The Kawhi Leonard saga has picked up another layer, and the Toronto Raptors are still stuck waiting for the NBA to finish sorting it all out.
The latest wrinkle comes from investigative reporter Pablo Torre, who said on his podcast, "Pablo Torre Finds Out," that a source described a sponsorship deal tied to Daktronics, the company that helped build the Clippers’ new jumbotron at the Intuit Dome, as "1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap."
Torre also shared that he asked Daktronics for a statement and got a response. “My understanding is Daktronics doesn’t have a deal with Kawhi right now," a Daktronics spokesperson told Torre. “I don’t know what the company wants to say, or can say, given the Wachtell investigation and all that.”
None of this is the NBA’s final word, but it adds more noise around a situation that already has plenty of it. The league is still investigating allegations involving the Los Angeles Clippers and Leonard, and the central question remains whether a deal with Aspiration, which offered a $28 million endorsement agreement, was used to get around the salary cap.
That’s the part the NBA is examining. Torre’s reporting doesn’t replace that investigation, but it could complicate things further if it turns out the league needs to look in another direction too.
The possible fallout is serious. Under the collective bargaining agreement, the NBA can suspend a player or team personnel for up to a year if they were knowingly involved.
The league can also void a contract and block a player from signing with that team. Leonard is due $50.3 million for the upcoming season, so the stakes are obvious.
For Toronto, the frustrating part is the timeline. Updates have already pushed the process back, and the league is now being told this could drag as far as 2027 before everything is resolved. If that happens, the Raptors would not see this trade situation settled before the regular season.
Right now, the Daktronics piece is not itself under NBA investigation. But it could end up being part of the bigger picture, and at the very least it adds another mess the league has to untangle. For the Raptors, that means more waiting, more uncertainty, and no clean resolution in sight.
In Other News...
3 Raptors Matchups Fans Will Circle As Soon As Schedule Drops
The Raptors are already looking ahead to the 2026-27 schedule release, and there are a few dates fans are likely to mark immediately. Matchups with the Clippers, Cavaliers and Knicks stand out for different reasons, from old roster ties to recent playoff history and the kind of cross-conference and division games that tend to carry a little extra edge.
Los Angeles remains a particularly intriguing one because of the Kawhi Leonard connection, even as the trade that brought him to Toronto is still tied up in an investigation into salary cap circumvention. Cleveland brings back memories of the Raptors' recent postseason meetings, while New York carries its own layer of familiarity from a previous trade that helped shape both franchises. Whenever the league finalizes the slate, those are the games that should tell the clearest story about where Toronto stands. [Read more 🡒]