J-Speaks: Spurs and Raptors Make Blockbuster Deal

Coming into the 2018 NBA off-season besides where four-time league MVP LeBron James was going to sign, is not if but when would the five-time defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs trade two-time Kia Defensive Player of the Year and MVP candidate the prior two seasons Kawhi Leonard. After being rumored to be headed to the West Coast to join the Los Angeles Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers of the Northeast, the 2014 Finals MVP is going to the team who’s mantra is “We the North.” 

Last Wednesday, the Spurs dealt the 27-year-old small forward along with sharp shooter Danny Green to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for the team’s all-time leading scorer and four-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan, backup center Jakob Poeltl and a 2019 protected First-Round pick, that would be in the range of No. 1 overall to No. 20. 

“It’s on to another chapter with the Raptors and were excited to welcome Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green to our fold,” Raptors’ president Masai Ujiri said of the new additions on Friday. 

That same day the Raptors posted on their twitter page @Raptors a photo of their newest acquisition, displaying a semblance of a smile flanked by Ujiri on the right and general manager Bobby Webster. 

Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich, the new head coach for the United States National team spoke of the Spurs conclusion to the Leonard saga by saying, “Kawhi obviously worked very hard to become the player that he is. Our staff worked very hard to help him get there and we wish him all the best as he moves on to Toronto, I think he’s going to be great.” 

“With DeMar coming to San Antonio I couldn’t be happier I think this trade is going to be good for both teams. DeMar is obviously a four-time All-Star. All-NBA player. He’s been great in the community there. A team player. Somebody that I’ve respected and watched player for a while now, and we’re thrilled to have him here.

Popovich also added, “We wish [Leonard] well, but at this point it’s time to move on. It’s time to move on.” 

Popovich added as reported on the ESPN news crawl that night, “It’s time to move on and focus on his team. We got a lot of young kids and it’s exciting.” 

As to including Green in the deal, Popovich said, “It was hard, he’s become a good player. He’ll enjoy Toronto.” 

While his time with the Spurs has concluded, Popovich and Leonard’s being on the same court on the same side may not be as he said he expects Leonard to be in Las Vegas, NV later in the week for Team USA’s minicamp and that he is very much, “looking forward” to coaching him there, according to a report from ESPN NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski. 

“The Worldwide Leader in Sports’” Wojnarowski also reported that that the Spurs and Raptors had been in discussion of pulling off this deal for a while, and a source said to Turner Sports’ David Aldridge that a long term stay by Leonard in Canada will be a “very tough sell,” as he will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2019. 

While Leonard, who played in just nine games this past season for the Spurs recovering from a lingering right quadriceps injury, DeRozan who spent his entire nine-year NBA career with the Raptors was shocked that he was traded after being told the week prior at the NBA Summer League by the top brass of the Raptors in Las Vegas, NV just a week prior that he would not be. 

The No. 9 overall pick out of USC by the Raptors in 2009 posted on his Instagram page demar_derozan that morning saying, “Be told one thing & the outcome another. Ain’t no loyalty in this game. Sell you out for a quick bit of nothing… Soon you’ll understand…Don’t disturb.” 

For both Leonard and DeRozan, the major question is how did we get to this point where both were dealt for each other?  

Leonard, the No. 15 overall pick in the 2011 draft by the Indiana Pacers, who dealt him to the Spurs for backup guard George Hill, now with the three-time defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers along with the draft rights to center Davis Bertans announced that he would be out to start the season on Sept. 30, 2017. He missed the first 27 games. 

After returning for eight games, Leonard suffered a partially torn left shoulder and he played just one game after that. 

The Spurs on Jan 17 declared Leonard would be out indefinitely due to that same quad injury. 

On Feb. 21, Spurs doctors reportedly cleared Leonard to return to the lineup, but he did not play another game for the rest of the regular season and their previously mentioned playoff setback to the Warriors after seeking a second opinion from an outside doctor.

The fishy recovery time was compounded by his separation with the team to where he did not accompany the Spurs for road games, and his absence was very noticeable during the postseason, where the only appearance he made was at a Los Angeles Dodgers game 21 days later. 

The other glaring thing this trade did for the Spurs is that they said goodbye to a player that so much fit the mold of great Spurs’ pillars of their past like Hall of Famer David Robinson; future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan; Tony Parker, who moved on to the Charlotte Hornets recently and Manu Ginobili who has yet to decide if he will return for another season with the team. 

“I think we’ll move on from here,” is what Robinson said to Rachel Nichols on ESPN’s “NBA: The Jump” on Monday afternoon. “I think we’re happy with the deal and we’ll continue to grow and get better.” 

Robinson also pointed out that Leonard’s quiet demeanor, which has been a great asset to him in his career was a real crutch in him and the Spurs being able to understand what each side wanted, which led to him being dealt to the Raptors. 

In the case of DeRozan, the Raptors said goodbye to their all-time leader in scoring (13,296); field goals made (4,716) and attempted (10,532); free throws made (3,359) and attempted (4,277) and games played (675). He also ranks third in franchise history in assists (2,078) and second all-time in steals (655). 

Since earning his first All-Star selection in 2013-14, DeRozan has averaged 23.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists during that time. He was recently named to the All-NBA Second Team after being named All-NBA Third team last year. 

While he averaged the same number of points this past season, DeRozan who had been a mid-range jump shooter the first seven seasons of his career, increased his range making a career-high 89 three-pointers in 2017-18. 

On Saturday, DeRozan posted on his Instagram a thank you note to the fans of Canada that said, “Words could never express what you’ve meant to me. I was just a 19-year-old kid from Compton when we first met, but you took me in and embraced me as one of your own. I am so grateful for the Love and Passion that you’ve given me over the past 9 years. All I ever wanted to do was duplicate it 10x over just to show my appreciation. Thank you Toronto, thank you Canada. #Comp10#ProveEm.”

