[Grange] Per sources, the Raptors “did their due diligence” with the NBA prior to making their most recent trade for Leonard and the guidance they received made them confident that they could acquire the former Clipper and not have it blow up in their face if Leonard was facing a lengthy suspension.
From a couple of days ago: https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/five-raptors-thoughts-as-dust-on-kawhi-leonard-trade-settles/
We don’t have the horsepower to rehash the entirety of the reason the Los Angeles Clippers have been at the forefront of an NBA investigation for nine months now. The (very) short version is that there is credible evidence that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funnelled additional money to Leonard by way of a phony endorsement deal that the then-Clippers star signed with a since bankrupted ‘environmental bank’ named Aspiration as a way to circumvent the salary cap. The allegations are tied to the three-year, $149.1 million contract that he is under now (for one more year and before the two-year extension the Raptors are expected to give him kicks in), not the one he signed when he left Toronto. But allegations of Leonard’s camp asking for similar arrangements from the Raptors and the Los Angeles Lakers — who were also recruiting Leonard back in 2019 — were in the ether then too. Complaints were made to the NBA, the league looked into it, but nothing came of it.
Podcaster Pablo Torre and his staff won a Pulitzer Prize for his multi-layered investigation of the whole affair this past year. No one knows what or when any punishment might be coming down from the league to the Clippers. Per sources, the Raptors “did their due diligence” with the NBA prior to making their most recent trade for Leonard and the guidance they received made them confident that they could acquire the former Clipper and not have it blow up in their face if Leonard was — as an example — facing a lengthy suspension.