Kawhi Leonard Trade Grades: How Did Clippers, Raptors Make Out in Superstar Blockbuster?
Kawhi Leonard Trade Grades: How Did Clippers, Raptors Make Out in Superstar Blockbuster?
Liam McKeone|
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Toronto RaptorsLos Angeles ClippersIt’s not quite a homecoming ... but it’s close.
On Tuesday, after several days’ worth of rumors, the news broke that the Clippers are trading Kawhi Leonard to the Raptors. On the verge of free agency opening officially on Tuesday evening, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports the two sides are nearing an agreement that would send Leonard back to Toronto and Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-round picks, a first-round pick swap and two second-rounders to Los Angeles.
It’s a huge trade for both sides. The Clippers are moving on from the Leonard era in surprisingly quick fashion after he enjoyed a career season last campaign; he scored 27.9 points in 65 games played to earn another All-NBA nod. The Raptors were a budding contender entering the offseason and just traded for one of the best two-way wings in the game—as well as the star of their one and only championship team in franchise history.
The NBA offseason is fun, isn’t it?
Let’s break down how L.A. and Toronto made out in this transaction and dish out grades based on what the deal currently looks like.
Clippers: C+
It’s hard to argue with the direction the Clippers chose with this trade, at least. The franchise finally has some youthful talent worth getting excited about after acquiring Darius Garland and lucking into the fifth pick in the 2026 draft, which turned out to be Keaton Wagler. Leonard is obviously still a great player but he’s 35 and notoriously injury-prone. He wasn’t going to be part of the next contending Clippers team in Los Angeles.
Between the new lottery rules and the team’s dire draft pick situation that doesn’t seem them controlling their own selection until 2030, there was no universe in which L.A. was going to tank. But if Leonard was ever going to be a trade piece, then right now was the perfect time to do it—his value wasn’t going to be higher given he’s healthy and entering the final year of his deal.
But considering the dramatic investment the franchise made into Leonard’s talents and his current status as a top-15 player when healthy, it’s a bit of a disappointing return. Ingram is a reliable scorer who will keep the team semi-competitive sharing No. 1 duties alongside Garland next season. Dick is a decent change-of-scenery bet. No matter where the draft picks land they’ll be enormously valuable to an organization that hasn’t enjoyed many of them since trading for Paul George.
But the Clippers probably didn’t find a new player to add to their core. The Raptors kept hold of their best young players. As a result the draft picks will not be very good even if Leonard gets hurt. That’s a mediocre return for a superstar player, even if it was the right move to make in the larger context of the franchise’s current state.
Raptors: A
Conversely, it’s impossible to hate this deal in any way for the Raptors. They get to replace Ingram in the starting lineup next season and gave up nothing except draft picks to do it. Dick was struggling to stick in Darko Rajaković’s rotation and might’ve been on his way out anyway. But Toronto didn’t have to move Scottie Barnes, Collin Murray-Boyles, RJ Barrett or Immanuel Quickley. Not even 2026 first-round pick Allen Graves. The front office managed to keep the entire playoff rotation intact while bringing in a legitimate, playoff-proven No. 1 option.
Could this go wrong? Of course. Leonard is one misstep away from another serious knee injury that could spell the end of his career at this point in time. In fact, that’s the reason he was available in the first place. He wanted long-term financial stability in the form of a contract extension that the Clippers were reluctant to give him due in large part due to his injury issues. The Raptors will reportedly be giving Leonard that extension and thus will be on the hook for what will probably be a huge amount of money regardless of whether or not he sees the court.
But it is a risk well worth taking. The best-case scenario here is that one of the best defenses in the NBA upgraded from a 20-point-per-game scorer to a 27-point-per-game scorer who is far more capable of creating his own shot up and down the floor while providing much better defense on top of that. That catapults Toronto from a middling seed in the East to a legitimate championship contender. The worst case is that the organization just moves forward with the Barnes era after giving up draft picks and financial flexibility for a home run swing—things that can be regained as easily as they were given up.
The Raptors figured to be a good team for a while but had no clear path towards becoming a great one without a big level-up from Barnes. Leonard becoming available was a godsend in that regard. They added an All-NBA offensive player to a roster that needs exactly that and didn’t make their team worse in the process. That’s a rare superstar trade in the NBA and a huge win for Toronto.
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Published 3 minutes ago | Modified 3 minutes ago
LIAM MCKEONELiam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.
