Will Kawhi fit in with the Raptors?

By: Adamo Marinelli

July 18th, 2018

    This morning, NBA fans around the world woke up to the news that longtime Raptor Demar DeRozan, a cornerstone in the franchise had been traded to San Antonio with Jakob Poeltl and a conditional 2019 first round pick in exchange for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.

    Kawhi Leonard, an NBA champion with the Spurs in 2014, a finals MVP in 2014 and a two time Kia Defensive Player of the Year, didn’t even want to go to Toronto, he even threatened to sit out the whole season in Toronto.

    Trading your best player for someone who didn’t even want to play for your team seemed like the beginning of the end for the Raptors.

    This move justifies Boogie’s move to Golden State and proves loyalty is just a word in the dictionary to the people in the NBA. It means nothing to any of the players or teams.

    This is evident in Demar DeRozan, potentially the franchise player in Toronto who led them to many playoff appearances and a conference final appearance in 2016, where they were two games away from the NBA finals being traded away for a player who in theory might get bring a championship but in reality might not even play for Toronto. That’s a waste of Demar’s talent and a future team member with a conditional first round 2019 pick.

    I realize that the NBA is a business and teams will do all in their power to achieve the ultimate goal - to win a championship, but trading your franchise player for a player who doesn’t even want to play for your team just seems like more of a personal attack rather than a business transaction.

    DeRozan wanted to be a Raptor for life, and Kawhi had apparently made it clear he never wanted to come to Toronto. Yet, here we are after the shocking but expected trade as the two teams have been working on a deal involving Derozan and Kawhi for a while.

    Raptors owner, Masai Ujiri apologized to Demar DeRozan regarding miscommunication as Ujiri said DeRozan wouldn’t be traded at the 2018 draft on June 21st, 2018, despite he was traded today. He then thanked Derozan for all he brought to the Raptors in the nine years he was with the team and anticipated an excellent era with Kawhi. Then, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich addressed the trade, saying: “We wish him well as he moves into Toronto. I think he’ll be great,” Popovich said. “I think this trade is going to work out great for both teams. We wish [Leonard] well, but at this point, it's time to move on. It's time to move on…. Kawhi is not going to stop being a great player. But we’re thrilled with DeMar.... To get back a proven NBA player and a proven all-star, we have to be thrilled.”

    Despite Kawhi’s talent, with all the rumors and gossip surrounding his name like how he wanted to go to the Lakers but he didn’t want to be the second man to Lebron even though he could have been just as good, if not better than Lebron (as with more good teammates in Los Angeles, his points, rebounds and assists should theoretically decrease as other players excluding Lebron will have high stats) but he isn’t even willing to actually go to the Lakers and compete with Lebron to be the best player on the team, he just wants to go to the Lakers but doesn’t want to be Lebron’s sidekick and this makes him seem like an ‘obnoxious diva’ according to sportscaster and journalist Michelle Beadle. What’s ironic about this though, is the Lakers would have signed him or traded for him if the Raptors didn’t trade for him. With all things considered, why would the Raptors even want to have a player like that? I guess it’s pretty obvious that talent trumps rumours and personality. Although, Popovich was clearly getting annoyed by all the talk surrounding Leonard, which was potentially one of the reasons for the trade.

    And Kawhi has talent. He’s talented on both sides of the ball, he can shoot, he has handles and he can make plays on offence and on defence. His accolades speak for themselves: an NBA champion, a finals MVP, and a two time defensive player of the year. In addition, he’s a good teammate for the most part, except recently when he made it clear he wanted to leave the Spurs and go to the Lakers but didn’t want to be Lebron’s second man while he’s there.

    But, he got traded to Toronto and fans all over the league, even Raptors fans criticized the Raptors’ management for giving up their superstar for an all-star, but an all-star in Kawhi Leonard who doesn’t want to be in Toronto, doesn’t want to play with the Raptors and who threatened to sit out for the entire season, despite the possible consequences that might arise if he sits out the season. Essentially, if Kawhi didn’t play, the Raptors would have given up Demar for nothing.

    However, an hour ago at about 8:30pm on July 18th, the day he was traded, he started to lighten up to the idea of playing to Toronto and said he wouldn’t mind playing in Toronto and trying to win a championship in Toronto alongside Lowry, Valanciunas, OG Anunoby, Serge Ibaka, Pascal Siakam and former Spurs teammate Danny Green who are now both teammates in Toronto.

     Despite Kawhi has lightened up to the idea of playing in Toronto and possibly winning a championship for the Raptors, he still hasn’t publicly declared himself as a member of the Toronto Raptors, although it is only his first day here, most of which he spent not wanting to be in Toronto, so with some time, he’ll eventually publicly declare himself as a Raptor.

     Demar DeRozan meant a lot and brought a lot to the Raptors and we praise him for that, but a deal has been done, that we as fans must accept, and now we must move on to a new era: an era where Kawhi Leonard plays for the Raptors and uses his talent to potentially bring a championship to Toronto, once-and-for-all.