Can A 35 Year Old Kawhi REALLY Win Again In Toronto?

A few topics I want to get into here as we kind of wait for the NBA to get started.

Media day kicking off in about 9 or 10 days' time.

Some teams start a little bit earlier, but September 28th is the unofficial or I guess official start of the NBA calendar.

But a few things I wanna hit you on before all that started.

And the biggest news.

That's happening right now, I guess is the deal between the Clippers and Raptors finally going through.

The Clippers with all they're dealing with NBA punishment, federal investigation, all kinds of Bad stuff going on in Los Angeles right now, but they execute the deal.

They send Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors, they paid a pretty steep price.

They give up Brandon Ingraham.

They give up Grady Dick, who was a first-round draft pick very recently.

They give up two first-round picks.

They give up a swap.

So they're paying a premium to get a mid-30s Kawhi Leonard, who they are now going to turn around.

And give a contract extension to.

So for the second time in the last 10 years, the Toronto Raptors are betting big on Kawhi Leonard.

Now, the last time they did this, when they did it in 2019 or I guess 2018, was it?

Or whenever they did that deal.

When they did that deal in 2018 to acquire Kawhi, like, I could see the pathway there.

Like they had come up short year after year.

Um, with DeMar DeRozan on the team.

It felt like that DeRozan, Kyle Lowry duo had to hit their ceiling.

Doesn't help when you run into LeBron James almost every year, but I felt like they hit their ceiling and Kawhi was a ceiling raiser.

The risk was what ultimately happened.

Like he, he left after one year, but they got a championship, and I didn't think at the time.

Like winning a championship was outside of the realm of possibility after the, the trade for Kawhi because of who Kawhi was at that time.

He was a superstar or a budding superstar at that time.

Um, this deal, I have a, uh, some more reservations, let's just say.

Going into it because the Raptors, they were a kind of meh team last year.

They got beat by the Cleveland Cavaliers, uh, in the, uh, in the, was it the first round, uh, game 6, they go to Game 7.

Yeah, it's, it's, I guess there's that, but, uh, I, I don't know that they're the kind of contenders that Kawhi is going to put them over the top.

When you look at this deal and like.

Uh, and you see Kawhi now is part of the Raptors once again.

Like, how big a ceiling raiser is he at this stage of his career and with the position that the Raptors are in?

I think at the very best if they were looking, if Kawhi was there last year, maybe they said he'd make it to the 2nd round.

Maybe you scream out, you can argue Eastern Conference Finals, but I think at the very least, they're probably just sitting there being like, yo, we're better off trading.

You know, our, I guess our quote unquote future or what was Grady Dick or so on and so forth and trying to rebuild and Brandon Ingraham for the last few years of what Kawhi could be, which is coming off his best year.

And last year he averaged 25+ points.

He almost shot 90, 50, 40 from the field.

The past three seasons, he's played close to around 50+ games, 60 games, which is better than nothing.

Like, you know what I'm saying?

And you kind of go towards that way and you're like, hey, we have a young guy in Scotty Barnes.

At the very least, we're a middle of the pack team, but we make it to the playoffs.

We like our defense, we like our we like our unit with Kawhi being added to that.

And I feel as though when it comes down to it, Kawhi gives them a better opportunity in a half-court system, in a half-court offense to really be more focused and dominant, but also when it comes down to playoff situations.

What is Kawhi?

He's a winner.

When he gets down there, he doesn't really need too much to win, more so than finding the right type of shooters and being able to set up, you know, uh, being able to have guys in the right place so he could be, uh, take advantage of his mismatches .

So, I think that was kind of what they were going at, and they're like, man, how, how much worse could it be?

You know what I'm saying?

And And then, and that's pretty much it.

What do you think?

Yeah, I, I give the Raptors front office a lot of credit for their aggressiveness.

I mean, like, it's the same basic front office that was there in 2018.

I mean, Bobby Webster's now running the show instead of Messiah Jerry.

So you've got the same, uh, a lot of the same people there.

They know Kawhi.

They believe in Kawhi.

They trust Kawhi.

Obviously Kawhi is going into this situation.

With a little bit more of a different mindset.

He's very open to an extension with this team, so I would expect him to be there for multiple years, and I can see the pathway to, to being an improved team.

I mean, they were a middle of the pack defensive team last year.

Kawhi changes that.

They couldn't get enough offense in the halfcourt, especially in the playoffs.

