Clippers Trade Kawhi Leonard to Raptors for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and Picks

The end of the Kawhi Leonard era is here as the Clips decided not to extend him and traded him to the Raptors for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick + 2 first rounders, a first round pick swap, and 2 second rounders.

What do you guys think? This immediately puts the Clippers out of playoffs contention IMO but there are still moves to be made, players to be signed, so we'll see. But certainly the trade helps the Clippers going forward with these picks and swap.

Even the ESPN Trade Machine doesn't show Kawhi on our team anymore. YES! YES! YES!

I am not the guy who favors a complete build through picks. You never know how they pan out and how the coaches nurture them but with a 35 year old with questionable knees, I am all in for this trade and happy with the haul we got.

Trust the FO as they kept the franchise as one of the winningest in the regular season in the 2010-2020 decade. The health issues bought us down in the playoffs. Hope they make some trades and keep us competitive without sacrificing much of our young talent and/or future picks.

I might be in the minority of the fanbase but that’s how I believe so that the team is watchable from the get go and make my wine even more delectable…lol.

The picks go like this:

2027 first round swap option for the Clips

2030 2nd rounder

2031 and 2033 unprotected 1st rounders

2033 2nd rounder

The Raptors will probably be the better team this year so the swap probably won't be used but I love the unprotected picks down the road. You just never know what the rosters will look like in 5 years so this could work out really well for the Clips like the PG trade worked out for OKC. Risky move by the Raps

Yeah, we are in an interesting time. Sure, we got younger, but we aren't and shouldn't be in a true rebuild since we haven't gotten out of the OKC pick swap situation, yet. Garland and Mathurin will be a decent duo to keep us entertaining to watch and competitive enough to not tank and give OKC a high lottery pick. We are also adding Ingram to the mix, and a core of Miller, Sanders, and Neiderhauser, who have all gotten a year wiser. We also have shed about $10 mill in salary by swapping Ingram for Kawhi, and we can shed more by not picking up the contracts of Batum, Collins, and a few others. Essentially we have much more flexibility and recouped a lot of the assets that we lost in the PG trade. The FO tried to build a contender, and we can't fault them for that. However, what I'd like to see moving forward is them being more cautious with future trades. By principle, we should never give up more than two first rounders ever again, and when we do give up two first rounders, give a few years to recoup before doing so again. Best of all, we will no longer have to fear the end of the regular season and pray that Kawhi stays healthy. This team is going to be much more fun moving forward.

We locked Kobe for 4 years at $11.2 millions!

Lawrence Frank did really well in this trade. He's done a very good job this year. We're slowly starting to get some picks back. I like the direction we're going in.

No, I believe we could benefit from the 2027 pick swap with Toronto because most likely we will end up with OKC pick and it is a given their pick would be one of the lowest - closer to #30. So this deal looks even better because Toronto’s pick would be a better one for than OKC.

Oh, wow. I'm happy to sign him long term. We should have let Brook Lopez walk though. I know with Neiderhauser injured we need some depth, but I still would have liked to have gone in a different direction at the 5.

I thought exact the same thing. We could have let him go and get somebody with good size and athletic. Lopez was slow and did not play physically you need as a center.

Where is Bradley Beale? I wish we had kept Leonard (as much as I wish for a root canal) Kobe!! That other center is pretty good. I love Brook but not enough to keep him. I don't really expect the PO's now but at least it could be fun. The Knuckle heads were FUN. Frankly I think Lawrence did a good job. Maybe Ballmer realized that he was trying to do his own appendectomy with his teeth. Lopez is tradable

Dude, I’m ALL for it. You need your team to suck for a year or two to give the keys to the young bucks so they develop. OKC was not good the first year of SGA, Spurs were not so good first two years with Wenby. Look at Dallas with Cooper Flag. Look at any of the superstars, their teams were not good their first year or two and it allowed the space for the young to develop. Let’s give that to our youngsters and develop the next OKC/San Antonio dynasty with all the picks we’ve got… I know it’s wishful thinking cause we don’t have a #1 overall pick but Tatum was 7th overall I believe…

One can hope

Thanks for the clarification. I keep forgetting that we still owe OKC picks after all these years

Also, some other encouraging points. Nikola Jocic was a second round pick. Jimmy Butler was the 30th overall pick, and those two guys led a team to the finals. Every pick matters. Now we are in somewhat of an odd spot. We cannot tank for a lottery pick, but we also cannot afford to sit Wagler, Neiderhauser, Miller, and Sanders in hopes of getting into the play-offs. What we ought to be doing is making sure that the young guys get ample development time while still trying to get a somewhat high standing. This might be possible with a core of Ingram, Mathurin, and Garland. The FO should try and put some pieces around these three on short-term contracts to make sure we are in the play-in tournament. However, an eye should be kept on Wagler, as he and Neiderhauser look to be our future. These two should get no less than 15 minutes each game. This will allow them to get some development in while not throwing them out to the wolves right away or causing us to fall drastically in the standings.

