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OT: The Official Toronto Raptors Thread

This article. Wow!

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27130335/how-kawhi-pulled-paul-george-away-okc

The first sign that Kawhi Leonard has a whole lot more to say than anyone ever imagined came a few days before NBA free agency officially opened.

Durant got a call from Kawhi Leonard, asking if he'd consider teaming up with him and signing with the LA Clippers. They'd be great complements to each other, Leonard told Durant. He'd always admired him and had tremendous respect for him as a competitor.

Durant was flattered and more than a little stunned, according to sources close to the situation. He didn't know Leonard that well, so getting a recruiting call like that made a real impression.

....

At the same time he was meeting with the Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors this week, Leonard was meeting, calling and texting with George, trying to convince him to find a way out of Oklahoma City.

.....

Said one source close to George, "For a quiet guy, he's a hell of a recruiter."

.....

So in the middle of the week, he (George) went to Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti and asked for a trade -- to the Clippers.

Presti was crestfallen. Just a year ago he'd been rewarded for taking a risk and trading for George when he eschewed all other free-agent meetings and agreed to a four-year contract to remain in Oklahoma City. It was a validation of everything Presti had built and believed in. And while this felt like a repudiation of that, Presti understood.
 
Yeah, Kawhi really wanted to be in LA and apparently didn't want to be a Laker much at all.

Not even mad

image


Something I wasn't sure if I would ever see as a Raptors fan, or at least not for a bunch of years until CanBall was a legit internatonal force.
 
MindzEye said:
Yeah, Kawhi really wanted to be in LA and apparently didn't want to be a Laker much at all.

Not even mad
Click to expand...

We'll never know if Lakers were his choice if the Clips don't land PG.

But yeah, no reason to be mad. The Derozan/Lowry era needed to be torn down. We delayed the rebuild by a bit and won a Championship for our patience. Pretty damn good.
 
CH1 said:
We'll never know if Lakers were his choice if the Clips don't land PG.

But yeah, no reason to be mad. The Derozan/Lowry era needed to be torn down. We delayed the rebuild by a bit and won a Championship for our patience. Pretty damn good.
Click to expand...

It's ****ing awesome. The organization got to put a big old spotlight on itself and it showed itself to be what we already knew. Top quality all the way through, players and agents know this now. They got to see how big a basketball market Toronto & Canada actually are and an entire generation of young GTA ball players, right in the middle of a legitimate golden generation talent wise, have gotten to see what winning looks like in Toronto.

This was ****ing awesome. 10/10 would do it again. I think a lot of casual fans under estimate the impact Vince had on Toronto basketball. It's legitimately a before/after situation when it comes to quality of facilities, coaching, enrollment levels etc. When I was growing up, it was Eastern Commerce and everyone else. If you didn't go to Eastern Commerce, you were being coached by your gym teacher, who might have played growing up or something...maybe he took a course and watched a couple of videos. Then Vince happened and the rep programs almost immediately exploded, legitimate prep school styled programs popped up, etc.

As much as that was a catalyst of getting Toronto basketball from there, to where it is now. This title will take it from it's already legitimate heights (our traveling prep teams run trains on everything but the elite programs in the US), and take it higher. The GTA is going to turn into a talent factory that rivals anything, anywhere in the US.
 
Jazz aren’t horrible either.

Portland is a playoff run from Dame away.

Parity is there. If cousins and AD perform tho that laker team will be tough. But cousins didn’t look anything like his old self
 
Rondo back to lakers of course. 1 year.

So with Masai going for Stanley. He is young. Maybe hoping he can work through some stuff and become a player. But him and OG are pretty good defenders. Miller will probably get more minutes now.
 
CH1 said:
This article. Wow!

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27130335/how-kawhi-pulled-paul-george-away-okc

The first sign that Kawhi Leonard has a whole lot more to say than anyone ever imagined came a few days before NBA free agency officially opened.

Durant got a call from Kawhi Leonard, asking if he'd consider teaming up with him and signing with the LA Clippers. They'd be great complements to each other, Leonard told Durant. He'd always admired him and had tremendous respect for him as a competitor.

Durant was flattered and more than a little stunned, according to sources close to the situation. He didn't know Leonard that well, so getting a recruiting call like that made a real impression.

....

At the same time he was meeting with the Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors this week, Leonard was meeting, calling and texting with George, trying to convince him to find a way out of Oklahoma City.

.....

Said one source close to George, "For a quiet guy, he's a hell of a recruiter."

.....

So in the middle of the week, he (George) went to Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti and asked for a trade -- to the Clippers.

Presti was crestfallen. Just a year ago he'd been rewarded for taking a risk and trading for George when he eschewed all other free-agent meetings and agreed to a four-year contract to remain in Oklahoma City. It was a validation of everything Presti had built and believed in. And while this felt like a repudiation of that, Presti understood.
Click to expand...
Amazing that everyone he talked to didn't spill the beans to the media.
 
Would have been nice for him to tell us early on he never seriously considered re-signing. Could have jumped into this free agent frenzy and possibly made an acquisition or two. Also, the whole "I'm going to go there with an open mind" nonsense he was spewing early on was also just that, nonsense. Don't think he had any intention of re-signing and there was nothing we could have done, including win a championship and give him the keys to a country.
 
MindzEye said:
The entire league is. Any of the Bucks, Sixers, Clippers, Lakers, Nuggets, Warriors could win this next season.
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I dont see the Sixers as any better than toronto, boston or indy. They had mega issues shooting and lost Reddick and Butler for Richardson and Horford
 
MyNameIsJonas said:
I dont see the Sixers as any better than toronto, boston or indy. They had mega issues shooting and lost Reddick and Butler for Richardson and Horford
Click to expand...

Richardson can shoot, so can Horford. Don't get me wrong, they'll miss Reddick's quick trigger and Jimmy's 2 way play and general level of testicular fortitude, but Joel is legit as hell and they're going to be able to defend anyone.

They're definitely better than us, Boston, or Indy. I don't think it's close tbh. Sixers and Bucks are the class of the east.
 
MyNameIsJonas said:
I dont see the Sixers as any better than toronto, boston or indy. They had mega issues shooting and lost Reddick and Butler for Richardson and Horford
Click to expand...

Hard to pick a better starting lineup defensively. Clippers maybe. If Simmons develops something of a Jimmy and embiid's Jimmy continues to improve? They're a real threat.

And honestly I feel like they were the best team the raptors faced this year in the playoffs. Yeah they changed but they still have some real pieces there. They're my pick for the east. Bucks got worse and they would have imo lost to the sixers this year. They're s bit gimmicky until giannis develops a jumper or they get a legit #2 guy
 
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