Toronto Raptors: How the Raptors build a championship team

The Trade

Of course, the construction of Toronto’s NBA Championship cannot be discussed without talking about the biggest move Masai Ujiri has ever made in his career as an NBA Executive.

Like firing coach of the year, Dwane Casey, trading DeMar DeRozan was a move that sent shockwaves through the NBA. And It was a risky move on a number of levels. Kawhi Leonard was coming to Toronto off of a season where he had missed all but nine games due to injury and was not leaving San Antonio on friendly terms.

DeRozan was Toronto’s favorite son, having won adoration from the fans due to how open he was about how much he loved Toronto and his desire to spend his entire career playing for the Raptors. During free agency in 2016, he didn’t even bother to meet with another team.

But more than risking the ire of Raptors’ fans, Ujiri risked alienating Kyle Lowry. As discussed earlier, DeRozan and Lowry’s relationship is the stuff of basketball legend rivaling any NBA friendship that I can think of.

And as expected Lowry was not happy about the trade. He felt betrayed by Ujiri and reports indicate that the relationship was more than a little chilly between the team’s behind the scenes leader and its on the floor leader for months.

For me, learning that DeRozan has been traded wasn’t a reason for disappointment but a brilliant move wherein DeRozan’s scoring production was effectively replaced and his defensive liability was completely erased. No matter how much of a favorite a player is, if you have the chance to get someone known as one of the best two-way players in the game, you don’t hesitate.

I’ve always been annoyed by DeRozan’s narrative that he had been assured by Ujiri that he wouldn’t be traded. For one, Ujiri is a professional. I find it more than a little hard to believe that he would ever expressly tell a player there that was no chance they would be traded, even a player like DeRozan.

I think it’s more likely that at the time of the conversation, Ujiri had not yet been approached by the San Antonio Spurs with the idea of a trade. Ujiri likely expressed the reality of the situation. At that moment, there wasn’t a trade possibility and DeRozan heard what he wanted to hear. But, of course, I wasn’t there, so I can only speculate.

Either way, at the end of the day, the NBA is a business and the reason for an executive to show up to work day in and day out is the pursuit of the Larry O’Brien championship trophy. Not the love and respect of the players or loyalty to what the fans would want to see happen. No one is untradable. No one. After nine seasons in the league, if DeMar believed himself the exception to the rule, he simply wasn’t being realistic.

 The shot

In the book of Raptors lore, littered with near misses and disappointment, the 2018-19 season could go down as the best ever no matter how much winning is in the organizations future. And just to be clear, there is more winning in the future for the Raptors.

Within that story, no single moment is more iconic than The Shot. Even without it being the first time in NBA history that a seven-game playoff series was ended with a buzzer-beating shot the poetic symmetry could not have been more perfect.

For those readers who are not as familiar with Raptors history, Kawhi Leonard’s Game 7 Eastern Conference Semifinals buzzer-beater is the second “The Shot” chronicled in the book of the North. Let me set the scene.

The year is 2001. The Raptors are playing Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Philadelphia 76ers in Philadelphia. There are only seconds to play in the game and Dell Curry is set to inbound the ball hoping to get it in the hands of Vince Carter, then the best player to ever have suited up in a Toronto Raptors uniform. Carter pulls up along the sideline in an off-balance contested shot that gets off in time…

And bounces on the rim…

And out of the hoop.

Sheesh, you cannot make this stuff up.