The Toronto Raptors and the San Antonio Spurs have agreed on a deal that will send DeMar DeRozan to the Lone Star state and Kawhi Leonard to the only NBA franchise north of the border.
The Spurs will send Leonard and Danny Green to the Raptors for DeRozan, Austrian center Jakob Poeltl, and a protected 2019 NBA draft first-round pick.
The deal, which was first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, comes at a great risk for Toronto since they’re giving up a lot for what could end up being a one-year rental of Leonard. So why did they do it?
The Raptors have reportedly concluded that they would have a hard time beating the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers with the team that they currently have thus needed a drastic change. Since their front office wanted financial freedom to improve the team, they decided to take a gamble on Leonard even if it’s only for a year.
By taking a chance on this trade the Raptors are getting a player than when healthy is among the best in the league and will now have to work hard to convince him to stay in Toronto.
If they fail at that and they lose him in free agency next year they would need to start to rebuild right away, but since Leonard and Green’s contracts expire next season they will have the cap space and flexibility they need.
Thus, they could then pursue future trades to lure in players from the 2019 talented free-agent class and have them play along with their own talented young core.
Leonard and DeRozan aren’t happy about the trade. DeRozan wanted to stay in Toronto and hoped the franchise would stay loyal to him after he re-signed a new contract in 2016 without even entering free agency.
As for Leonard, he wanted to be traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, but the Spurs refused to send him to a conference rival and further improve a team that just acquired LeBron James.
While DeRozan expressed his displeasure with the trade on Instagram, Leonard has reportedly said that he has no desire of playing with the Raptors and could choose instead to sit out next season.
DeRozan wrote on his Instagram that he’s been told one thing and the outcome was another. “Can’t trust em. Aint no loyalty in this game. Sell you out quick for a little bit of nothing…”
Furthermore, ESPN’s Chris Haynes first reported that Leonard “has no desire to play” with the Raptors, and Sean Deveney of Sporting News later reported something similar adding that league sources told them that there are indications that he could sit out the entire season if necessary.
The Spurs ended getting far less than what they expected for Leonard after possible trade talks with the Celtics and the 76ers fell off and were left with no option but to ship Leonard to Toronto instead of losing him for nothing during the next free agency period.
