How the Kawhi Trade Impacts the Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs no longer hold the biggest fish in town.

With the Toronto Raptors swinging a blockbuster deal to acquire former-Finals MVP, Kawhi Leonard, the busiest summer in Toronto sports history reaches a new level. Merely suggesting that John Tavares had more than a 15% chance of being a Leaf was met with scoffs a month ago. Now, not only is Tavares (and his pj’s) back home, he’s July’s second-biggest coup.

Barring unforeseen calamity, Scotiabank Arena will see nightly action deep into June.

With this being a Leafs site, I can’t just come out and write about the Raptors. A sprinkling of Leafs talk is necessary. So, with hockey now out of the way, let’s talk basketball.

Initial Thoughts

Labelling the Kawhi trade as highly controversial is an understatement. It shouldn’t be, but it is.

From a pure basketball standpoint, what went down this morning is nothing other than a robbery committed by one Masai Ujiri. Not only did he manage to steal a top-3 NBA talent (when healthy. No, Masai somehow pulled it all off while maintaining all his young assets in the process. AND, if that wasn’t enough, he protected the Raptors’ first-round pick too! Meaning that, if Kawhi doesn’t pan out, that first becomes two seconds.

It’s not even fair.

24 hours ago, if you approached anyone with a baseline knowledge of the NBA and told them a Kawhi to the Raps deal went through WITHOUT OG Anunoby being included, you’d be arrested. Justifiably, too.

The Raptors are a far better basketball team today than they were yesterday. That’s a win.

DeRozan

On a personal level, there’s a lot to take in.

DeMar DeRozan is the central piece heading the other way, making his farewell jarringly abrupt. Today marks the conclusion of a relationship between team and player that spanned nearly a decade. Given practically no notice, emotions are, naturally, running high.

Ignoring the basketball aspects for a moment, DeMar was a model Raptor and person.

Rooting for DeRozan was easy. At a time when the Toronto market was downright radioactive to NBA free agents, DeRozan re-signed not once, but twice. With multiple opportunities to skip town, he stayed. DeMar believed in this city.

Each day following his infamous 2010 tweet, DeRozan kept his promise. Ultimately, he got us.

Lest we forget, DeMar hit free agency in the summer of 2016, a time when the NBA’s salary cap grew to unprecedented peaks. Rising $24 million from the summer before, the market, and the league as a whole, changed practically overnight.

Hitting free agency at that moment is like stumbling upon Leafs fandom hours before the 2016 draft lottery. (See, Toronto Maple Leafs talk! SEO, baby!)

GM’s began throwing star-level money at bench-level players at a worrying pace. To this day, the only explanation remains that the families of every NBA GM were being held hostage, and giving Timofey Mozgov $64 million over 4 years was the only way to set them free.

DeMar, a California native, could have easily jumped to his childhood Lakers. And the Lakers, with more money than any professional sports team should reasonably possess, would’ve paid him handsomely to do it.

For a second time, DeMar stayed. Choosing his adopted hometown over his birth one.

Would the Raptors have challenged for a title in the future with DeRozan still at the helm? Likely not. Even with a LeBron-less Eastern Conference on the horizon, the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers are both favourites to emerge victors from a seven-game series.

In the end, DeMar pushed the Raptors as far as he could. Unfortunately, the destination happened to be the Conference Finals. Sooner or later, Masai had to choose between charting a new course or resigning to mediocrity.

It wasn’t easy. Then again, these choices rarely are.

Kawhi

Kawhi’s arrival is dampened somewhat by his reported reluctance to play in Toronto. Even with the city’s re-branding as an NBA destination, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Throughout this process, the Lakers remained  Kawhi’s lone preferred destination, a stance which never wavered. Getting dealt to not only a new team, but a different country altogether, won’t make him happy. How would you feel in his position? On the surface, the Raptors (if he even reports) serve as nothing but a one-year pit stop on Kawhi’s road to Los Angeles.

Only, this exact narrative was applied to Paul George 12 months ago. Is he a Laker? I must’ve missed the announcement.

Emotions aside, Kawhi’s posturing is a fruitless endeavour. Here are three reasons why:

1. Were Kawhi to sit out the entire season, the CBA withholds him from attaining free agent status for the following summer. Essentially, he’d be trapped.
2. If money is the primary objective, Kawhi can earn far more through re-signing in Toronto than on the open market. As a Raptor, Kawhi is permitted to command a max of 5 years and $189.7 million on his new deal. The best another team (LA) can offer him is 4 years at $140.6 million.
3. A lacklustre season goes lengths to dissuade other teams from handing over max dollars to a player three years removed from his most recent productive season.

Any way you look at it, Kawhi’s best bet is joining the Raptors and returning to MVP calibre of old.

Best case, he re-establishes himself as a premier NBA talent in his contract year. For the Raptors, that timeline grants them a year’s worth of a highly motivated superstar firing on all cylinders.

That year coinciding with when the Eastern Conference opens wider than ever.

So, mourn DeMar. His loyalty and commitment to both basketball and this city have earned him a hell of a lot more than what he ultimately got. Just don’t let those emotions cloud you from appreciating the magnitude at hand. Kawhi places the Raptors firmly in Finals contention from the moment he steps off the plane.

Next: Trade Value Power Rankings

That, regardless of what it took to get him, is exciting.