Significant Transactions That Have Yet To Be Finalized

The Clippers agreed to trade Kawhi Leonard to the Raptors on June 30, but that blockbuster deal has been on hold until the NBA competed its investigation into whether the Clippers circumvented the salary cap to pay Leonard through a series of 'no-show' endorsement deals. The league announced the results of that investigation last week, imposing major penalties on the Clippers after they were found to have violated the NBA's rules against salary cap circumvention. Los Angeles strongly disagreed with the league's decision despite the overwhelming evidence within the report from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the law firm that conducted the investigation. However, the main reason the trade was on pause was because Toronto wanted to see what penalties Leonard would face. The star forward was required to pay $700K to the league, but he was not suspended and won't have his contract voided. As such, the trade is expected to be finalized in the near future. Assuming the original terms of the trade still stand, the Clippers will receive Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks (in 2031 and 2033), two second-rounders (2030 and 2033) and a first-round pick swap (2027) from Toronto in exchange for Leonard. There are also a few relatively significant free agent signings that have yet to be formally completed. James Harden agreed to a three-year, $97MM contract with the Cavaliers on August 20. But even after waiving Cam Whitmore (Cleveland is expected to spread his salary over three seasons using the stretch provision) and signing former second-round pick Khalifa Diop to a rookie minimum contract, the Cavs haven't made Harden's deal official yet. As our Luke Adams wrote Saturday in a Front Office Original, the Cavs are hard-capped at the first tax apron after acquiring Peyton Watson via sign-and-trade and would be unable to sign a 15th player for the entire 2026/27 season unless Harden ends up making a little less than the reported terms of his deal. Adams views that outcome as the most plausible, but a second possibility would be the Cavs making another roster move to create the financial flexibility to pay Harden that full $97MM. Adams also took a closer look at why the Pelicans haven't finalized their two-year, $16MM contract with Bennedict Mathurin, which was reported on August 26. Due to the unlikely incentives included in the contracts for Jordan Poole, Dejounte Murray, and Saddiq Bey, the Pelicans would surpass the first tax apron — at which they'll be hard-capped after signing Mathurin using more than the taxpayer portion of the mid-level exception. So New Orleans has to make at least one cost-cutting move before signing Mathurin, and that deal will likely move the team below the luxury tax in the process (signing Mathurin at the reported terms of his deal would push the Pelicans over the tax line). There are no cap-related reasons preventing the Nuggets from officially signing DeMar DeRozan, since they'll be using the minimum salary exception to add the veteran forward. DeRozan agreed to sign a one-year deal with Denver on August 21. This is just my speculation, but perhaps the Nuggets are looking to move below the second tax apron before DeRozan formalizes his contract. They're currently about $2MM above that threshold and adding DeRozan would put them approximately $4.5MM over the second apron.