The Toronto Raptors appear ready to finalize the trade that will bring Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard back up north now that the investigation into his salary cap circumvention scandal has been closed.
With Steve Ballmer fined $30 million and suspended for one year, the Clippers stripped of five first-round picks, and Leonard now ready to head over to Toronto, one inarguable fact of this whole saga is that Kawhi's reputation has taken a hit. Almost every team he leaves, he leaves them with noise, competitive disadvantages, and vitriol among the fanbase.
With Leonard having pushed the Raptors to the team's lone championship, and the fanbase thrilled that he is ready to sign a long-term extension, the only place where Leonard can be received warmly in the NBA is in Toronto.
Kawhi Leonard's safest spot in the NBA is with the Toronto Raptors
Leonard has the same reputation as James Harden right now. He's a destroyer. No matter what success he brings to his team, his departure will always be very messy, and he will leave his franchise in such a tattered state that they will not be able to compete for multiple years. Leonard has been in the NBA for 15 years, and 14 of them were spent with teams who now hate his guts.
At least with the championship rings he won in Toronto and San Antonio, there was an expectation that he would at least get you a title. With the Clippers, even his immense talent can't overcome the stigma of what has become one of the most ill-fated championship pursuits in American sports history.
Even after the Brooklyn Nets' Big Three failed, they at least pivoted into tank mode with a treasure trove of picks. In essence, the Clippers' decision to team up Leonard and Paul George cost them 10 first-round picks (five to acquire George, five for the Kawhi scandal penalty) and an all-time great in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Can you get a more lopsided deal?
Kawhi Leonard could rebuild his reputation with the Toronto Raptors
Despite a very long, very productive career, there may be no city that loves Leonard more than Toronto. Clippers fans will likely speak his name with the same venom that was reserved for the most hated of Lakers, and Spurs fans were so ticked off with how he handled his exit (which plunged them into years of mediocrity) that Gregg Popovich had to tell fans mid-game to stop booing.
While the Raptors were hurt when Leonard left following their title, his self-proclaimed billing as a mercenary working a one-year job and the team remaining mostly competitive in the years without him helped soften the blow. Canadians are now ready to welcome him back with open arms as the only fanbase who has been shielded from Leonard's chaos and will put up with all of his warts.
While Leonard may go down in history as a Spur and was so desperate to play in LA that he abandoned a championship-level Toronto team to become a Clipper, there's a very good chance that the twists and turns his career has created have made it so Leonard looks back on his Raptors seasons more fondly than any other. Who could have expected that after the 2019 season?
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