Ramona Shelburne on Kawhi Leonard Clippers future

    by Emeka Q Rossi: Kawhi Leonard

    Ramona Shelburne says if a trade doesn't happen, Kawhi Leonard could still be back with the Clippers, and the team is fine with that scenario

    Transcript (en)

    Does that open up the possibility that Kawhi Leonard could be on the Clippers to start the season? Yes. I mean, it sounds crazy after a trade like this, but this was the Toronto Raptors being given a choice of are you willing to assume the risks of something happening with Kawhi Leonard after the investigation is completed and they are not willing to assume those risks. And so if they're not, then we get to the end of the summer and there's not a resolution here and there's nobody from the NBA who can say with 100% certainty that there won't be any fallout for Kawhi Leonard specifically, then it's up to the Raptors. And I understand that because we just saw what happened with the Miami Heat and Terry Rozier. The NBA had an investigation. A couple of people pointed me to this very specifically. They had an investigation into Rozier. They didn't find anything. And then a year later, after the Heat had traded for him, they get stuck with a player who is now out of the league and they had given up draft compensation. Right. And settled that out of court. So I can see a world in which Kawhi Leonard is back on the Clippers if this trade doesn't go through. And the Clippers, quite frankly, are fine with that. Now, they did the trade. They like Brandon Ingram. But they like Kawhi Leonard, too. This only happened because they weren't really willing to extend him. I can't.