Kawhi Leonard is headed back to Toronto, seven years after carrying the Raptors to the 2019 title and then departing in free agency. The Raptors finalized a trade with the LA Clippers on Monday, bringing their former Finals MVP back to a club that just posted its sharpest season in six years.
Raptors bring back their championship closer
Toronto sent Gradey Dick, Brandon Ingram, two unprotected first-round selections, one first-round swap right and two second-round picks to the Clippers for Leonard.
The move lands as a clear push from a Raptors team that improved by 16 wins from 2024-25 and finished with a plus-2.9 point differential per 100 possessions. Toronto’s front office is betting that Leonard can raise the ceiling of a group trying to move from improvement story to an Eastern Conference threat.
- Leonard won the 2019 championship and Finals MVP in his only previous Toronto season.
- He signed with the Clippers immediately after that run and spent seven seasons in Los Angeles.
- The Clippers made the trade official Monday, returning Leonard to the franchise where he delivered its lone championship.
- Toronto now adds him to a roster coming off its best statistical campaign in six years.
A defensive upgrade without the whistles
The Raptors already had a top-five defense last season, allowing 112.1 points per 100 possessions. Their pressure created turnovers and they generally handled the 3-point line well, but the group was less effective when the competition stepped up.
Against the league’s 10 best offenses, Toronto fell to 12th defensively, conceding 117.3 points per 100 possessions. It also ranked 12th on that end during its first-round playoff series. The Cavaliers eliminated the Raptors in seven games.
Fouling was another leak. Opponents generated 27.9 free-throw attempts per 100 field-goal attempts against Toronto, the league’s 23rd-ranked rate. That number climbed to 31.8 in the postseason.
Leonard is no longer the all-court wrecking ball he was earlier in his career, but he remains a positive perimeter defender and rarely sends opponents to the line. In 2,085 minutes last season, he recorded 122 steals, 27 blocks and only 78 personal fouls. His combined steals-and-blocks per foul rate led all 378 players who logged at least 500 minutes.
| Player | Minutes | Steals | Blocks | Personal fouls | Steals + blocks per foul |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kawhi Leonard | 2,085 | 122 | 27 | 78 | 1.91 |
| Victor Wembanyama | 1,866 | 66 | 197 | 156 | 1.69 |
| Robert Williams III | 1,008 | 35 | 87 | 74 | 1.65 |
| Al Horford | 969 | 30 | 51 | 51 | 1.59 |
| Derrick White | 2,625 | 88 | 98 | 119 | 1.56 |
Toronto’s big-man rotation will be worth watching. Jakob Poeltl started all seven playoff games, but rookie Collin Murray-Boyles played 191 minutes in the series compared with Poeltl’s 134. Poeltl has previously been a plus defender, though he has struggled more in space during the last two seasons. Opponents shot 63.9% at the rim when he was the closest defender last year, his weakest rim-protection figure.
A smaller Leonard-Scottie Barnes-Murray-Boyles frontcourt would trade traditional size for switching, activity and versatility. Replacing Ingram with Leonard gives Toronto a stronger chance to sustain elite defense while matching up better with the league’s best attacks.
Late-clock scoring is the other assignment
Toronto’s defense fed one of the league’s best transition games. The Raptors ranked third with 28.6 fast-break points per game, but their half-court offense has needed a bailout option when possessions bog down.
Only the Indiana Pacers posted a worse effective field-goal percentage in the final six seconds of the shot clock than Toronto’s 43.3%. Leonard has operated far more efficiently in those moments, producing a 53.0% effective field-goal percentage in late-clock attempts over the past three seasons. That ranked ninth among 131 players with at least 250 such shots.
The isolation difference is similarly notable. Leonard and Ingram were among 28 players to log at least 1,000 isolations across the past three seasons. Leonard’s Clippers scored 1.07 points per isolation possession, sixth in that group. Teams featuring Ingram, with New Orleans and Toronto, scored 0.99 points per chance, placing 24th.
The Raptors own the NBA’s sixth-lowest offensive rating over the last three years. If their transition production holds and Leonard supplies reliable work late in possessions, this offense has a path toward its best showing since his first Toronto stop.
Leonard’s playoff history returns with him
Toronto is not acquiring only a regular-season stabilizer. Leonard has built one of the strongest postseason efficiency records in league history.
- He has averaged 21.5 points in 146 career playoff games.
- Among 89 players with at least 20 points per game over 10 or more postseason appearances, his 62.1% true-shooting mark ranks second.
- Anthony Davis stands slightly ahead at 62.2%, though Davis has played only 60 playoff games.
- Since 2017, Leonard has produced 28.6 points per game with a 63.2% true-shooting rate over 71 postseason contests.
- He is one of five players in NBA history with three playoff runs of at least 10 games in which he averaged 25 or more points while clearing 60% true shooting. Those runs came in 2017, 2019 and 2021.
Toronto scored 111.9 points per 100 possessions in its seven-game loss to Cleveland, slightly above the first-round average. Leonard’s value is the ability to carry larger scoring volume without sacrificing efficiency when a series slows down.
Clippers complete a five-month reset
For Los Angeles, Leonard’s exit marks the latest and most significant turn in a roster teardown that began after a veteran-heavy push.
- A year ago, the Clippers added Bradley Beal, John Collins, Brook Lopez and Chris Paul to a core that included Leonard, James Harden and Ivica Zubac.
- Paul’s second LA stint ended quickly, while Harden and Zubac were dealt at the trade deadline.
- Leonard has now been moved to Toronto. Beal and Collins are unrestricted free agents and do not appear likely to return.
- Lopez is the only remaining player from that seven-man veteran group.
- Since Feb. 1, the Clippers have reshaped the roster around Darius Garland and rookie guard Keaton Wagler, with Kobe Sanders set to return.
As of Tuesday night, players under contract or committed to new deals represented only 42% of the Clippers’ minutes from 2025-26. That is the lowest continuity percentage in the league. Bringing back restricted free agents Bennedict Mathurin and Jordan Miller would raise the number to 52%, but it would still rank second from the bottom, just ahead of the Lakers.
The shift is dramatic after the Clippers ranked 24th last season in minutes supplied by rookies and second-year players, at just 12%. The Leonard era produced the NBA’s fourth-best regular-season record over seven years, but no championship. Now the Clippers have chosen a younger timeline.
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Kawhi Leonard Returns to Raptors as Toronto Swings for East Contention
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Kawhi Leonard Trade: Raptors Reunite With 2019 Finals MVP
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The Raptors have acquired Kawhi Leonard from the Clippers for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and a major draft-pick package, reuniting Toronto with its 2019 Finals MVP.
