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Is Kawhi now a villain in Canada?
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Published Sep 11, 2025 • Last updated 2 minutes ago • 5 minute read
Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers
Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers attends the men's singles semifinal match between Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada and Jannik Sinner of Italy of the 2025 US Open on Sept. 5, 2025 in New York. Photo by Sarah Stier /Getty Images
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The 2025-26 Toronto Raptors season is only weeks away, with training camp opening on September 29, so it’s time for our first mailbag of the season.
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So what if most of the questions right now are about a certain ex-Raptor, Kawhi Leonard-gate is one of the biggest stories in all of sports, so it makes sense.
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But you also want to know about young Raptors and veteran Brandon Ingram, the biggest addition to the team in years.
Here we go:
Phil, Ottawa: “How many minutes per game does Collin Murray-Boyles get throughout the season, assuming no major injuries?
RW: Working against Murray-Boyles is the fact the team’s best player, Scottie Barnes has averaged nearly 35 minutes a night and plays his position. Jakob Poeltl just played a career-high 29.6 minutes a game too and Sandro Mamukelashvili is having a great tournament this summer and will be in line for 15-20 himself. Let’s mark Murray-Boyles down for about 15 minutes a game to start, with the workload potentially increasing as he gets acclimated to the NBA.
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The Little Dunker: “There’s been a lot of talk about (Murray-Boyles’) broken jumper. Do u think it’s that bad? Do u think they they’ll have him shooting any 3s at all to start improving?”
RW: It’s been overstated a bit, in my opinion. Murray-Boyles might not have a Klay Thompson or Ray Allen thing of beauty jump shot, but I’ve seen dozens of players with far less natural looking shots. He’s now had months to work with the massive Raptors staff and with NBA people around him every day, you can bet he Murray-Boyles will have made strides even since the draft process (and he was already saying post-draft he’d improved as a shooter since his last college games).
If he or Barnes can become even league average outside shooters, they both become two monster pieces for the club (and Barnes has already been good enough to make an all-star team and win rookie of the year as is).
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Chrispb.bsky.social: “Could the Raptors sue (Clippers owner Steve) Ballmer?”
RW: No, that’s not something that would be on the table (though wouldn’t it be interesting if the Clippers had theoretically signed a marquee free agent away from famously litigious New York Knicks owner James Dolan!
Peibasketball.bsky.social: “(Kawhi Leonard) needs to be suspended for 2 yrs (CBA limits 1yr – smh) and his contract voided, his family members involved in this and other instances of shaking down franchises should be barred from all NBA events and properties , and the Clips should be fined 10x the proven off the books payments.”
RW: If there is concrete smoking gun evidence then the Clippers are going to get a monster penalty. But it’s unlikely the NBA will find it. Not everyone is as dumb as the Minnesota Timberwolves were years ago when they wrote down a breakdown of how the Joe Smith contract scam would work. Nothing’s going to happen to Leonard as there won’t be a direct connection (as in he demanded anything himself).
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(Sept. 11 edit in wake of latest Pablo Torre report): With new evidence coming out this morning linking a payment to the now-bankrupt company from Ballmer’s best friend and 1% owner of the Clippers, I think I was wrong about (a) them not being dumb enough to leave alleged evidence. (2) Everything now might be on the table as you can bet even more evidence is probably going to be found that not everything was kosher here.
Jody Lantz: “Guess there goes (Kawhi’s) statue lol.”
RW: With enough time just about anything is possible. See Vince Carter getting his jersey retired as a relevant example. Nobody would have thought that would have happened for a good decade-and-a-half post Carter’s ugly Toronto exit, but it came to pass. Leonard did lead the Raptors to a title. A statue is a bit much, but if they ever establish a Raptors Ring of Honour type of thing like the Blue Jays do with the Level of Excellence, Leonard has to be on there at some point, doesn’t he?
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Pierro: “There are always rumours around, I know the ACC (or whatever they call it now) has leaks. Did you hear anything at the time? (About outlandish demands from Leonard’s camp?”
RW: I wrote at the time about this and reiterated it last week. There was plenty of buzz about the situation from various corners (the Raptors and otherwise). It was one of the main topics in Las Vegas that week. Heard all kinds of allegations about the asks from the Leonard side, but it was hard to tell how much hyperbole was being spouted and how much was closer to factual.
Gregory G.: “I love adding (Ingram) to the squad, and think he’ll be the Raptors’ leading scorer. How do you see the team’s points being spread out across a presumed starting 5 of (Poeltl, Barnes, Ingram, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley)?”
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RW: Barrett has led the Raptors in scoring in the 1.5 seasons since his arrival from New York, but I agree Ingram is going to supplant him. Ingram is a much more consistent shooter than Barrett and an even more dynamic one-on-one scorer. Barrett probably goes back to a 17 or 18 point a night guy, Poeltl lives mostly on put-backs and floaters and averages two points fewer than the 14.5 he scored last year, Ingram around 22, Quickley to 19 points a game for the first time and Barnes tops 20 to set a new mark for himself.
Dan: “Do you foresee any consistent impactful scorers off the bench? Lots of folk hoping for Gradey (Dick) to do so, but I don’t see it.”
RW: This looks like a potential weakness for the club and a reason why head coach Darko Rajakovic is probably going to have to use one or two of Barnes, Ingram, Quickley or Barrett with other reserves instead of simply five bench players at once like a hockey line change. Most of the reserves, aside from Dick, are defence-first types (Jamal Shead, Ochai Agbaji, Ja’Kobe Walter, at least at this point, Murray-Boyles and Jonathan Mogbo).
Dick and Mamukelashvili are going to be leaned on a lot to produce offence for the second unit. Mamukelashvili is the best bet to deliver, but Dick is under the most pressure to show more in Season 3.
@WolstatSun
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