The Raptors' Kawhi Leonard Reunion Is Working — It Just Hasn't Started Yet

The most interesting thing that happened to the Toronto Raptors this week wasn't a win. It was a non-appearance.

On Saturday in Vancouver, Toronto beat the LA Clippers 114-106 in the first meeting between the two clubs since the Kawhi Leonard trade — a deal that took months to finalize while the NBA investigated the Clippers for cap circumvention and was only completed on Sept. 14. Leonard did not play in that game. He hasn't played in any preseason game, per ClutchPoints, and has been a limited participant in training camp, brought along slowly by the Raptors' staff.

That's the story of the week in Toronto, and it cuts two ways.

What Toronto is actually waiting on

Leonard's own explanation, reported by ClutchPoints, is that the delayed trade left him behind schedule and he needs ramp-up time. Fair enough. But it's worth remembering what version of Leonard the Raptors acquire when he's available. In 2025 he averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists across 65 games, shooting 50.5 percent from the floor, 38.7 percent from three and 89.2 percent at the line in 32.1 minutes a night. That is a top-tier two-way wing season by any measure.

The caveat is baked into the same sentence: 65 games. Leonard's availability, not his ability, has always been the variable, and bringing him along slowly in October is a reasonable hedge against an October that doesn't matter.

The win that matters anyway

What made Saturday compelling is that Toronto didn't need him. Scottie Barnes — coming off a 2025 season of 18.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists across 80 games, and a playoff stretch where he averaged 24.4 points, 9.6 assists and 2.2 blocks over his final five outings — gives the Raptors a genuine co-star rather than a solo act. Immanuel Quickley found his three-point stroke in the second preseason game, and Jakob Poeltl answered a rough opener against Miami with a much stronger showing on the glass and around the rim, per Raptors Rapture.

There's also a quieter piece of good news: the Brandon Ingram Achilles revelation. Ingram's partially torn Achilles was discovered during offseason heel surgery, and it retroactively explains his disappointing 2026 postseason with Toronto before he was sent to the Clippers in the Leonard deal. For the Raptors, that's an argument that the front office sold at the right moment.

What it means for the season

Toronto finished 2025-26 at 46-36 with a plus-2.8 point differential, scoring 114.6 and allowing 111.8. In a points-based power rating that includes strength of schedule, the Raptors closed ninth nationally — up three spots from 12th — with an adjustment already docked for RJ Barrett's absence.

Externally, the market has Toronto's win total at 46.5 and championship futures around +2500, implying roughly a 3-4 percent title probability. Both numbers describe a good team with a wide range of outcomes, not a finished contender.

That range is the whole point. The Raptors' ceiling in 2026-27 is a healthy Leonard plus a rising Barnes plus a functional frontcourt. The floor is another season spent waiting to see whether the centerpiece is on the floor. Right now, in mid-October, Toronto is somewhere in between — winning games it shouldn't need to win, and waiting on the one player who decides how far this goes.