Kawhi Leonard drops 21 points in opening half of Raptors preseason debut after Clippers trade, scandal

Kawhi Leonard is back in Toronto ready to pick up where he left off.

Leonard made his debut with the Raptors officially on Tuesday night in their preseason 148-98 win over the New York Knicks. He dropped 21 points and went 4-of-8 from the 3-point line during his 17 minutes on the floor on Tuesday. Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said before the game that Leonard would be on a minutes restriction, but Leonard clearly made the most of it in Ontario.

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"It's very special that it's happening right here at home, not on some road game, but actually playing in front of our fans in Toronto,” Rajakovic said before the contest, via the CBC. "I think it's a very special day for him. Very special day for us. We're super excited to get him on the floor and to play."

Leonard hit a pair of free throws early in the opening period to get his scoring started, but he drained a perfect contested 3-pointer just minutes later for his first field goal back in the Raptors uniform. Naturally, the Scotiabank Arena fans loved it.

Leonard didn’t play in the second half, but he didn’t need to. The Raptors still cruised to the easy 50-point win. Leonard was the game’s leading scorer, but five Raptors players hit double figures while they shot 57% from the field.

Leonard spent a single season with the Raptors earlier in his career. He played for the franchise during the 2018-19 campaign, and he led them to their first and only NBA Finals win while earning Finals MVP honors. He signed with the Clippers the following season, and had been with them ever since. 

But Leonard was involved in the massive cap circumvention scandal with the Clippers over the past year. The NBA determined that the Clippers and Leonard circumvented the salary cap through deals with third-party companies. As a result, the Clippers lost five first-round draft picks and team owner Steve Ballmer was suspended for a year and fined $30 million. 

Leonard was fined $700,000 for his role in it, too. The Clippers traded Leonard to the Raptors, but the deal had been on hold due to the investigation. Once the NBA revealed its findings and punishments from the scandal, the trade went through. And as Leonard wasn’t suspended — reportedly because the league didn’t have enough evidence to make that move — he is able to start the 2026-27 season normally. He signed a two-year, $115 million extension with the Raptors last month, too.

It was just a preseason game on Tuesday night, but Leonard is clearly ready to get back to basketball in a place where he’s had so much success earlier in his career.