Kawhi Leonard has agreed to a two-year, $115 million contract extension with the Toronto Raptors, ESPN's Shams Charania reported on Tuesday, Sept. 22. The deal was negotiated by Leonard's agent, Harrison Gaines of Slash Sports. By Tuesday night the extension was official on NBA.com's transaction log, according to HoopsRumors.
The terms
The extension begins in the 2027-28 season. Leonard earns $50.3 million in 2026-27, the final year of his current contract, so Toronto now has him under contract for three seasons. The second year of the extension, 2028-29, is a player option.
The deal comes in below Leonard's maximum. HoopsRumors put his max at about $124 million, or roughly $9 million more than he agreed to, while ESPN reported the gap at $11 million. Leonard also waived a trade kicker worth roughly $7.5 million to make the extension work. Two NBA rules shaped the structure: the Over-38 rule limited the length to two years, and the rules for extending a recently traded player capped his raise at 20% in the first year and 5% in the second.
Leonard is 35 and entering his 16th NBA season. Charania reported that he expects to finish his career in Toronto and that the two sides had kept in steady contact through the offseason.
How he got back to Toronto
The Raptors and Clippers agreed to the trade in late June. Toronto sent Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-round picks, a pick swap and two second-round picks to Los Angeles. Days later the deal was put on hold while the NBA investigated whether the Clippers had circumvented the salary cap through Leonard's endorsement arrangement with Aspiration. That probe closed its fact-finding phase in July.
The league's penalties landed on the Clippers: a one-year suspension for owner Steve Ballmer, five forfeited first-round picks and a $30 million fine, the Associated Press reported. Leonard was fined $700,000 and was not suspended, which cleared the trade to be completed earlier this month.
The move returns Leonard to the franchise he led to its only NBA championship in 2019, when he was Finals MVP, before leaving for the Clippers in free agency that summer. He is a seven-time All-Star and a two-time champion and Finals MVP.
What Toronto is paying for
Leonard is coming off the highest-scoring season of his career. In 65 games for the Clippers in 2025-26 he averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.9 steals in 32.1 minutes while shooting 50.5% from the field, 38.7% from three and 89.2% from the line. He finished seventh in MVP voting and made the All-NBA Second Team.
The extension pushes Toronto's 2027-28 commitments to about $178 million for seven players, against a projected $176 million salary cap, per HoopsRumors. CBS Sports noted that the deal makes Leonard the eighth player in NBA history to lock in more than $500 million in career earnings.
Leonard's deal is the latest in a run of preseason extensions, following Ausar Thompson's five-year, $155 million deal with the Pistons and Keyonte George's extension with the Jazz.
Source: HoopsRumors, ESPN
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