience, and he doesn’t just lift the floor — he might raise the ceiling.

Who feels the heat?

Start with Rajakovic.

For three years, he’s coached a team in flux: stripping down, rebuilding, overachieving as an upstart. Those days are over. With Leonard in the room, Barnes entering his sixth season and a projected starting five earning $173 million, the honeymoon is done. This is a win-now roster. Every rotation choice, every late-game decision, will be judged against that standard.

Quickley isn’t far behind.

He was the centrepiece of the trade that sent OG Anunoby to the Knicks. Barrett, the other headliner in that deal, has flourished in Toronto. Quickley has not. He’s been fine, not transformative, and he’s been hurt too often.

Anunoby already owns a ring. If the Raptors plan to chase another, they need Quickley to be more than a streaky shooter. They need him to run an offence that expects to play in May and June.

Circle these dates

The calendar delivers drama early.

On Nov. 2, the Raptors visit the Intuit Dome for Leonard’s return to face the Clippers. The reception will be icy. His time in Los Angeles cost the franchise 10 first-round picks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and yielded only one thin Western Conference finals run. Boos are inevitable.

The twist? Toronto plays the Clippers on the second night of a back-to-back. Load management jokes write themselves.

November doesn’t ease up. The Knicks, fresh off a championship, come to Scotiabank Arena for consecutive games on Nov. 15 and 17. On Nov. 20, the Raptors travel to Detroit for a group-stage NBA Cup game that could decide whether they advance to the knockout round.

Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs arrive Dec. 16. LeBron and the Sixers roll in on Jan. 10. Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder visit March 10. The schedule is littered with measuring sticks.

No more No. 7

One night, though, will belong to the past as much as the present.

On Jan. 10, before that game against Philadelphia, Kyle Lowry’s No. 7 will rise to the rafters at Scotiabank Arena. The "GROAT" — greatest Raptor of all time — becomes the second player in franchise history to have his number retired, joining Vince Carter’s No. 15.

The ceremony caps a full-blown Lowry celebration. On Sept. 18, a celebrity golf tournament. A block party at Jurassic Park. A fundraising gala on Sept. 19. All of it for the point guard who left as the franchise leader in assists, steals, three-pointers, wins and playoff wins.

By the time that banner settles into place, Leonard should be back in a Raptors jersey, Barnes should be deep into another leap, and Toronto should know whether this bold, expensive gamble has put them back among the NBA’s true heavyweights — or simply raised the volume on the questions that follow.