As productive as the offseason has been for the Los Angeles Clippers, contirbuting to a rebuilding effort that started at the trade deadline with the trades of James Harden and Ivica Zubac, there is still one major factor holding up their final efforts to revamp their team ahead of next season, and it doesn't look like it's going to be resolved anytime soon. 

The issue in question is the NBA's ongoing investigation into the the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard to see if the team and their star attempted to circumvent the NBA salary cap through a $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration, a green banking company that has since been bankrupted with many former executives charged with defrauding investors, including Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. 

The league started the investigation in early September 2025 and an entire season and most of the offseason has passed without any conclusions, with ESPN's Shams Charania reporting recently that the investigation is still "weeks away" from being finished. 

That's a problem for the Clippers because the investigation is now holding up their trade of Leonard to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Grady Dick, Brandon Ingram as well as multiple first and second round picks and a 2027 first-round pick swap. 

The trade was halted when the league informed the Raptors that they would have to assume any consequences incurred from the investigation if they brought Leonard on to their team and in response, pressed pause on the trade until the investigation was finished. 

Now that the investigation is taking so long though, new questions are being raised as to what shpukd happen if the investigation extends into next season and the trade still isn't official, an issue that a recent article from The Athletic outlined. 

“It certainly seems at least possible that we have a limbo situation where Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick are still technically Raptors when training camp starts in October, and Leonard is still technically a Clipper," John Hollinger wrote. 

That would certainly be an awkward situation and it's one that doesn't have much of a precedent in the NBA. The deal is essentially agreed upon already and with three active players possibly having to suit up for teams that they know they only play for because of circumstances beyond their control presents both Toronto and Los Angeles with issues of team construction and operation polices. 

Should they simply sit Leonard, Dick and Ingram until the investigation is finished? Or do they continue to play on as usual and run the risk of them injuring the assets they've already agreed to exchange? 

These are the questions that the delay in this investigation poses and there aren't any satisfactory answers or a clear code of conduct on how to proceed in this hypothetical scenario. The only thing that can provide clarity now is the NBA finishing their inquisition and coming to a conclusion that both teams can use to move forward.