Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

Is the Kawhi trade worth the risk?

The Raptors just got the best player in franchise history. Is that worth it?

The Raptors just got the best player in franchise history.

And it’s not even close.

If he’s healthy, which he’s reported to be, Kawhi Leonard is the best two-way player in the NBA and a top 3 player. The Raptors have never had a player on this level before.

Vince Carter was a spectacular scorer whose impact on basketball in Canada is still being felt 15 years after he was traded away, but he was a mediocre defender and injuries prevented him from achieving the heights predicted for him after his second and third season.

DeMar DeRozan’s love for and loyalty to Toronto endeared him to Toronto Raptor fans, but in the end he was really a poor man’s Vince Carter and had taken the Raptors as far as he could with him as their best player.

Like DeRozan, Chris Bosh’s talent level made him more suited to be a supporting player than a franchise player.

That’s not the case with Leonard.

Leonard already has a Finals MVP, two Defensive Player of the Year awards and was a regular season MVP runner-up. And he just turned 27. If the Raptors can convince Leonard to stay, they’ll finally have a legitimate franchise player who can lead the team to the Finals.

IF they can convince him to stay.

Of course, that’s the problem with this trade. The Raptors are trading away a fiercely loyal All-Star, in DeRozan, for a player who doesn’t even appear to want to come to Toronto and can leave for nothing next summer.

This is a HUGE risk.

The question is, is it worth it?

Back when I was a regular writer for the Raptor’s Republic, I was critical of a team I felt was simply another version of the Joe Johnson/Al Horford era Atlanta Hawks; a team with enough talent to win lots of regular season games, but didn’t have the top-tier talent to be a real threat in the playoffs. Despite leading the East with 59 wins, the DeRozan-lead Raptors once again couldn’t get past the second round of the playoffs. Although the roadblock known as LeBron James will be playing in the West next season, the Celtics and Sixers have already surpassed the Raptors as favourites to win the East, and rightly so.

Something more than just firing the Coach of the Year needed to be done if the Raptors wanted to be anything more than a perennial good-but-not-great team that would simply end up being playoff doormats for the real contenders in the East.

And that’s where Kawhi comes in.

An MVP calibre player still in his prime rarely comes on the trade market. The last two players on this level, still in their prime, that became available and were traded (not in a sign and trade) were probably Kevin Garnett and Charles Barkley. That goes back 25 years. That’s how rare this is. And both Garnett and Barkley took their new teams to the Finals in their very first year (with Garnett winning a Championship).

It’s safe to say it’s worth trading for a player of this calibre. So why didn’t any other team come up with a legitimate offer for Kawhi?

Well, the Lakers feel they’re in a position of power with Kawhi anyway, since he’s already expressed a desire to play in Los Angeles. And with LeBron now a Laker, it’s a far more attractive destination than the Clippers next summer when Kawhi’s a free agent. Plus, with all the new signings, they actually didn’t have the contracts to be able to match Kawhi’s, unless the Spurs inexplicably took on Luol Deng’s contact or changed their mind on Lonzo Ball (or more precisely, his father).