Kawhi changes that.

Like he addresses two critical needs, uh, for this team.

So I like that.

The things I don't love.

The stage of career Kawhi's in right now, like mid, again, mid-30s , um, you know, coming and has some bad, a bad wheel, you know, has had some injury histories , issues over the last, you know, 4 or 5 years, um, You know, how much do you trust his ability to get to like, let's just say 60-ish, 65 games, be healthy going into the playoffs.

That's, that was a problem for him, uh, with the Clippers.

Uh, so and you're, you're again giving up a, a decent amount.

I'm not, I'm not, if it was Brandon Ingraham and Brady Dick, that's fine, but you're giving up a couple of firsts, you're giving up a swap.

Um, you're, you're paying a premium for this guy.

So you're rolling the dice once again on Kawhi Leonard.

So I, I think Kawhi.

He makes them a much more, a much better potential playoff team.

There's no doubt about that.

Does he push them over Philadelphia?

Does he push them over New York?

Does he push them over even Boston at this point, who we're gonna get to?

Uh, I, I, to me , I don't know.

What do you think?

No, I, I don't, I don't see that.

Even when you say Philadelphia, I'm like, I, I believe in Kawhi.

But that, that would be a tough task, that'd be a tall order.

I mean, defensively, they would have to very much come together and turn it into a chess match.

Now you go from would Emmanuel quickly be good enough to match up versus Maxi?

Could Scotty Barnes lock down LeBron James?

And then can RJ Barrett can, you know, contest with Jalen Brown.

But even though, I mean, I, I would guess Kawhi would guard LeBron James, but even then you don't have a matchup for Joel Embiid in the next 3.

I don't believe that um, The Raptors' bench is deep enough to really go in and have that depth as well.

So now we're trying to bank on Kawhi playing 60 to 65 games, and then going into the playoffs with so much mileage on his legs and then trying to carry them into that.

I mean, I like Kyler Murray Bowles, you know, Jamal Snead, but they would still have to make a couple more changes in order for that to be worthwhile.

But the East is a beast, man.

There's only one or two bad teams over there, and that's, that's, that, and even then, going up against them is going to sharpen their blade.

So I don't, I don't really see them.

Really having an advantageous matchup except for like if they went up against Detroit Pistons and it's, or maybe like we spoke on earlier, you're you're gonna be high on Orlando Magic, you know what I mean?

Somebody, somebody can really turn into a wrestling match, much like the Cleveland Cavaliers turned to a wrestling match and turned into a chess match, and I think that's where Kawhi will uh will bode well, but, you know, it's a, it's an orange race.

I don't know if he has too many weapons.

Yeah, look, I, I think he can take some of the Playmaking responsibilities away from an Emmanuel Quickley or an RJ Barrett, who I don't think are, they're not great playmakers.

They have strengths, but they're not great playmakers.

So I think having Kawhi there, uh, Helps them, I think, significantly.

I think the development of Murray Boyles is gonna be big too.

Like, I, I like Murray Boyles better as the 5 in Toronto than Yaka Purle.

Honestly, Purtle's not much of a rim protector, and I, I like Murray Boyles.

He's undersized for that position, but, um, you know, he can get after it, rebound the ball, and I think they're better with that kind of small lineup.

Yeah, and regardless, they would have to figure out, like I said earlier, due to the lack of shooting, due, due to like Kyler Murray Bowles being one of the better shooters on the team, correct me if I'm wrong.

You got somewhat figure out how you can get that situation of making it, being uh the smallest person on the court being Emmanuel Quickley because he shot 40% the past couple of years and then RJ Bair really had to make a leap, but when you start coming down to it, it starts coming down to how you can space the floor and, you know, at the end of the day, what everything else.

is a two-man game.

So you're gonna look at how Kawhi and Scotty Barnes can really abuse that two-man game, and I, I kind of like that because if they have to trap Kawhi, Scotty Barnes is still a great playmaker.

Last, uh, playoff run, he averaged like 9 assists a game.

So I think that's the way you can start kind of getting them to, uh, uh, you know, make sure they don't shrink the floor on some of the non-shooing players.

Yeah, I think they're a team that if they stay healthy, can get a top 4 seed or a top 5 seed and maybe can win a first-round series.

I don't like their chances yet.

Uh, in the 2nd round, but look, I, I admire the front office for rolling the dice and taking another chance on, uh, on Kawhi Leonard.