Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

Morning Coffee – Sat, Jul 6 – It’s OK to be sad

Something great ended. Something great is about to start.

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Source: The Ringer

Something great ended. Something great is about to start.

Sources — Clippers to land Leonard, George

The LA Clippers are making a blockbuster trade for Oklahoma City Thunder forward Paul George, clearing the path for free agent Kawhi Leonard to sign with the Clippers on a four-year, $141 million contract, league sources told ESPN.

In an 11th-hour move to keep Leonard from partnering with LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the Los Angeles Lakers, the Clippers are trading four future unprotected first-round picks, a protected first-round pick and two pick swaps to the Thunder to get George, league sources told ESPN.

The Clippers are sending Oklahoma City their unprotected 2022, 2024 and 2026 picks, their unprotected 2021 and protected 2023 first-round picks via Miami, and the rights to swap picks with the Clippers in 2023 and 2025, league sources said.

The Clippers also are sending point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari to the Thunder in the deal, league sources told ESPN.

George and Leonard wanted to play together, and George and his agent, Aaron Mintz, approached Thunder general manager Sam Presti in recent days and requested a trade, league sources said. Leonard wanted to walk into a championship contender, and he believed George was the co-star he wanted by his side.

George could miss the first few weeks of the season as he recovers from shoulder surgery, league sources told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.

With Friday night’s additions, Staples Center appears set to be the most starry arena in the NBA: Leonard and George vs. James and Davis.

Leonard had held meetings with three teams he planned to sit down with in free agency, according to sources. He met with the Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors over the past week, with Toronto receiving the final meeting, league sources said.

Leonard’s camp essentially tried to buy time, asking the Lakers as late as 9 p.m. PT (midnight ET) on Friday, to delay the consummation of the Davis trade until “as late as Sunday,” sources close to the situation told Shelburne.

No reason was given for that delay by Leonard’s camp, except that they should do it if they still wanted Leonard to consider them.

NBA free agency: Kawhi Leonard to join Clippers

George, also a California native, was an NBA MVP finalist this past season after averaging 28 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.2 steals. It was a major coup for the Thunder in the summer of 2018, when he agreed to re-sign on the first day of free agency instead of exploring other options.

For the Raptors, it’s a disappointing turn on the heels of winning a championship.

But when general manager Masai Ujiri dealt franchise cornerstone DeMar DeRozan to the San Antonio Spurs last summer for the package that featured Leonard, it was understood Toronto might be doing so for a one-year rental. That he delivered a championship was more than enough reward for the risk of the deal.

A three-time All-NBA player, two-time Finals MVP and two-time Defensive Player of the Year, Leonard was the clear-cut top prize of the free-agency market after Kevin Durant suffered an Achilles tear in Game 5 of the Finals.

Coming off an injury-shortened season that saw him sit all but nine games in 2017-18 with a mysterious quad injury that led to his eventual split with the Spurs, Leonard returned to the court in Toronto for his best season as a pro.

He averaged a career-high 26.6 points and 7.3 rebounds in the regular season along with 3.3 assists and 1.8 steals while shooting 49.6 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from 3-point range.

During his playoff run that included one of the greatest shots in NBA history to sink the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, Leonard stepped up his game, posting averages of 30.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.7 steals.

Concerns lingered in 2018 how Leonard would return from an injury that cost him most of his final season with the Spurs.

Having eased those concerns and now sitting in the midst of his prime at 28 years old, Leonard’s only basketball worry now is furthering his standing in the pantheon of NBA greats and pursuing more titles.

Kawhi Leonard bolts champion Raptors for Clippers: reports | CBC Sports

It’s been unfortunate how things turned out for everybody, and the city of Toronto and Canada that we couldn’t run it back. Kawhi has made his decision. Seems like the announcement is out,” Green said in a video he posted to his social media accounts. “It’s time for me to make my announcement … I will be teaming up with new teammates in LA, the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Had a fun time in the city of Toronto . . . always have a great place in my heart, will never forget the historical run that we had.

The news ends months of speculation and angst for Raptors fans, that has only heated up as the days wore on after free agency opened last Sunday.

#ThankYouKawhi and #ThankYouDanny were both trending on Twitter in Toronto on Saturday morning as Raptors fans woke up to the news.

