So \u2026 when will the LA Clippers\u2019 Kawhi Leonard finally join the Toronto Raptors and put an end to his controversial Clippers tenure?<\/p>\n
With a week having passed since the NBA came down hard on the Clippers with its ruling in the historic salary-cap circumvention case<\/a> centered on the 35-year-old small forward, that remains to be seen, but the reasons for the continued delay, it\u2019s safe to say, have become a bit of a mystery to people involved in the process and around the league. League sources in this story spoke on a condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the subject publicly.<\/p>\n As a reminder, the Clippers agreed to the deal that would give them Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-rounders, two first-round pick swaps and a second-round pick for Leonard\u00a0in late June<\/a>. It was paused by Toronto on July 9, when the Raptors\u2019 concern about the potential impact of the NBA\u2019s discipline on Leonard compelled them to wait for the verdict, but now, it seems, it\u2019s the Clippers who are holding up the process.<\/p>\n Per league sources, the Raptors, Leonard\u2019s camp and the camps of other prominent players in the trade remain very confident it will go through soon. Leonard, it should be noted, is known to be with his Raptors teammates (in an unofficial capacity) on a retreat of sorts in Miami this week, but according to multiple league sources, the Clippers have indicated the impact of the league\u2019s discipline on their front-office structure is the reason for the delay.<\/p>\n The Kawhi Saga: What the NBA’s investigation into the Clippers revealed<\/p>\n Mike Vorkunov and Jeshua Kidd<\/p>\n Their longtime president of basketball operations, Lawrence Frank, was suspended without pay for six months as part of the NBA\u2019s decision. The widespread belief was Clippers general manager Trent Redden would fill that role, but the team has not publicly revealed its plans. The Stein Line Substack was first to report on the reason for the trade delay.<\/p>\n If the deal goes down in the next day or so, none of this will ultimately matter, but given the Clippers\u2019 intense response<\/a> to the league\u2019s ruling, and how owner Steve Ballmer has made it abundantly clear he intends to fight back by whatever means necessary, it\u2019s fair to wonder what might come next here.<\/p>\n Especially considering the role Leonard played in the process.<\/p>\n Though the 35-page report from the law firm that led to the investigation indicated Leonard earned $18 million through avenues that were deemed in breach of the league\u2019s collective bargaining agreement, he was only ordered to pay $700,000 to the NBA as a punishment. The Clippers, meanwhile, were hit with a $30 million fine, had five first-round draft picks revoked, saw Ballmer suspended for a year, and (in addition to Frank) longtime business president Gillian Zucker suspended for a year without pay. As The Athletic detailed here<\/a>, the Clippers\u2019 chance at taking the arbitration route was eliminated by the National Basketball Players Association\u2019s choice to agree with the NBA on the ruling.<\/p>\n Still, all signs continue to point to the trade\u2019s going down \u2026 eventually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So \u2026 when will the LA Clippers\u2019 Kawhi Leonard finally join the Toronto Raptors and put an end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4725,996,48,1287],"class_list":["post-201455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-nba","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201455","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=201455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}