Five Raptors thoughts as dust on Kawhi Leonard trade settles
It still doesn’t feel exactly real, the idea — or the fact — that Kawhi Leonard is a Toronto Raptor again.
But that’s what happened on Tuesday. And there was so much understandable excitement around the reality of it that some of the secondary questions that sprang up fell by the wayside as we tried to digest the big picture of Leonard wearing No. 2 again at Scotiabank Arena.
That’s what we’ll try to do here, with the caveat that Sportsnet colleague Blake Murphy already dug into the salary-cap implications of adding Leonard’s $50.3-million contract to the books for the 2026-27 season as well as what will likely be a two-year extension in the range of $125 million. My primary comment — without digging into the nitty gritty — is that the Raptors project to have a payroll of more than $202 million, which is above the $201-million luxury-tax threshold and perilously close to the $209 million first apron, over which they can’t spend.
After signing second-year guard Alijah Martin to a two-year contract for the league minimum, they now have 12 guaranteed contracts on their books and will have to be very judicious with how they fill out the back end of their roster.
Okay, onto the takeaways, Kawhi edition:
Miss ya, Mamu: The Raptors had one significant free agent they were hoping to re-sign and it was Sandro Mamukelashvili, the stretch big who had a breakout season with the Raptors and inevitably didn’t pick up the $2.8 million option he had for next season. I had previously reported that the market for his skillset — he shot 38 per cent from three this past season, moved the ball well and was at least opportunistic defensively — would be pretty significant and the Raptors would have a hard time keeping him with the cap room they would have or be able to create even before the Leonard deal. Mamukelashvili was definitely open to coming back to Toronto — sources close to the situation said there was “constant” and “collaborative” communication with the........
