The Trade Is Done. Now the Hard Part.

The Leonard deal is finally official — two and a half months after it was agreed to, Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick are Clippers, and Kawhi Leonard is headed back to Toronto. The paperwork cleared. The reset can begin.

Except the reset begins with a federal investigation open, five first-round picks already stripped, a $30 million fine levied, and Steve Ballmer suspended for the year. That's the backdrop as training camp approaches. Ingram and Beal are both day-to-day, Jordan Miller is ruled out entirely, and the roster the front office spent the summer assembling has yet to practice together in any meaningful form.

The basketball case for this group is real enough. Harden averaged 8.1 assists last season and Zubac — 13.9 points and 10.6 rebounds — gives them a legitimate anchor in the paint. Adding Ingram's scoring and Max Strus's perimeter efficiency around that core makes sense on paper. The problem last season wasn't the personnel concept; it was that Harden's usage spiked late and his efficiency cratered, and the team had no one to absorb the load. The new wings are supposed to fix that.

Whether they get the chance to prove it is a separate question. The Clippers are operating without draft capital for the foreseeable future, with ownership in legal limbo and their most important new piece still working back to health. The trade is done. Everything else is still very much unsettled.