The Kawhi Leonard story in Toronto is getting a sequel, and the price tag just leaked.
Jake Fischer reported Thursday that the Raptors and Leonard have held advanced discussions and are nearing agreement on a contract extension. Leonard is eligible to sign for as much as two years and $126 million.
That works out to roughly $63 million a season for a player who turns 36 during the deal.
How Toronto got here
The trade sat frozen for months while the NBA worked through its investigation into the Clippers and the Aspiration endorsement arrangement. Once the league ruled, the deal was cleared and completed on September 14.
The penalties were brutal for Los Angeles. The Clippers forfeited five first-round picks covering 2029 through 2033, took a $30 million fine, and watched owner Steve Ballmer get suspended for a year. Leonard himself was fined $700,000 but was not suspended, which is the only reason Toronto has a player to extend at all.
The Raptors paid real money for the privilege. Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick went out, along with unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, a 2027 first-round swap and two second-rounders. Toronto did not dip a toe in the water. They jumped off the high board.
The case for paying him
Leonard is not a nostalgia signing. He averaged a career-high 27.9 points last season with 6.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.9 steals, shooting 50.5 percent from the floor and 38.7 percent from three. He played 65 games, his heaviest workload in years after logging just 37 the season before.
He is also owed $50.3 million next season no matter what happens, so the incremental cost of tacking on years is smaller than the headline number suggests. And Toronto won 46 games last season without him. Drop a healthy Leonard into that group and the East cracks open in a hurry.
The 2019 memory does not hurt either. Leonard delivered this franchise its only championship and took home Finals MVP doing it, then left after a single season. Running it back is the rare basketball move that doubles as a season-ticket campaign.
The case against, and the verdict
Then there is the medical file. Leonard has been managing chronic right quadriceps tendinopathy since his San Antonio days. He tore the ACL in his right knee during the 2021 playoffs, had meniscus surgery on that same knee after the 2023 postseason, and dealt with both a sprained ankle and a significant foot sprain last year on the way to those 65 games.
Two years at $126 million carries him to 37 years old. Every dollar of it is a wager that a body with that history holds together through 2028. Nobody around the league would take that bet at full freight.
So here is the stance: Toronto should extend him, and Toronto should not come anywhere close to $126 million doing it.
Walking away is the worse outcome. The Raptors already surrendered the picks and the young talent. Letting Leonard reach free agency after one season would leave them holding nothing at all, and a rebuild that starts in 2028 with no first-rounders in 2031 or 2033 is a nightmare with no exit.
Sunk cost is never a reason to spend more. It is a reason to protect what you just bought.
The number is where the front office has to hold. Something in the neighborhood of two years and $85 million, loaded with games-played incentives, survives a bad injury season. The max version does not. It handcuffs the payroll the moment his quad barks in November, and it turns every load-management night into a referendum on the organization.
Toronto already made the bold move. The disciplined one comes next.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.