Mathurn is gone. D Andre and Karl Malone were deep in the 2nd round. Our bench is OK Konan could be a star. Kobe will be a soli starer. So much will depend on defense. Depending on other moves don't count the play ins out

I believe we offered Bennedict Mathurin a qualifying offer, so he is a restricted free agent. This is a good move, as you don't want to let him go for free. If our plans aren't to keep him, we should look for a trade.

Apparently the trade is on hold until NBA completes the Aspiration investigation. So hopefully that is done soon. Imagine if investigation goes into training camp- that obviously won’t be good for anyone.

F#ck me. I have a bad feeling about this.

Just trade for Watson and resign Mathurian. To hell with Kawhi. He’s been a cancer since he got here.

I wish we never got him. He just stole money and did nothing for this team.

Waiting is the worst! We don’t have any control in this stupid thing and let’s act on signing other players we can control and hope they move the needle.

I don’t want to see KL in a clippers uniform again!

This doesn't make sense. Neither Kawhi nor his contract status really have anything to do with the outcome of this investigation. Should the league vote against the Clippers, they would most likely be docked draft picks, fined or have Ballmer banned from the arena for a year. No reason to hold up our offseason over it

Honestly, I hope they take the team away from Ballmer and call it a day. Taking draft picks just hurts the fans, who had no part in this. Money should have to be forfeited by Kawhi, Ballmer ousted as owner. Done.

Yeah that blows, why does the fan base suffer.

And the league needs to hurry this up and make a judgement. Pablo Torre uncovered this on September 3, 2025. How much longer do they need?

Winning can be losing (sort of) It usually takes 3 guys of all star caliber to make a team. We are nowhere near there and little way to get there. Free agency? Yanis has a chance to be one. Then there's (fill in the blank). True we were winningest under Ballmer but did we win? Nope. It was one predictable disappointment 213 was a 100% failure.

Trying for the P O's for now is a dangerous game. Do we have any legit starters except at Center? A lot of good bench players. I've been around when we won 20 games and still had fun with the drama. I never had fun with 213 plus Hardin. Very true rebuilding from the draft is risky but what other choice is there? I don't know sh*t about picks. A team of Chris Dunns? The most watchable team is one that plays hard not the one that wins (sorta). This whole "contender" stuff is nonsense. fool's gold. Safe ain't gonna get it. I could watch a hungry young team playing with passion with 30 wins. Remember "The Emperor Has No Clothes"? Are we naked?

The taking money away from Kawhi angle is a good one and could make for some good conspiracy theories like maybe the trade is being held up because the league wants to take money away from Kawhi but in order to know what team is going to dock money from him, they have to finish the investigation first yada yada yada Very, very, VERY long shot but you never know. But based on the Minnesota precedence from a quarter century ago, the player doesn't get punished nor should they. For the most part, they are an innocent bystander who can just claim ignorance to the rules. The league could always request that the agent be decertified. In this case, I'd love to see Uncle Dennis or whatever his name is see some jail time but Kawhi most likely won't be punished for taking a no show endorsement deal. That's on aspiration and the Clippers Sure, it would be nice if they just take away the team from Ballmer and we don't have to lose draft picks but think of all the players we've had and can have in the future due to Ballmer's wealth. Even if the league decides to take away draft picks, having Ballmer helps there too because he's more willing than the typical owner due to his wealth to keep signing free agents even if they're over the threshold. That's where some of the sting gets taken out of losing draft picks. I'll give an example. Denver right now. Despite Kroenke's wealth, he's hesitant to give Watson his value due to being so high over the 2nd apron. With Ballmer, that becomes a non issue so whereas Denver will hold on to it's current draft picks under the rookie scale for as long as possible, they are in danger....

The front office reportedly plans to retain Ingram rather than flipping him, intending to use him as a primary scoring and playmaking option to anchor the offense following Leonard's departure.

Source: https://www.si.com/nba/clippers/onsi/clippers-expected-move-brandon-ingram-once-kawhi-trade-finalized-01kx8sb9zw7x

I heard that Kawhi fired Uncle Dennis, so I think he probably sense that this was going to be one of the things required of Kawhi. You raise a good point on not knowing who would be the new owner if the team were taken away from Ballmer. However, I just don't want to go back to losing picks. The PG trade was so devastating, and I just don't want to go another year without having picks. I know it's inevitable if the team is found guilty, though. It just sucks.