After 2 ½ months of waiting, Kawhi Leonard is finally heading back to Toronto.
The Clippers and Raptors agreed to complete the trade sending Leonard to Toronto for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round draft picks (2031 and 2033), one first-round draft pick swap (2027) and two second-round picks.
ESPN first reported the two sides were moving forward with the deal.
The Clippers and Raptors still have to schedule a trade call with the league for the transaction to become official.
The trade falling into place came not even 24 hours after Clippers owner Steve Ballmer issued a statement Sunday evening saying he has “sincere regrets” and apologized to fans in the wake of the NBA punishing his franchise for circumventing the league’s salary cap by “initiating off-court income opportunities” for Leonard with four different companies.
The league dropped staggering punishments on the Clippers, fining the franchise $30 million, suspending Ballmer for one year and stripping the franchise of five first-round draft picks on Sept 2.
President of business operations Gillian Zucker (one year) and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank (six months) were also suspended for their roles in the scandal.
Ballmer didn’t explicitly apologize for the the Clippers’ cap circumvention, stating “there are still disagreements concerning the findings in the report” but that the franchise was complying with the penalties after the franchise initially issued a statement saying it “vehemently reject the NBA’s findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence.”
With the main leaders of the Clippers’ front office not permitted to be involved with the franchise, general manager Trent Redden led the Clippers in getting the trade over the finish line.
On June 30, two months before the NBA announced the penalties for the Clippers’ violations of the league’s salary cap rules, the Clippers agreed to trade Leonard to the Raptors for Ingram, Dick and the aforementioned draft picks.
The trade was put on hold on July 9 amidst the NBA’s investigation of the Clippers-Leonard scandal, with the Raptors stating it was going to wait until the league’s investigation was complete since they would’ve assumed the risk for any potential outcome of the investigation impacting Leonard.
Leonard was in South Florida last week as part of an organized minicamp with Raptors players, but was a limited participant because the trade wasn’t official yet.
The Clippers and Raptors have been able to co-submit the trade for league approval for it to become an official transaction for a while now, and they finally pulled the trigger Monday, 13 days after the league punished the Clippers.
The trade is being complete amidst federal prosecutors opening a criminal investigation into the franchise over allegations it circumvented the NBA’s salary cap.
It wasn’t clear what possible crimes federal prosecutors are investigating, or which people are the target of the federal inquiry. It also wasn’t clear whether criminal charges would come from the investigation.
The Department of Justice is the second government entity to investigate the Clippers-Leonard scandal.
Daktronics acting CFO Howard Atkins said during a recent earnings call with investors that the Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking information concerning the South Dakota-based company — which built the $100 million video board inside the Clippers’ Intuit Dome — and its relationship with Leonard. Daktronics, along with Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless and Lockton Insurance, was one of the four companies with endorsement deals with Leonard that were at the center of the NBA’s investigation.
Leonard was forced to pay the NBA $700,000 for restitution for improper benefits provided by the Clippers, while his uncle and former business manager, Dennis Robertson, has been banned by the NBA from all business dealings for five years.