Green said he enjoyed Toronto and that it was unfortunate how free agency turned out for that city, the Raptors and for Canada.

The news ends months of speculation and angst for Raptors fans.

Kawhi Leonard, Paul George make Clippers team to beat | SI.com

Kawhi and PG are going to be an outstanding duo. George just spent two years learning to play off the ball with Russell Westbrook. It is going to be incredibly difficult for any team to have the perimeter wherewithal to slow down Kawhi and PG. And on the other end of the floor, it may even be worse. The combination of Leonard, George and Patrick Beverley is going to be devastating defensively. And even by trading for Geroge, the Clippers have still retained so much of the core of their roster, including Beverley, Montrezl Harrell, Lou Williams and Landry Shamet.

What separates the Clippers and Lakers right now is depth. The top two can be argued to death, but there’s no doubting as presently constructed the Clips have an actual NBA rotation. The Lakers have Kyle Kuzma and now Danny Green outside of LeBron and AD, and things get pretty dicey from there. The Clippers have several pieces from a team that made the playoffs last season, and they are adding to that a two-time Finals MVP and a first-team All-NBA forward.

The question from here becomes who is the Clippers’ biggest competition around the league. The Nets are still over a year away with Kevin Durant’s Achilles injury. The Warriors will have to wait for Klay Thompson to return from his torn ACL. The Lakers are going to be in a tricky spot as they try to fill out the roster with most starting-level free agents off the board. And teams like the Rockets and Nuggets have mostly stood still this summer.

Kawhi Leonard AND Paul George Go to the Clippers – The Ringer

Emergency pod! The Los Angeles Clippers win the Kawhi Leonard sweepstakes and acquire Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Kawhi Leonard’s Raptors tenure is over but historical season will live forever – Sportsnet.ca

It was fun while it lasted.

So fun. But nothing is forever, except the memories from a season no one will forget, delivered by a player unlike any other the Toronto Raptors have ever had, or likely ever will.

They simply don’t come around very often.

But no one will forget how the Kawhi Leonard era ended either — with a pair of bombshells delivered in the wee hours of the night:

First, that Leonard was signing with the Los Angeles Clippers and then that he was going to be teaming up with Paul George, who he recruited to join him as the Clippers orchestrated a massive trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The news was delivered by a few NBA Insiders in the early hours of Saturday morning as the NBA’s landscape had shifted once again.

And as a corollary: Raptors guard Danny Green – who came to Toronto with Leonard in the trade with San Antonio last summer – announced that he was signing with the Los Angeles Lakers on a reported two-year deal for $30 million.

The thunderbolts of news ended a frenzied six days of speculation about Leonard’s free agency plans that included the minute-by-minute tracking of private jets by Twitter sleuths and news helicopters following SUV convoys as Toronto and the NBA at-large waited for word from the man who says not much.

They also marked the official end of a spectacular 12-month ride for Raptors fans that was more thrilling than anyone reasonably could have been expecting.

Even as Leonard and the Raptors proved to be elite, it was difficult to imagine them actually winning a title – the field was deep, the Raptors were a newly-constructed team and Toronto had never done it before.

Kawhi Leonard leaves Raptors for L.A. Clippers, Danny Green heading to the Lakers: reports | Globalnews.ca

Fresh off an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors, Kawhi Leonard is reportedly leaving the team to sign with the Clippers.

A person familiar with the negotiations says the Clippers will be landing Leonard as a free agent after they acquire Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder in a massive trade for players and draft picks.

George will be traded for at least four first-round picks, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity early Saturday because none of the moves have been finalized. And Leonard made his decision to sign with the Clippers after the team swung the deal to land George, the person said.

Leonard going to the Clippers means that for the first time, a reigning NBA Finals MVP will be changing teams before the next season. Leonard was also pursued by the Los Angeles Lakers and, of course, the Raptors.

The most the Clippers can offer Leonard is $142 million over four years, which is the deal he is expected to sign. Players can sign with new teams as early as noon Eastern on Saturday.

Leonard was arguably the most coveted prize in this year’s free agency, and met with several teams including the Raptors, Lakers and Clippers in his hometown of Los Angeles.

