The long, strange finish line for the Kawhi Leonard Raptors trade arrived on 15 September, when Toronto officially completed a deal that had been sitting in limbo since the last week of June.

What was agreed in principle on June 30 only became real once the paperwork could safely be signed, roughly eleven weeks later.

The holdup was not a change of heart from either side. It was the NBA itself, and an investigation that turned a routine blockbuster into one of the more unusual sagas of the offseason.

Leonard, a Los Angeles native who stands 2.03 metres and weighs about 102 kilograms, returns to the only franchise that has ever won a title with him leading it. His homecoming was one of the most consequential moves of the entire offseason.

The trade sends veteran forward Brandon Ingram, young guard-forward Gradey Dick and a substantial pile of draft capital to Los Angeles, reshaping both rosters in a single stroke.

It marks one of the biggest Kawhi Leonard Raptors trade transactions of the year in terms of assets exchanged.

Why the Kawhi Leonard Raptors Trade Took Months to Close

According to reports on the delay, the deal was frozen while the league examined the Clippers over an alleged arrangement worth around 28 million US dollars, or roughly A$42 million, routed to Leonard through the sponsor Aspiration in a way that may have circumvented the salary cap.

If the mechanics of these cap rules are new to you, it is worth reading the NBA salary cap explained to understand why an arrangement like this draws league scrutiny.

Formally executing the trade earlier would reportedly have forced Toronto to inherit the risk of any penalties tied to Leonard, which the Raptors were understandably reluctant to do.

Leonard was fined US$700,000 by the league but was not suspended, and his contract and Bird rights were left intact.

The league is not expected to strip Toronto of draft picks over the matter, since any punishment would attach to Leonard's situation rather than his new club, which explains why both sides waited for clarity before finalising anything.

Once the coast was clear, the transaction went through in mid-September, closing a chapter that had hung over the summer. Toronto could finally get on with building a roster around its returning star.

What Toronto Gave Up in the Kawhi Leonard Raptors Trade

The price of getting Leonard back was steep.

Toronto surrendered Ingram, Dick, unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, a first-round pick swap in 2027 and second-round picks in 2030 and 2033, a package that hands the Clippers real flexibility for the next decade.

Ingram, acquired from New Orleans in February 2025, averaged 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists across 77 games for the Raptors last season.

Dick, the 13th overall pick in 2023, contributed 9.2 points a night over 190 games in Toronto, and general manager Bobby Webster made a point of thanking both, praising the "work ethic, character, and basketball excellence they brought to our team every day."

Webster left little doubt about how the club views the return. "

His impact on our organisation, our city, and our country is undeniable," he said of Leonard, adding that the two-time champion "embodies the competitiveness and championship mindset that we value."

Leonard's Return to a Championship City

There is history to justify the enthusiasm.

Leonard arrived in Toronto for the 2018-19 season and delivered the franchise its first and only NBA title, winning Finals MVP along the way, and his broader resume, a seven-time All-Star, two-time Defensive Player of the Year and member of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team, speaks for itself.

His most recent campaign was hardly a decline either, with a career-high 27.9 points per game, a seventh-place finish in MVP voting and an All-NBA Second Team selection.

Now the work begins. Leonard slots into a Toronto core built around Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley, and analysts expect his shooting gravity and playmaking to lift a unit that ranked near the bottom of the league in three-point rate.

The Clippers, meanwhile, set about rebuilding around Ingram, Dick and that trove of future picks as the season gets under way.

With both clubs racing to gel before the start of the NBA season, it is worth watching how quickly these reshuffled rosters find their footing.

With both rosters reshaped so dramatically, our latest NBA predictions are worth a look to see how Toronto and the Clippers are being sized up for the year ahead.