Toronto Raptors: Kawhi Leonard must prove he still loves basketball

Wednesday morning, the NBA world was rocked as Kawhi Leonard and DeMar DeRozan swapped cities in a blockbuster trade between the San Antonio Spurs and the Toronto Raptors. Though winning is the priority, this deal has far greater implications than just championship contention.

After one hell of a saga between Kawhi Leonard and the San Antonio Spurs organization, the team has finally let their superstar out of town. Leonard has always wanted to end up in Los Angeles, particularly the Lakers, but the organization clearly wasn’t enamored by the offers Magic Johnson presented.

Instead, Masai Ujiri was willing to cough up Toronto’s franchise cornerstone in DeMar DeRozan, a piece the Spurs may be able to build around. While Leonard has been one of the league’s top-10 players when healthy, DeRozan will not cause a media storm like Leonard did last season. DeRozan carries himself like a professional and is a team player.

On the other hand, Kawhi Leonard has shown to be the opposite. Quite frankly, he abandoned his team last year, constantly dodging any attempts at contact. His camp wouldn’t let the Spurs’ medical team near him and coach Gregg Popovich had no idea what was going on since he had no access to his star player. The nature of his injury is also very cloudy, as he missed all but a handful of games in 2017-18.

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A larger question is why he never defended himself to the media. If everyone is questioning how bad his injury is, then proceeds to question his character, his dedication to his team and even to the game of basketball itself, why not defend himself? He can quiet the storm by making sure the basketball world isn’t dumbfounded by every move he makes.

Now, whether the decision to dodge the Spurs and the media was his own or made by his camp (apparently run by his uncle Dennis Robertson) is unknown. Regardless, he has as much of a say in his future than anyone else, so blaming his uncle’s protectiveness doesn’t do justice to the situation.

If Leonard wants to be offered a max deal, he has to show that he’s still worth it. That starts by actually getting on the court and showing the talent that earned him the 2014 NBA Finals MVP when the Spurs downed LeBron’s Miami Heat. If the injury is severe enough that he can’t show it next season, he won’t get offered that kind of money by any team.

He also must show his character is not what the media has portrayed it to be. Leonard will have to speak to the public sooner rather than later regarding some of the things that went down in San Antonio if he wants to be entrusted as a leader of a team. Those would mostly be about the injury, such as whether he had a procedure done, but he’ll have a laundry list of them to deal with, presumably in the near future.

Running from medical questions and hiding from the Spurs organization doesn’t exactly serve as evidence of leadership to other teams.

But most of all, Kawhi Leonard has to prove that he still loves to play basketball. The game has been kind to him, as he’s already won a title and reached the playoffs in every season he’s played in. He’s also had one of the best coaches in the history of the game to show him the ropes. He had three future Hall-of-Fame teammates in Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili to help him.

If that’s not enough to keep him on the floor, what will be? San Antonio would’ve given him hundreds of millions of dollars had he at least communicated with them through this whole fiasco. Instead, he stayed in the shadows and let the public form their own opinions and tarnished his legacy, or whatever is left of it if he can’t find his old form again.

In Toronto, he’ll have a more than capable supporting cast, as Kyle Lowry has shown he can play at an All-NBA level at his best. While he obviously preferred Los Angeles to the North, that city loves basketball as much as anyone. The fans will get behind him if he can play. He’ll be cherished more than cheesesteaks in Philadelphia. He’ll also be rewarded by numerous max-contract offers.

However, if he continues to mope in solace and out of the light, he’ll be eaten alive by fans and the media alike. He can also kiss his mega-deal goodbye, as no one in their right mind would cut such a check to someone who handles pressure so poorly in the public eye.

For Leonard, this deal is not about winning a title this upcoming a season. He has a chance to right the ship again and set his career on a better path, one that includes a few more max-contracts, several all-star nods and maybe even induction into the Hall of Fame with his kind of talent.

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If he cannot figure it all out next season, he’ll have an uncertain future devoid of significant contracts that players with comparable talent have received. Simply, the ball is in Leonard’s court. Is he going to make an effort to play for the Toronto Raptors and show that he isn’t a washed-up has-been or his he going to prove all of his doubters right and leave a massive cloud around his future after next season?