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Nikita Kucherov Set to Become Extension Eligible on July 1
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William EspyTue, June 30, 2026 at 9:16 PM UTC·1 min readWhile Tampa Bay Lightning General Manager Julien BriseBois has quite a bit of work to get done as he looks to improve the Bolts ahead of the 2026-27 season, he'll have another major piece of business to attend to as well. As of July 1, star forward Nikita Kucherov will officially enter the final year of his current contract, meaning he'll be eligible to sign a new contract extension.
Kucherov will likely receive quite a pay raise from his current cap hit of $9.5 million. At 33 years of age, the term will likely be much shorter than his current deal, but as we've seen with players like Brad Marchand in Florida, some players well into their 30s can still demand long-term contracts.
AdvertisementAdvertisementKucherov has been winning quite a bit of hardware since entering his 30s, as he's won the Art Ross Trophy in two of the last three seasons and was most recently named the winner of the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player at the conclusion of the 2025-26 season.
Charlie Kirk's parents and widow to confront assassination suspect
Charlie Kirk's rarely-seen parents and widow, Erika Kirk, will come face to face with his alleged assassin next week at a hearing ahead of his bombshell murder trial.
The family is expected to make a rare appearance at the key hearing for Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old man accused of shooting Kirk on September 10, 2025.
Kirk's sudden and traumatic death, in front of thousands of students at Utah Valley University, stunned the nation - and catalyzed a cultural movement just two months before Americans voted to re-elect conservative Donald Trump for his second term.
All eyes will be on Robinson as he stands accused of assassinating the dad-of-two.
While Erika has stepped into the spotlight in the wake of her husband's death, Kirk's moderate, Illinois-based parents have mostly kept to themselves.
However, they will step out of the shadows to stare down Robinson at the weeklong pretrial hearing in Utah on Monday.
During the hearing, prosecutors will aim to show they have sufficient evidence to proceed to trial.
Erika, who took the helm of Turning Point USA after her husband's death, and her in-laws, Robert and Kathryn Kirk, are planning to attend, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.
Charlie Kirk's parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk, are expected to attend a weeklong pretrial hearing for their son's accused killer
Erika Kirk, who took the helm of Turning Point USA after her husband's death, will also come face to face with his accused killer
It will be the first time that Kirk's family will be in the courtroom with the man accused of killing him.
Before Kirk became one of the best-known conservatives in America and a key ally to Donald Trump, he was raised by his moderate parents in Illinois.
Kirk's mother, Kathryn, was reportedly a mental health counselor, and his father, Robert, worked in the construction business and owned his own architecture firm.
His resume included work as a project architect manager on Trump Tower in Manhattan, reports PrimeTimer.
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It is not known whether the elder Kirk ever personally met with Trump during the president's real estate days, which were decades before his son became one of his closest allies.
In a 2018 profile of Kirk in the Chicago Tribune, it was said that Kirk had once described his parents as Republicans, 'but not particularly ardent ones.'
After his death, Senator Marsha Blackburn posted a photo with Kirk's parents when Trump honored Charlie with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom in October.
Although Kirk never shared images of his parents, he did post a photo of himself with his younger sister, Mary, at her high school graduation in 2014, before she became an art curator in Illinois.
It is unclear if she will be attending the court hearing with the family.
Prosecutors have said that during the hearing they plan to introduce forensic analyses, surveillance video, recordings of witness statements, autopsy findings and alleged messages from Robinson admitting to the crime.
While Kirk's parents have largely stayed out of the spotlight, Senator Marsha Blackburn posted a photo with when Trump honored Charlie with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom
Tyler Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder for the September 10 killing of Kirk
If convicted, prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty for Robinson after a judge denied the defense's request to take it off the table on June 26.
He has not yet entered a plea.
The judge has also ruled that Robinson's transgender lover, Lance Twiggs, 22, does not have to testify in person at the hearing.
Twiggs, who is transgender and goes by the name 'Luna,' was living with Robinson during the time of the alleged murder.
After Robinson turned himself in to authorities, federal investigators learned that he sent Twiggs a flurry of text messages during his 33 hours on the run, disclosing his alleged involvement in the shooting and his efforts to evade capture.
Twiggs has never been charged or implicated in the shooting, and has instead cooperated with authorities.
The Daily Mail contacted Turing Point USA for comment.
