It was seven years ago that Kawhi Leonard left the Toronto Raptors to join the Los Angeles Clippers, and he might be heading back to Canada now. The Raptors have reportedly been discussing a Leonard trade with the Clippers, and ESPN’s Shams Charania dropped an update on the situation on SportsCenter on Monday.
“Those talks are continuing,” Charania said. “They’re serious between the Clippers and the Raptors on what would bring Kawhi Leonard back to The Six, back to Toronto. And those conversations have continued today. We’ll see how the conversations go for the next few hours, potentially into tomorrow, but all signs point to these two sides being motivated… Kawhi Leonard’s tenure is nearing its end in Los Angeles.
“Been there for seven years, but he has not been given any indication that the Clippers want to give him a contract extension,” Charania stated. “He has one year and about $50 million left on his contract. So, if the Clippers are not going to give him a contract extension, there are multiple other teams out there in the marketplace that would give him a contract extension.
“He’s coming off a Second-Team All-NBA season, but as of right now, sources tell me there’s only one place that he would commit to long term, and that’s the Toronto Raptors, his former team,” Charania continued. “He’s familiar there. He won a championship there. A lot of the people that he was there with, as far as the front office side and the medical staff, they’re still there.
“And we know how important familiarity and surroundings is to Kawhi Leonard,” Charania added. “And so that is where he is looking at potentially for his next home.”
The Raptors had acquired Leonard from the San Antonio Spurs in 2018. They did everything they could to keep him happy, but while he led them to a title in 2019, he left for the Clippers right after. It was a hammer blow.
The move to the Clippers didn’t quite work out for Leonard, though. The seven-time All-Star hasn’t come close to winning a title with them and has spent a whole lot of time on the sidelines due to injury.
Leonard is now entering the final year of his three-year, $149 million deal, and Charania says the Clippers have no interest in giving him an extension. Other teams are willing, as the 35-year-old averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.9 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game in 2025-26, to make the All-NBA Second Team.
Leonard would be eligible for a two-year, $123.7 millon extension immediately after getting traded. Despite there being a lot of interest, it was previously reported that the Raptors and the Spurs were the only teams he would consider signing an extension with. The Spurs now appear to be out of the equation.
The question now is, can the Raptors agree on a deal with the Clippers? Well, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on Get Up that the two sides have agreed on the players in the deal, but not the draft capital.
“This trade could happen today,” Windhorst said. “I think the Clippers and the Raptors have agreed on player compensation. I think it’d be Brandon Ingram, based on what I am told, that would head to Los Angeles. What they have been haggling over is the draft pick compensation.”
Windhorst explained that the Raptors can trade four first-round picks, and the Clippers would want as many as they can get. Considering Leonard’s age and injury history, they’re not getting too many of those.
As for the player, Brandon Ingram is a solid piece to get back. Ingram averaged 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game for the Raptors in 2025-26. He was named an All-Star in 2026 and would become the Clippers’ new franchise centerpiece.