Kawhi’s departure stings but shouldn’t tarnish his Raptors legacy – TSN.ca

Disgruntled after his mysterious falling out with the Spurs, Leonard’s preferred destination was Southern California – where he grew up and calls home during the offseason. Instead, Masai Ujiri swooped in and rolled the dice. He hoped to spend the season changing Leonard’s mind and selling him on a future in Toronto, but mostly the goal was to make the most of their partnership, however long it lasted. Needless to say, it was worth the risk.

It’s hard to imagine a team executing the one-year recruitment plan any better than the Raptors did – even though it was unsuccessful – and they can take solace in knowing that there’s nothing they could have done differently to change the result.

They welcomed Leonard and his small circle with open arms. They catered to them and built trust with them. They managed and maintained his health, put him in a position to have both personal and team success, and they won a championship together. They did everything they were supposed to do and more. They did everything right but it still wasn’t enough.

Leonard always longed for Los Angeles. In the end, the lure of home was stronger than anything the Raptors could offer – more money, the chance to repeat, and a unique opportunity to rule an entire nation that already worshiped him.

The Clippers spent the entire season courting Leonard in any way the league’s loosely enforced rules would allow – and some they wouldn’t. They sent a high-ranking representative to over half of Toronto’s games, just to be seen and let Leonard and his people know how badly they wanted him.

With Kawhi Leonard headed to Los Angeles, what should the Raptors do now? | CBC Sports

With news of Leonard’s decision, Danny Green already bid good bye to Toronto, heading to Leonard’s cross-town rival Lakers on a two-year deal. The Raptors likely weren’t interested in pushing past the salary cap and into the luxury tax just to pay the sharpshooter, anyway.

Ownership just proved it would empty its pockets for a title, but without Leonard, the Raptors aren’t championship contenders. Still, the case to stay the course is twofold: business and spice.

The business reasons are fairly obvious. The Raptors just won the title, and won over tons of new fans along the way. It would be a bad look to turn heel and trade the likes of Lowry and Ibaka for future assets.

And they’re still a likely playoff team even without Leonard. Pascal Siakam won Most Improved Player last season and found himself in the all-star discussion. He’s still growing as a basketball player. Lowry’s been an all-star five consecutive years. In fact, Siakam and Lowry led the Raptors in scoring in the clinching Game 6 of the NBA Finals.

Siakam is poised to be the Raptors’ next star, so it would be wise to surround him with a competitive team, not a tanking one.

Kawhi Leonard and Paul George join the Clippers: The early winners and losers – The Athletic

Milwaukee Bucks

The East should be theirs. It was nearly theirs during the Eastern Conference Finals before the Toronto Raptors came back from a 2-0 deficit to win eight of their next 10 games. Milwaukee must have watched those NBA Finals games with so much regret and frustration. With the way the Warriors struggled through those injuries, that title would have been very much within the grasp of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. With the way the two most effective players on Boston left for elsewhere and Jimmy Butler leaving Philadelphia, a departure of Kawhi to the Western Conference now leaves the Bucks in the driver’s seat in the East.

The Raptors can still put a formidable, pesky opponent on the floor, but the Kryptonite of the East has left for the Clippers. Had he stayed with the Raptors, especially on a long-term deal, we would have looked at Kawhi’s presence in Toronto the same way we looked at LeBron James’ unprecedented run in the East. Kawhi and the Raptors would’ve been the gatekeepers to the NBA Finals path through the East. Now, Giannis and company have reloaded most of their squad and the loss of Malcolm Brogdon doesn’t become so severe. Brooklyn has to wait a year for Kevin Durant to join up. Philadelphia has to figure out how to make their big team fit on the court. Boston is knocked down a peg or two, and we have to see where Indiana stands with the addition of Brogdon but the loss of Thaddeus Young and Bojan Bogdanovic.

Kawhi Leonard agrees to sign with Los Angeles Clippers after leading Toronto Raptors to NBA title – The Globe and Mail

It was reportedly an 11th-hour bombshell move by the Clips to keep Leonard from joining the Lakers and teaming up with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

The departure of the NBA Finals MVP from Canada changes the Raptors from a league favourite to a franchise at a crossroads. Raptors president Masai Ujiri said last week the team had a Plan B if Leonard left. The coming months will see it unfold.

