The Los Angeles Clippers spent much of the summer trying to put the Kawhi Leonard investigation behind them. They apologized to fans, said they were moving on, and made the trade that sent Leonard back to the Toronto Raptors and brought Brandon Ingram to Los Angeles.
Now the first major piece of that reset is already delayed.
Ingram will not be available to start the 2026-27 season after surgery in May addressed a right heel injury and a partially torn Achilles tendon, the team announced Sept. 28. The Clippers said he will be reevaluated around late October or November, leaving his debut date unresolved as the season approaches.
That is a difficult opening for a team trying to establish a new direction around one of the biggest roster changes of the offseason. Ingram was supposed to be part of the return in the Leonard deal agreed to on June 30, a trade that also brought guard Gradey Dick and draft assets to Los Angeles. Instead, the Clippers’ new centerpiece is starting from the sideline.
Ingram said he had been dealing with pain throughout the year with the Raptors before the injury was identified. He underwent surgery in May after the issue was discovered, and the Clippers later confirmed that the procedure addressed both the heel problem and the Achilles tear.
The timing matters because the Clippers are not simply waiting on a rotation player. They are trying to move into a new phase after a summer defined by the investigation into Leonard and the fallout around it. Leonard himself acknowledged the distraction when he returned to Toronto, saying, “I already was a distraction for the past 70 days.”
For the Clippers, the trade was supposed to be the clean break. Instead, the player acquired in that deal is unavailable when the season begins.
Ingram’s production last season showed why he was such a central part of the return. He averaged 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists for the Raptors, playing 33.8 minutes in 77 regular-season games. He also missed the final two games of Toronto’s first-round series loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers because of the heel injury before the surgery.
The Clippers now have to open the season without that scoring and without the chance to see how Ingram fits alongside the rest of the roster. His recovery timeline leaves the team waiting into late October or November for another update, and the start of the season will come before that.
That leaves Los Angeles in an awkward spot: trying to turn the page on the Leonard investigation while the player brought in to help define the next chapter is still in rehab. The trade was meant to mark the beginning of something new. For now, the new era begins with Ingram out.