Clippers Punishments: Will the Kawhi Raptors Trade Go Through?

• The NBA closed its investigation into the Clippers on Wednesday and handed out the heaviest penalties in franchise history
• Kawhi Leonard came out of it far lighter than the front office did
• See what the Clippers punishments mean for the Kawhi Raptors trade, plus the latest Kalshi odds below

The Clippers punishments are official. The NBA spent 11 months digging into how LA paid Kawhi Leonard, and on Wednesday the league said what it found. The Clippers ran a pattern of misconduct and broke multiple significant rules, and this wasn’t the first time they’d been caught doing it.

The punishments came down hard on everyone in the building. They barely touched Leonard, which is why the Kawhi Raptors trade is suddenly moving again after two months on ice.

That leaves one question for Raptors fans. Let’s look at the Kawhi Leonard next team odds and see what the market predicts will happen next.

Will the Kawhi Raptors Trade Go Through?

Yes. Leonard wasn’t suspended and his contract wasn’t voided, and that was the only thing holding this up. He’s going to be a Raptor.

Odds as of Sept. 2 on Kalshi. A board this lopsided can tighten in a hurry, so grab the Kalshi promo code, sign up and lock in your number before the deal gets filed.

The market moved before most people read the ruling. Toronto jumped 10 points and LA dropped six inside the same window, which is one outcome handing off to another rather than new money showing up.

Toronto trades at 96 cents on Kalshi. On a prediction market, that price is also the chance of it happening, so the room gives the Raptors a 95% shot at landing him. The Clippers sit at 4 cents and everyone else is at a penny, with about $1.39 million traded so far.

Toronto and LA shook hands on this back on June 30. The Raptors send out Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, unprotected firsts in 2031 and 2033, seconds in 2030 and 2033, and a 2027 first-round swap.

Then everything stopped on July 9. Toronto was told that closing the deal early meant accepting whatever the investigation eventually did to Leonard, so the front office sat on its hands and waited.

That risk is gone. Shams Charania reported Wednesday there’s full expectation the trade goes down as is, and with camp and media day about four weeks out, Leonard should be there for the start.

Adding him doesn’t move Toronto much in the title race yet. The Raptors sit at +2500 in the NBA Championship odds at DraftKings, level with Minnesota and Detroit, with the Spurs and Thunder well clear at +270 apiece.

NBA Clippers Punishments Explained

LA paid for all of it. Five first-round picks are gone, one in every draft from 2029 through 2033, on top of a $30 million fine. That’s half a decade without a pick for a team that just traded its best player.

The front office got hit just as hard. Steve Ballmer is suspended from all league and team activities for a year, business operations president Gillian Zucker is out a year without pay, and basketball operations president Lawrence Frank is gone for six months.

Adam Silver said the severity of the penalties matched the seriousness of what the Clippers did. Hard to argue with an owner losing a year over it.

Leonard’s share was $700,000 and nothing else. He keeps his contract, keeps his season, and heads to Toronto. The investigation made clear he didn’t know the circumvention was happening. Through his agent, he took responsibility for lapses in judgment by people around him and said he signed everything in good faith.