{"id":133414,"date":"2026-07-17T17:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/133414\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T17:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:14:07","slug":"report-toronto-raptors-put-leonard-trade-on-hold-over-risk-of-nba-penalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/133414\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Toronto Raptors put Leonard trade on hold over risk of NBA penalties"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Raptors \u201cdecided to pause\u201d the F Kawhi Leonard trade<\/a> after learning they had to \u201ccommit in writing to assume any risk of any penalties\u201d Leonard might incur from an investigation into his Clippers contract<\/a>, according to sources cited by Doug Smith of the TORONTO STAR. The investigation involves a side deal tied to Leonard\u2019s contract with the Clippers that \u201cmay or may not have included a no-show endorsement deal that could have paid him up to $28 million\u201d from a sponsorship firm called Aspiration that had a deal with the team. It has yet to wrap up after about 10 months, and there Is \u201cno clear idea when it will be done.\u201d NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday that he \u201cstill expects a resolution \u2018this summer\u2019<\/a> but the final report from the independent law firm conducting the investigation is not finished.\u201d Smith wrote whether it is \u201csimply a case of the Raptors being alarmed at having to sign a legal document at the final moment instead of just hearing about ramifications verbally, the organization decide to slow roll the transaction.\u201d The Raptors \u201cdon\u2019t seem overly concerned at the pace of the process,\u201d and sources insist that they \u201cthink the deal as proposed will be consummated\u201d (TORONTO STAR, 7\/15<\/a>).<\/p>\n

STICKY SITUATION: In Toronto, Bruce Arthur wrote however this ends, it has \u201cbeen a long time coming.\u201d As details have been unearthed, the Clippers have \u201cprotested but one constant has remained: There has never been a single plausible explanation for this other than salary cap circumvention.\u201d That \u201cleaves Silver in a tricky spot.\u201d Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is \u201cby far the richest owner in the NBA.\u201d One has to \u201cpresume that for all the circumstantial evidence, this case lacks the smoking-gun proof of the last great cap circumvention case.\u201d The \u201cbest hope\u201d here is Silver has actually allowed the investigation to extend this far for \u201ctwo reasons: one, because Wachtell is actually getting closer to the truth on what is clearly cap circumvention amid what Silver called reluctant witnesses; and two, because Silver knows he needs as much ammunition as possible before negotiating with the richest guy in the league.\u201d Either way, a \u201cbig chunk of Silver\u2019s legacy will be written this summer\u201d (TORONTO STAR, 7\/16<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Raptors \u201cdecided to pause\u201d the F Kawhi Leonard trade after learning they had to \u201ccommit in writing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1288,37889,996,48],"class_list":["post-133414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-basketball","tag-deals","tag-nba","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}