{"id":1040769,"date":"2026-09-03T12:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1040769\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T12:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:14:18","slug":"kawhi-leonard-raptors-trade-barely-moves-nba-futures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1040769\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard Raptors Trade Barely Moves NBA Futures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday\u2019s (Sept. 2) blockbuster news\u2014the NBA fining the Los Angeles Clippers US$30 million and stripping the team of five first-round draft picks while clearing the Toronto Raptors<\/a> to acquire Kawhi Leonard\u2014had surprisingly little impact on National Basketball Association (NBA) betting futures.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kawhi Leonard of the LA Clippers shoots a free throw against the Golden State Warriors during an NBA play-in game at Intuit Dome in Inglewood in April. (Image: Keith Birmingham\/MediaNews Group\/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t much movement as the news didn\u2019t really change anything for this upcoming season,\u201d said David Lieberman,\u00a0Pro Basketball Lead Trader at Caesars Sportsbook, based in Las Vegas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe moved the Raptors\u2019 win total up slightly since it provides some clarity on his punishment, or lack thereof, but otherwise, not much changes as a result of the league fining the Clippers and docking them draft picks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sportsbooks Anticipated Leonard Trade<\/p>\n

Caesars has the Raptors<\/a> at +2800 to win the NBA title this morning. Ahead of them are the San Antonio Spurs (+260), Oklahoma City Thunder (+290), Philadelphia 76ers (+750), New York Knicks (+800), Boston Celtics (+2000), Minnesota Timberwolves (+2200), Denver Nuggets (+2500), and the Miami Heat (+2800).<\/p>\n

The NBA announced yesterday (Sept. 2) that it would not suspend Leonard or void his contract after the salary-cap circumvention investigation into the Clippers. However, the NBA fined Leonard $700,000.<\/p>\n

A trade between the Raptors and Clippers on June 30 saw the Raptors acquire Leonard in exchange for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two future first-round picks, two second-round picks, and a first-round pick swap.<\/p>\n

Raptors Futures Move Slightly<\/p>\n

Raptors management later announced they were putting the trade on hold due to the NBA\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n

Christian Cipollini, senior trading manager at BetMGM, said after the news broke yesterday (Sept. 2), BetMGM trimmed Raptors championship futures odds from +3300 to +3000. Clippers odds stayed the same, at +75000.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a betting perspective, it doesn\u2019t change too much for this year,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were already operating as if the trade would go through and just made a small tweak to the futures now that it appears it will. All of the extra stuff is obviously a big deal, but for the 2026\/27 season [odds] will mostly be the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clippers Odds Remain Unchanged<\/p>\n

Aaron Oster, Circa Sports marketing manager, also said their oddsmakers assumed the Leonard trade would go through.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yesterday (Sept. 2), the Raptors were +2400 to win the NBA championship at Circa, +825 to win the Eastern Conference, and +580 to win the Atlantic Division. The Clippers were +25000 to win the championship. Those odds haven\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n

FanDuel\u2019s NBA championship futures, post news: Oklahoma City (+230), San Antonio (+280), New York (+950), Philadelphia (+1000), Boston (+1400), and Toronto (+2200).<\/p>\n

NBA Imposes Major Penalties<\/p>\n

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and president of business operations Gillian Zucker were suspended for one year. President of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was suspended for six months.<\/p>\n

Leonard\u2019s uncle and former business manager Dennis Robertson was banned from conducting business with NBA teams and their affiliates for five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntegrity and respect for this game are fundamental to who I am,\u201d Leonard said in a statement. \u201cI accept full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle and regret the distraction this situation has caused the fans and my family.<\/p>\n

Leonard Accepts Personal Responsibility<\/p>\n

\u201cI entered into my contract with the Clippers as well as the agreements in question in good faith, fully committed to fulfilling my obligations and with no knowledge of any intent on anyone\u2019s part to circumvent the salary cap.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 15 years, my priority has been giving everything to my family, the game and those I share the court with. As I return to Toronto, I am focused on what I can control, closing this chapter, and moving forward with a clean slate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard now joins a Raptors lineup led by Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Collin Murray-Boyles, and Immanuel Quickley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday\u2019s (Sept. 2) blockbuster news\u2014the NBA fining the Los Angeles Clippers US$30 million and stripping the team of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1040770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[3370,2184,1260,160919,288683,62,3126,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1040769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-las-vegas","tag-nba","tag-nba-betting","tag-nba-odds","tag-sports","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117207059197381631","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1040770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1040769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1040769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}