LAST VEGAS — The NBA is in kind of a weird place — and no, this story is not about the Kawhi Leonard saga. That is its own category of weird. 

What I’m referencing is how on one hand the business is booming in ways that are almost unimaginable from even a decade ago, let alone a generation or two ago. 

Don’t worry, I’ll get around to how this affects the Toronto Raptors at the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League in a minute, but allow me some context first.

As a simple shorthand for the robustness of the NBA economy: the Raptors' longest-serving NBA player this coming season is Jakob Poeltl, who will be playing his 11th season in 2026-27. 

He was drafted in 2016. At the time, the NBA salary cap was $70 million, or $85 million when adjusted for inflation. For 2026-27, the salary cap is $165 million, more than double or nearly double, depending how you look at it. 

Either way it’s a lot of money, which is how Poeltl has $104 million remaining on his contract — a topic for another day. 

The NBA splits its basketball-related income evenly, for the most part, with the 30 owners sharing about half of the $11.68 billion the league took in last year and the league’s players dividing the remain $5.84 billion. 

But somehow, there still isn’t enough money. 

Earlier this week, San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama raised some eyebrows when he signed a five-year contract extension for $252 million. The shock wasn’t the amount of the contract; it was that it wasn’t enough.

By waiving a bonus structure that would make him eligible for a $303-million contract if he made an all-NBA team, won MVP or Defensive Player of the Year — hardly a stretch given he was first-team all-NBA and Defensive player of the Year last season — Wembanyama has given the Spurs more wiggle room to sign players that can help him win a championship. He’s taking less so the Spurs can do more. It’s admirable, but raises the question of how teams can share in nearly $6 billion in revenue and not have enough money to sign the players they need, so the players end up taking less.

One of the biggest moves of this off-season was the Boston Celtics' decision to trade five-time all-star Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers. Even with........

© Sportsnet