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By signing Kawhi Leonard in Raptors, Toronto fans at last, can finally made their hope into reality that their team can become a champion in the EASTERN Conference championship, (if not FINALS Champion). Though there is a heavy contender under the name of Celtics and given that it is too early to prophesy, I believe that these two teams will be the ones fighting for the Eastern Conference trophy.

That is, it is the fight between Kawhi&Green VS. Irving&Hayward&Brown&Tatum.

What a hurdle to conquer for Raptors!

And my take on whose fighting in the NBA 2019 FINALS?
It can be either:
Celtics vs. Warriors
Raptors vs. Warriors

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/celt ... J/amp.html

(PS. TS is a Kawhi fan.)

stupidddd move by the raptors. you cant buy loyalty, and demar "was" committed and willing to play for them. top seed in the east last season and got swept by LBJ...but LBJ is in th west now...what were they thinking???

Kawhi is much better than demar but is he a better fit?...it takes time to click on the court..demar and lorry complements each other..
and on top of that, Kawhi does not want to be in another city in another country which is way opposite his hometown, the sunny california.

for a year rental Raptors would only get Green...kawhi is a gonner next season...and how much did this stupid team give up? Demar, and a first rd 1-10 pick next year.

and oh..even with kawhi, IMO 76ers and celtics are still the teams to beat in the east.

Kawhi aint weak PG

Goodluck Canada and Drake

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Foolish decision by "Team Barney"

-Leonard said from the start the he wants to play for the Lakers. Meaning, he can only play for 1 season for the Raptors. And yet they traded DeRozan.
if they really want to get rid of DeRozan, they should offer him first to other teams (Ex: DeRozan = Lillard, or DeRozan = Love, etc.)

-This trade only makes sense if they can convince Kahwi to stay after the first season, just like what OKC did to PG.

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Boss....san ba C.R. dito???

Strike 2 for the Raptors

1. Fired Coach - Despite leading the Raptors to finished with the No. 1 seed and a 59-23 record, and Casey voted as "Coach of the Year"

2. Traded DeRozan - Despite the fact that Kahwi's loyalty is now for the Lakers and can be considered as "Rented" for 1 season

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Boss....san ba C.R. dito???

The stupidest move by any NBA team for 2018!

Kawhi is now a shell of himself and injury-prone and is not worth a DeRozan+2019 top 10 pick.

iyakan na mga barneys nito

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::: LAKERS LOYALIST #24 ::: ::::: WAGONERSSS S@CK :::::

barney loves LeBron so much

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"If I believe in God and life after death and you do not and if there is no God, we both lose when we die. However, if there is a God, you still lose and I gain everything." - Blaise Pascal

True, Kawhi might go with Lakers next year, and may already be a shell of the pre-injured version of him.

However, let us also welcome the other possibilites. Even it is only a 1-year rental if Kawhi can deliver up to the East Finals championship, then I can understand the logic behind the Raptors decision.

Raptors management could also be banking on the idea that though Leonard intentionally forgot the word "loyalty". For now, what matters to them is "trust". Kawhi needs a team that will trust him (any team can do that by just simply signing him) and a team that he "can" trust.

I believe that initially, he just wanted to go with the Lakers because he felt that it is intriguing if he can setup a rivalry with Boston just like the old days (the best team that there is in the East given Irving and Hayward are in full health, and himself also). However, having learned of this idea by Kawhi, LeBron went there first.

LeBron thought that wherever he goes he will always be the first choice of any team due to his ability (and I agree with that).

And since he got there first, people would not notice that he's the one that seeks the help of Kawhi. And should Kawhi not follow next year, LeBron will be doomed in Lakers (may it be whoever his teammates are as long as it is not the old Wade, Irving or Kawhi.)
LeBron is great but he needs a good passer.
That was his true intension of going with Lakers. To have a good passer in Kawhi.

On the other hand, it is not all that there is with Leonard. Kawhi is not like me how fanatic I am to Pacquiao. He is not 100% sold out to Lakers. Because the truth is, he has believe in himself. He does not need a Super Team to win (that was evidenced by Game 1 of the 2015-2016 NBA Finals b/w SA vs. GSW. Really, he just needed a team that will value him as a Leader. If he lands in Lakers (now) he will just be a swingman of LeBron (ala Wade). That was not he originally envisioned.

By the way, why leader? Because that is what he is. The only person he can allow to act as leader to him (except himself) was the great and humble Duncan, whom Kawhi got his great confidence as a silent leader.

To go back, when Parker commented about his injured health and its bad effect to the team plus the management's decision to hastily make him play, Kawhi felt degraded as a person and as a leader. That was why he immediately asked for a team exit to prove that the two incidents were insults for him as their team leader.

Lakers might not land Kawhi next year because greater than loyalty, promises, wants, and dreams, Kawhi greatly values trust he lost from San Antonio and which he could get from his new teammates.

