Kawhi Leonard is going to finish his career in Toronto, and he took less money to do it.
Leonard agreed to a two-year, $115 million extension with the Raptors on Tuesday, eight days after the trade that brought him north was finally completed. The deal begins in 2027-28 and includes a player option for 2028-29.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported the agreement through Leonard’s agent, Harrison Gaines, and noted that Leonard expects to finish his career in Toronto.
He left money on the table
Leonard took roughly $11 million less than his maximum extension figure and waived a $7.45 million trade kicker. With the $50.3 million he earns this season, he has three years and $165 million remaining on the Raptors deal.
Players at his level do not usually shave eight figures off a contract. Leonard did, and he did it for a franchise he played one season for seven years ago.
He is 35 and still an MVP candidate
This is the part that makes the number defensible. Leonard averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.9 steals in 32.1 minutes across 65 games with the Clippers last season, shooting 50.5% from the floor, 38.7% from three and 89.2% from the line.
He finished seventh in MVP voting and made All-NBA Second Team. Sixty-five games at that production is not a load-management punchline. That is a legitimate first option.
How this deal took three months
Toronto and the Clippers agreed to the trade on June 30. The league then froze it in early July pending its cap-circumvention investigation into the Clippers, because the NBA told Toronto it would be liable for any discipline handed to Leonard out of that probe.
The trade did not close until Sept. 14. In between, the NBA stripped the Clippers of five first-round picks, fined the team $30 million and suspended owner Steve Ballmer for a year over impermissible endorsement arrangements tied to Leonard.
Leonard pushed for the move once it became clear Los Angeles would not give him the extension he wanted. Toronto’s front office was prepared to, which is a big part of why he preferred it.
The risk is obvious and worth it
Paying a 35-year-old $55 million a year into his late thirties is how teams end up capped out with nothing to show for it. Leonard’s injury history makes it worse on paper.
But Toronto has been searching for a reason to matter since the 2019 title, and Leonard is the man who delivered that title. He is a two-time Finals MVP in his 15th season who just put up 27.9 a night. If the Raptors are going to be reckless, this is the right thing to be reckless about.
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.