The Raps are reportedly set to lose Danny Green also. The Athletic is reporting that he plans to sign a free agent deal with the Lakers.

Centre Marc Gasol has already agreed to return to the Raptors next season.

Leonard’s franchise-changing decision has had fans across Canada and throughout the NBA on pins and needles, glued to news reports and social media accounts, coining witticisms about KaWhere he would go and KaWhy his choice was taking so long? The enigmatic talent was undaunted by the fact that most marquee players agreed to deals just minutes and hours after the market opened at 6 p.m. on June 30.

Leonard’s camp remained silent throughout the process. Various NBA insiders had reported at different times that he was leaning toward the Raptors or Lakers – the two other teams in the running.

The saga reached a fever pitch this week. Toronto news station CP24 broadcast live as its news helicopter followed the journey of a black SUV across city highways as it carried some unidentified passengers who arrived at Pearson Airport on the private plane of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the Raptors’ ownership group. The charter had landed from Los Angeles, causing speculation that Leonard could be aboard. The live journey caused a crowd to gather at the vehicle’s final destination – a downtown hotel. But cameras never saw Leonard publicly emerge from there.

Reports of another flight plan emerged Friday – one that purportedly had an MLSE plane flying from Toronto to San Diego (where Leonard has a home).

Loss of Kawhi Leonard sets Raptors on new path. What comes next for them? – The Athletic

This is a seismic, NBA-landscape shifting move. Leonard was rumoured for some time to prefer the Clippers and particularly Los Angeles, but their inability to land a second star in free agency confused the likelihood. The delay in announcement, it turns out, had nothing to do with flight paths or parties with Drake but with giving the Clippers runway to land a second star. George is decidedly that, giving the Clippers a pair of two-way dynamos and MVP candidates to build with from here, in an arena opposite LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

This is obviously disappointing for the Raptors, however happy and successful the journey to this point. They did everything they could, in the end, coming up short in terms of location and, depending on how you value certain young players and cap space, the chance to play with a second star. They maximized their window and they maximized their attractiveness to Leonard. He wanted to be in L.A. and wanted to be a Clipper with George, which is his prerogative. He’d never had this choice before, and he’d earned the right to make it.

The Raptors have known this was a strong possibility since the day they acquired Leonard last summer. Their thinking at the time was three-fold. For one, trading DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and what would amount to the No. 29 pick for Leonard, Danny Green and $5 million would help reset the cap sheet in a way that better aligned with how Masai Ujiri extended the core back in 2017, cleaning the books for 2020 and further establishing a firm pivot foot between eras. They also had faith in their ability to slowly convince Leonard over the course of the year without a hard, desperate sell, believing in the quality and character of their organization. Mostly, though, they felt the risk was worth it. Players of Leonard’s ilk hit the market so infrequently, particularly at the price they paid, that even a one-year dance would prove itself worthwhile.

With Kawhi Leonard Going To The Clippers, Are The Sixers Favorites In The East?

With the Toronto Raptors now out of the way sans Kawhi, the Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers suddenly appear to be on a collision course for the Eastern Conference Finals. But which team should enter the 2019-20 season as the favorite to emerge from the East and perhaps meet the Leonard- and George-led Clippers in the 2020 NBA Finals?

The easy answer is Milwaukee. While the Bucks lost Malcolm Brogdon to the Indiana Pacers in a sign-and-trade, salary-dumped Tony Snell and couldn’t retain Nikola Mirotic in free agency, they re-signed Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez and George Hill while adding Robin Lopez and Wesley Matthews on cost-efficient deals.

Four-fifths of the Bucks’ starting lineup this past season remains in place, headlined by reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. Although their starting 2-guard spot is up for grabs, Matthews will presumably slide in there as a bargain-basement replacement for Brogdon, while Hill, Ersan Ilyasova, Robin Lopez, Sterling Brown and Pat Connaughton can establish themselves as a formidable second unit.

The Bucks are fresh off a 60-win season and a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they took a 2-0 series lead over Leonard’s Raptors before losing four straight games. Had double-overtime broken their way in Game 3, there’s a non-zero chance that the Bucks would be the current NBA champions instead of the Raptors.