To conclude, the above reasons might be why Raptors has exchanged DeRozan to him. And instead of a 1-year rental, Raptors might have Leonard for a long-term lease. Just like what happened with Paul George.

(This story is just an opinion, to have a little bit of twist. Hihi..)

Let's see what the future holds for the 2019-2020 season.

im just gonna.point out the stuff that you missed out badly.

1. trust? you are asking the man to trust your organisation who LIED to their star, whowas committed to them. BS.

2. you are forgetting kawhi is only 27. in 3-4 years when lbj's contract is up...LA is his.

the only rationale to this trade for the raptors is to blow up their team and start rebuilding next season. other than that, doesnt make sense.

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Poor guy welcome to Lebronto raptors

but his achilles injury will be healed?

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Let's get ready to Rumble in the Jungle when the bells will Jingle to start the Bungle!

RAPTORS president Masai Ujiri apologised Friday for a “miscommunication” with four-time All-Star and franchise icon DeMar DeRozan, but Toronto’s traded All-Star guard didn’t seem quite ready to make amends.

Speaking for the first time since sending DeRozan to San Antonio for Kawhi Leonard, Ujiri began by saying sorry to DeRozan. The career Raptor had expressed anger and frustration in an Instagram post after learning of the deal, indicating he’d been told he would not be traded.

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Let's get ready to Rumble in the Jungle when the bells will Jingle to start the Bungle!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MlLok1EtR_M

Kawhi Leonard wanted to play in his homestate of California after being in Texas (San Antonio Spurs for 7 years) just to be near with her gf/wife and child. Since there are three teams in California, namely Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and the California Warriors (aka GSW), he wanted to play in one of them.

Given that the greatest team in California is LALakers he instinctively planned to go there with an initial announcement via media in the beginning of 2018. However, since LeBron overtaken him (first one to went there) to be the leader of Lakers, his next options were the Warriors and Clippers. And also since GSW already has too many leaders in it (given he wanted to be a team leader) his last option was the Clippers.

While Clippers was the last option it did not participate in the Kawhi Sweeptakes. Instead Celtics, Lakers, 76ers and Raptors did. And of the four options the one that provided Spurs the best deal was Toronto. Though Kawhi 99.97% wanted (not 100% due to other factors) to go to Lakers he has no choice but to be with Raptors.

The following could be the reason why De Rozan has been chosen as the sacrificial lamb. 1st, he is a high value player. 2nd, he is (wanted to be) the leader. He might clash with Kawhi as Raptors leader, provided, instead of him Lowry (and others) were exchanged. 3rd, he could not deliver. This last item could be the most likely reason he was given up. In my years of watching NBA (since 2010 season) the heaviest reason why high valued players were the subject of exchanged was that they had the ability to win THE game (they supposed to) but they DID/COULD not deliver.
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In NBA championship games the "PROCESS" does not matter! It is the RESULT that matters!! Meaning, would Raptors not become No.1 in East regular season or not entered the Top4 in the Playoff I highly doubt he will be traded. If we notice, Isaiah Thomas, Andrew Bogut, Dwane Casey, Demar DeRozan, James Harden all suffered the same fate. They started the Process but they could not deliver the Result. They were FIRED!

By the way, for the people mentioned above the most deserving to be fired was Bogut. In my opinion, he was paid (or something like that) because by the time he was direly needed by GSW he got a simple injury and no longer wanted to play, though he could. Take note, it happened when he was tasked and trained to defend the great LeBron. On the other hand the least deserved firing was of Harden. If I were Oklahoma, I would choose Harden over Durant or Westbrook anyday. However, as the third reason why management fired a Star Player, Harden should have not given his best on OKC vs. HEAT 2012 Finals to prevent from being fired from. He should have let Durant or Westbrook did the job to preserve his career in OKC and turn it-- like what he just did to Rockets.
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Back to the main topic, Magic Johnson stated that he will step down as the Lakers’ president of basketball operations if he can’t persuade an elite free agent to sign with the 16-time NBA champions within the next two summers.

"“Next summer, if nobody comes and I’m still sitting here like this, then it’s a failure,” Johnson said after a news conference to introduce draft picks Moe Wagner and Svi Mykhailiuk."

The statement by Magic Johnson fortified the plan of LeBron to overtake Kawhi in Lakers.

IF FOR ANY REASON KAWHI WOULD NOT STAY IN TORONTO NEXT SUMMER, HE SHOULD GO TO CLIPPERS so that the landscape of California bastketball would be equal...

CURRY in California Warriors
LEBRON in California Lakers
KAWHI in California Clippers

What a scenery!!

With two months left before the NBA 2018-2019 Season kicks-in the Boston Celtics might not have yet a real contender in the East following the transfer of LeBron to the West since Kawhi is not yet 100% ready (as of this August) to bolster Raptors according to his sister.

https://news4sanantonio.com/sports/spur ... n-to-court

Four, Sacramento Kings being the 4th Cali team.