{"id":906327,"date":"2026-09-23T07:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/906327\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T07:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:42:11","slug":"raptors-kawhi-leonard-complete-two-year-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/906327\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors, Kawhi Leonard Complete Two-Year Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

9:40 pm: Leonard\u2019s extension with the Raptors is official, according to NBA.com\u2019s transaction log<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"2:14 pm: The Raptors and star forward Kawhi Leonard<\/a> are in agreement on a two-year contract extension worth $115MM, agent Harrison Gaines tells Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The deal will go into effect in 2027\/28 after Leonard earns $50.3MM in \u201926\/27. It will include a player option for the \u201928\/29 season, according to Charania.<\/p>\n

Although the completion of the Raptors\u2019 trade for Leonard was delayed until last Monday<\/a>, the two sides \u201cmaintained consistent dialogue\u201d throughout the offseason, Charania tweets<\/a>, adding that the 35-year-old expects to finish his career in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Leonard, who returns to the Raptors seven years after leading the team to its first and only NBA championship, is coming off one of the best seasons of his 15-year NBA career. In 65 games for the Clippers last season, the L.A. native averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.9 steals in 32.1 minutes per game with a shooting line of .505\/.387\/.892. He finished seventh in MVP voting and made the All-NBA second team.<\/p>\n

However, the Clippers signaled by trading Ivica Zubac<\/a> and James Harden<\/a> at last season\u2019s deadline that they were in retooling mode, and Leonard reportedly pushed for a trade this offseason when it became clear that the team wasn\u2019t going to give him the extension he was seeking. Toronto was said to be a preferred landing spot for Kawhi, in part because of his familiarity with the team and the city \u2014 and in part because the Raptors\u2019 front office was prepared to extend him.<\/p>\n

The Clippers and Raptors agreed to terms on a deal on June 30<\/a>, but the trade was put on hold<\/a> a few days later as the teams awaited the outcome of the NBA\u2019s investigation into whether L.A. circumvented the salary cap to pay Leonard via no-show endorsement deals.<\/p>\n

The NBA announced the results of that probe earlier this month<\/a>, and while the league came down hard on the Clippers for violating cap circumvention rules, Leonard didn\u2019t face a suspension or have his contract voided, so Toronto moved forward with the trade. A report last Thursday<\/a> indicated that Kawhi and the Raptors were in advanced discussions on an extension.<\/p>\n

The Over-38 rule<\/a> meant Leonard couldn\u2019t sign an extension longer than two years, and extend-and-trade restrictions<\/a> limited him to a 20% raise for the first year of a new contract and a 5% raise for year two. That means his maximum extension at this point would\u2019ve been worth about $124MM over two years. Kawhi\u2019s actual deal will come in about $9MM below that. He also waived a trade kicker worth approximately $7.5MM as part of the deal sending him from L.A. to Toronto.<\/p>\n

While we don\u2019t know precisely what Leonard\u2019s starting salary will be, his extension figures to push the Raptors\u2019 cap commitments for 2027\/28 up to about $178MM for seven players. That figure doesn\u2019t take into account contracts for projected rotation players like RJ Barrett<\/a> and Jamal Shead<\/a>, who are on expiring deals. Next season\u2019s salary cap is projected to come in at $176MM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"9:40 pm: Leonard\u2019s extension with the Raptors is official, according to NBA.com\u2019s transaction log. 2:14 pm: The Raptors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":906328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,14728,82],"class_list":["post-906327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=906327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/906328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=906327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=906327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=906327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}