Brian Windhorst Gives Latest Update on Kawhi Leonard’s Situation Amid Clippers Punishment

Kawhi Leonard got a championship parade through the streets of Toronto that drew hundreds of thousands of fans before he left for Los Angeles. A departure that was so abrupt that Raptors fans spent years wondering if a reunion would ever be realistic. Six years later, that reunion was agreed to, on paper, and still hasn't actually happened.

On The Hoop Collective, Brian Windhorst gave the clearest signal yet on why. And what he expects to happen next.

"The trade between the Raptors and the Clippers for Kawhi Leonard has not gone through," Windhorst said. "In talking to people, I think that trade is going to go through, and I think it is going to go through as is."

Windhorst wasn't just predicting that the deal eventually closes. He's predicting that it closes without the Raptors using their newfound leverage to renegotiate terms after the league's punishment against the Clippers became public.

That has been a question since the sanctions were announced. Given that Toronto now knows more about the state of the organization it's trading for a star with than it did back in June, when the deal was first agreed upon.

The delay Windhorst addressed comes from the scale of the NBA's punishment against Los Angeles. The league found that the Clippers had circumvented the salary cap by funneling money to Leonard through no-show endorsement arrangements.

They responded by stripping the franchise of five consecutive first-round draft picks from 2029 through 2033. LA was fined the $30 million, and owner Steve Ballmer suspended for a full year and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank for six months.

With two of the organization's most senior decision-makers sidelined at once, the Clippers have needed to reestablish who is actually authorized to formally sign off on finalizing a trade of this magnitude.

GM Trent Redden is expected to oversee basketball operations in Frank's absence. The Clippers also need to appoint an interim governor to stand in for Ballmer before the trade can officially close.

The original deal has Toronto sending Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, multiple first-round picks, second-round picks, and a pick swap to Los Angeles in exchange for Leonard. Both Ingram and Dick were left in roster limbo for more than two months, unable to report to either franchise while the investigation and subsequent front-office reorganization played out.

Raptors training camp opens within the next three weeks. That has added real urgency to a situation that had already dragged well past its original expected closing date.

Kawhi Leonard himself received a $700,000 individual fine as part of the league's findings but was not suspended. He remains fully eligible to play the moment the paperwork clears, leaving the entire situation, as Windhorst puts it, less about basketball logic and more about how quickly a reorganized front office can finish signing the forms that let everyone move forward.