Kawhi Leonard expected to participate in Toronto Raptors training camp

Though the trade has not yet been made official amid an NBA investigation, it sounds as though Kawhi Leonard will be with the Toronto Raptors to begin training camp in September.

The Raptors acquired Kawhi Leonard from the Los Angeles Clippers earlier in the offseason, or at least so they had thought.

The trade has since been put on pause due to an ongoing league investigation to determine whether the Clippers used a third-party company to secretly pay Leonard outside the salary cap when they acquired him in free agency back in 2019 following his championship run in Toronto.

Despite NBA commissioner Adam Silver saying he hopes to have the investigation wrapped up before the end of the summer, ESPN's Baxter Holmes recently reported that the case could continue on into 2027. 

As far as Leonard is concerned, he will be playing for the Raptors this coming season. He was in attendance as Kyle Lowry signed a one-day contract to retire with the organization, and Sportsnet's Michael Grange expects him to be with the Raps in training camp.

"Leonard will be with the team in training camp on Sept. 29 in Quebec City," Grange wrote, albeit making it very clear that this is based on his best opinion.

"Granted, that's just me trying to make sense of the whole thing, but here's why that's my view: 

"If the law firm investigating the Clippers on behalf of the NBA has definitive evidence that the Clippers and Leonard circumvented the salary cap, they likely would have provided their findings months ago."

This is very good news for the Raptors, who will be viewed as serious contenders in the Eastern Conference should the trade go through. If it doesn't, it would mean that both Gradey Dick and Brandon Ingram, who were included in the trade, would return to Toronto this coming season.