Seven-year anniversary of Raptors' Kawhi Leonard trade feels weird with Masai Ujiri gone

Article content

Seven years after the biggest trade in Toronto Raptors history, Kawhi Leonard is long gone, but not forgotten, and now that’s the case for the man who led the team at the time too.

And it feels a bit strange. Masai Ujiri’s recent dismissal makes this the oddest anniversary of the blockbuster, ballsy move, which changed everything for the franchise.

On July 18, 2018, the San Antonio Spurs abandoned what they had believed would be the transition from a glorious Tim Duncan-led era, to one propelled by Kawhi Leonard. Leonard had grown disenchanted by the Spurs over the handling of a serious injury, but was eyeing a return home to Los Angeles.

The Spurs preferred to send him somewhere else and Ujiri’s right-hand man Bobby Webster (now the boss of the Raptors while a search for a new president continues) went way back with Spurs counterpart Brian Wright, helping talks progress to an eventual deal.

Leonard and long-time teammate Danny Green, plus $5 million US in cash would go to Toronto for iconic Raptor DeMar DeRozan, young centre Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 first-round pick which became a decent pro in Keldon Johnson.

It was a shocking transaction, much like its rivals for the biggest trades in Toronto sporting history such as Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter for Tony Fernandez and Fred McGriff, the Vince Carter giveaway to New Jersey, the Doug Gilmour from Calgary heist or Wendel Clark for Mats Sundin.

The Raptors had just won a franchise-record 59 games and earned top seed in the conference for the first time. DeRozan was as popular an athlete as anyone in Toronto and tops in many categories in the Raptors’ record book.

Even though a sweep at the hands of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in Round 2 of the playoffs had been devastating and led to Nick Nurse replacing Dwane Casey as head coach, Nurse had been talking to the media just days before the trade in Las Vegas about plans to get DeRozan to defend and all indications were the roster would be kept mostly intact.

“He’s totally down, he’s got the ability physically (to defend), he knows what he’s doing. We’ve got to make a plan and a long-term plan and stick with it a little bit,” Nurse had told Postmedia about DeRozan roughly a week before the trade.

DeRozan had famously received some assurance from Ujiri that nothing was cooking and was left blind-sided, hurt and shocked by the trade. Parts of the fanbase are still angry about the decision, despite the results and even DeRozan had said they could have won with him too, with James leaving the conference.

“When you get a chance to get a top-five player — which isn’t very often — I think you have to jump on it,” Ujiri said at a media conference post-deal. “I think we’ve given a chance to this team, we tried to build it up as much as we can but, at this point, we got to this level, this opportunity came in front of us and we had to jump on it.

“I understand DeMar. He was unbelievably loyal to us. I’ve never seen anything like this … He has no fault, (but) our team is just not at that level. We keep pounding on the same thing over and over again. I think if we look at ourselves honestly … we have to do something different.”

After Ujiri traded Pascal Siakam last season, he talked about how impacted he was by the DeRozan deal, too.
“I walked around a hotel for two hours — two hours, in Kenya — to sum up courage to call DeMar. And I’m a tough mother f—- ….

“Honestly, the human part of this business is tough,” Ujiri added.

“Me and coach Casey were in Africa together this summer, with time, with DeMar. With time, it heals a little but it’s not easy, man, It’s not easy because there something about the NBA. I don’t know if other leagues are like that but there’s something about the NBA that’s family.

“No matter how cold we can get, there’s just something about it. It remains the most difficult part of this business, trading a player. And when a player leaves, it’s the most difficult thing.

“Fred (VanVleet) said it. What did Fred say when they asked what was the most difficult thing? He said it was the call he made to me, I remember that call. It’s the most difficult thing in this business. You guys might look at it as simple or something that’s just done.

“But for two hours, I was walking around this hotel, at 3 a.m., 4 a.m., trying to sum up the courage to call DeMar DeRozan.”

The trade was, of course, the right call for the Raptors. Leonard had an all-NBA season, then turned in one of the best single playoff runs in league history to lift Toronto its only champiponship before getting his wish and going home to Los Angeles.

Now he’s gone. So is Green, Kyle Lowry, Siakam and everyone else from that championship squad, plus Nurse and his staff, Ujiri and others.

The first anniversary came with the franchise still on a high from the recent title win, even though Leonard and Green had just left.

July of 2020 felt weird like this anniversary, but for different reasons, with the sporting — and entire — world in the early stages of the COVID lockdowns and the NBA re-starting just days earlier in ‘The Bubble’ in Orlando.
By Year 3 post-deal, Toronto had lost big men Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka too, had completed their worst season in ages, in Tampa no less, but at least had moved up in the draft lottery and was weeks away from adding Scottie Barnes. That pre-Barnes period was probably the bleakest anniversary of the trade, as legendary Raptor Lowry had moved on too.

By Year 4, post-Kawhi hope had returned. Barnes was rookie of the year, the team won 48 games and pushed Philadelphia in the playoffs even without Barnes for most of the series.

Things haven’t been as rosy since. In July 2023 the Raptors hired Darko Rajakovic after the implosion of the Nick Nurse Era. By training camp, Ujiri and the rest of the front office had stalled too long in moving Siakam and OG Anunoby. The Raps oddly accused Siakam of selfishness even while cutting off communication with him and his representatives in the midst of a contract extension dispute and had lost VanVleet to free agency. The ensuing season was a terrible one for all involved.

By July 2024, some optimism had returned after an injection of needed youth. Ujiri was still in charge and seemed energized.

Which brings us to the present. Seven years after Ujiri’s defining move, Webster has the keys (as he should, but we’ll see if ownership agrees), Brandon Ingram has been added, along with intriguing rookie Collin Murray-Boyles, the franchise seems on the way back up, but without Ujiri’s massive presence, everything just feels different.

rwolstat@postmedia.com

@WolstatSun