NBA Free Agency 2019: Can the Toronto Raptors build a championship team around Pascal Siakam?

Siakam has made great strides in his development and will continue to do so, but I have a hard time envisioning him as the No. 1 piece on a championship team.

This year showed us that Pascal is best suited as a team’s second option, as Kawhi drew plenty of attention from defences and Lowry could create opportunities for everyone on offence.

Siakam will be a 20-point scorer in this league, no doubt.

He averaged 16.9 points per game in the regular season, 19.0 per game in the playoffs and 19.8 points per game over six Finals games. After a huge 32-point (on 14-17 shooting) performance in Game 1, the Finals also showed us what we’d see if a defence’s chief focus is to neutralize Siakam. In Game 2, he finished with just 12 points as he shot 5-for-18 from the field.

As a team’s top option, he’d see that defensive focus on a nightly basis – that’s not the look of a championship contender.

Siakam would need to redefine his game for that to work which, in turn, could put a damper to his rapid progression.

Kawhi, George make Clippers title favorites. The biggest loser? LA Lakers. | Yardbarker

Who are the losers after the signing? The Toronto Raptors, but the Board Man’s departure stings less in the afterglow of Canada’s first title. This is not a situation where a superstar leaves and betrayed fans burn his jersey in anger. Kawhi was likely always going to be a rental, and dealing franchise cornerstone DeMar DeRozan would have been part of a rebuilding effort anyway. Now the Raps are unlikely to defend their title, but the contracts of Marc Gasol, Kyle Lowry, and Serge Ibaka come off the books in a year, leaving them free to build a new contender around Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet and a boatload of  dollars to lure free agents.

It’s a distressing moment for the Los Angeles Lakers, who truly believed Kawhi was coming to form a Big Three with Anthony Davis and LeBron James. Two years ago, they declined to trade for George, even after he requested a trade to the Lakers. Last year, he chose the Thunder over them in free agency. And now he’s in LA playing for their cross-town rivals.

Kawhi made his decision more than five days after the beginning of free agency, so most premium free agents have signed. There was very little left for the Lakers to use their much-ballyhooed maximum contract space on, so they gave out two-year deals to Danny Green ($15 M per year), JaVale McGee ($4M), and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ($8M), the latter being the latest Klutch Sports client to be overpaid as LeBron’s teammate.

The Lakers still don’t have a point guard, which means we may see 34-year-old Rajon Rondo running the offense. They must get creative to fill out the roster, something that no one in the world trusts GM Rob Pelinka to do.

For Oklahoma City, its hands were forced by George’s trade demand. But the deal is also an acknowledgement that the George-Westbrook duo had a ceiling, maxing out at a first-round exit. Now they have their best young player since, well, Victor Oladipo in Gilgeous-Alexander, a quality scoring forward in Gallinari, and five additional first-round picks. Maybe this means they’ll do the unthinkable and trade Russell Westbrook, but it’s more likely that they’ll try to use the picks in a package for a disgruntled veteran. Would the Wizards take three first-rounders and the salary relief from Gallinari’s contract in exchange for Bradley Beal?

Potential free agent targets for Raptors once the Kawhi Leonard domino falls – The Athletic

Quinn Cook — The Warriors recently made Cook unrestricted as part of their cap-juggling in the dual sign-and-trade, and he becomes a bit more interesting without the threat of a match. Cook isn’t a good defender and doesn’t have the size to slide up a position often, but he tries on that end, which helps. The real draw with Cook, obviously, is his shooting. He knocked down 40.5 percent of his 3s last season and is at 41.8 percent for his career, ranking in the top-20 among spot-up shooters with 1.309 points per-spot-up opportunity. That’s nice offence to have off the bench.

Naz Mitrou-Long — You knew I’d be highlighting Canadian options at some point, and Mitrou-Long is among the better ones if the Raptors opt to go the in-development route. Now 25, Mitrou-Long showed significant growth in the G League last year, ranking in the top 10 in points per possession as a pick-and-roll ball-handler and increasing his assist rate while trimming his turnovers slightly. He still needs to show he can consistently hit the 3, but he’s a smart operator of an offence and has good length defensively. He’s also having a strong showing in the earlier Summer League tournament right now. (And hey, he’s a former teammates of Thomas!)

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