What also makes his trade to the Spurs a solid choice is that he has three years and $83 million left on his contract, which includes an Early Termination Option for the 2020-21 season. 

In the case of the Raptors, this move was one of many for the No. 1 Seed in the East with a 59-23 mark this past regular season. 

Despite being the No. 1 Seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time in their history, they fell very short of their own expectations as they were swept in the East Semifinals by the Cavs. 

That led to the firing of head coach Dwane Casey-the NBA’s Coach of the Year days after that 4-0 sweep and was eventually replaced by assistant coach Nick Nurse. 

Shortly after the Casey’s ouster, Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri said of the team making changes, “It is something we’re looking at… not saying this roster is perfect.” 

“Things we need to do and I need to do to get better. Roster changes is not something I can change today. Sometimes [it takes] takes two months, sometimes a year, sometimes two years.” 

Well for the Raptors it took a little over two months moved the Raptors into the conversation with the Atlantic Division champion and East runner up Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers as contenders to take over the East in 2018-19 with James taking his talents to Hollywood joining the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this off-season. 

Even with that new beginning, Ujiri took the time to apologize to DeRozan for not being fourth coming about him being traded. 

“I not only want to apologize to DeMar DeRozan for maybe a gap of miscommunication, but also to acknowledge him and what he’s done here with the Raptors, for this city, for this country.” the Raptors’ president said to the media on July 20. 

“There’s no measure to what this kid has done and we appreciate him, and I promise you that we’re going to celebrate him in the best possible way.”

On Wednesday July 20, 2018, the Toronto Raptors and the San Antonio Spurs made a blockbuster trade that changed the focus for the both teams. 

In the case of the Raptors, they took a major gamble in bringing in a player in Kawhi Leonard who made no guarantees that he would remain with them after the conclusion of this upcoming season. 

They said goodbye to a player that worked himself into not only one of the best players in the league, but in franchise history and forged an incredible bond with backcourt mate and fellow All-Star lead guard Kyle Lowry. 

Also, DeRozan wanted to be a Raptor even before they began being in the conversation of one of the best team’s in the East. 

They made the move because despite winning 263 games in the regular season combined the last five seasons, the most in the East by far, their last three postseason runs ended at the hands of LeBron James and the Cavaliers, with the last two in four game sweeps in the Conference Finals in 2017 and as mentioned in the Semis in 2018. 

They made this move to give themselves the chance that the teams before them like the Milwaukee Bucks of the mid-1980s; the Cavaliers of Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, and Larry Nance, Sr. in the late 1980s and early 1990s and the Sacramento Kings of the early 2000s failed to capitalize on against the Celtics of Larry Bird, Michael Jordan’s Bulls and Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant’s Lakers respectably. 

“Hopefully on paper we feel we have a team that can compete in the East and maybe hopefully compete for a championship in this league and that’s why we play,” Ujiri said of adding a player in Leonard, whose .764 winning percentage is the best in NBA history for a player who played in a minimum of 400 regular season games. 

“That’s why we play sports, is to win and compete for a championship. So, we’re really excited about this. Bringing a Top 5 player in the NBA into our fold and hopefully this will kind of elevate us as much as we want.”

For the Spurs, their future is pretty simple, build their team around DeRozan, All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge and likely starting lead guard Dejounte Murray and the No. 18 pick of June’s draft in guard Lonnie Walker IV. 

In a perfect world, the Spurs would have loved to have found a way to keep a player in Leonard that was as close to a perfect reflection of the kind of player that represented them both on and off the hardwood. 

When that was not in the cards, the Spurs front office of R.C. Buford and Peter Holt and Popovich looked to get the best deal and while they would have loved to have made a deal with the Lakers, Sixers, or Celtics. When those stars did not align, the Spurs had to find the best option to not only move on from a player that clearly did not want to be part of their program anymore, but to acquire as close to the value of Leonard as they could, which as mentioned resulted in DeRozan and Poeltl. 

“Attempts were made to see what would be best and in the end this trade appeared, and we felt that this was the way to go,” Popovich said about the trade last week. 

It got to a point that the Spurs had to make a decision on what to do and they traded a great player, as well as a very important player in Green to their team the past few seasons and got in return an All-Star player who as Popovich mentioned earlier respect for his ability on the floor and the kind of person he is off of it and they will move forward to what they hope will be their 21^st season in succession of making the playoffs and seeing how far they can go. 

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 6/21/18 7 p.m. ESPN coverage of the 2018 NBA Draft from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, presented by State Farm with Rece Davis, Chauncey Billups, Jay Bilas, Adrian Wojnarowski, Maria Taylor, Pedro Gomez, Shelly Smith, and Jorge Sedano; 7/18/18 3 p.m. edition of “NBA: The Jump” on ESPN with Rachel Nichols, Amin Elhassan, and Nick Friedell; 7/19/18 3 p.m. edition of “NBA: The Jump,” on ESPN with Rachel Nichols, Amin Elhassan, and Dave McMenamin; 7/20/18 www.nba.com article, “Masai Ujiri Sees Championship Potential in Toronto Raptors after Kawhi Leonard trade;” 7/21/18 www.nba.com article, “DeMar DeRozan Says Goodbye to Toronto and Raptors franchise;” 7/23/18 www.nba.com article, “Masai Ujiri Bold Gamble on Toronto Raptors’ Title Potential with Kawhi Leonard trade,” by David Aldridge; 7/20/18 11:30 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Ros Gold-Onwude and Dennis Scott; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawhi_Leonard; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeMar_DeRozan.