The Raptors Have Reportedly Done Enough to Keep Kawhi Leonard, Which Feels About 40% Accurate5/8/2019
“I do think they’ve made pretty good progress with him from the sense I have. They put themselves in it. And when Kawhi showed up there, I’m not sure he imagined any future in Toronto. I do think it’s a serious consideration now…. “I think the Kawhi thing is getting really interesting there. For them to just get through this series and get to a Conference Final, every day is the case you’re making. And, oh by the way, ‘we can pay you more than anybody else. If you want to be in L.A. and you want to live there in the offseason, there’s only so many days you really have to be in Toronto in the snow. You can get out of here. You’re on the road half the time. The rest of the year, you can get out of here and go in L.A. and be in California.’ “But Toronto is selling winning on him.” - Adrian Wojnarowski ------- As I'm not interested in the Raptors going extinct from the perennial playoff picture, I don't really have any reason to root for Kawhi Leonard to depart Toronto as soon as their incredibly important postseason comes to a conclusion. However, seeing as the fate of said incredibly important postseason was weighted so heavily on his shoulders less than a week ago that some assumed his programming capable of non-verbal communication, I just wonder if the best case to stay isn't being made by him and him alone. Especially since I don't know how you could possibly measure "progress" on the type of eternally enduring poker face that would make the Terminator show his tell. The Raptors aren't exactly lacking in depth or talent, but you could have easily fooled me into thinking they were when long-time mental midget Kyle Lowry tried the most circumstantially stupid move in NBA history in closing Game 2 or when the rest of the roster left Kawhi Leonard to put on an inevitably unsuccessful one-man show in Game 3. Of course, things have since changed with the Sixers getting dunked all over like the sickly bunch of underachievers they are, so it makes perfect sense that the odds of a player staying with the organization for which he is currently blossoming into a whole nother level of superstardom have reportedly followed suit. Still, to be quite clear, the most impactful thing the Raptors have done for Kawhi Leonard is trade for him, with giving him the ball...repeatedly...and with full autonomy coming in as a close second. Those aren't exactly moves that other teams with similarly striking supporting casts, most notably one that just so happens to call Los Angeles home, would be hesitant to make after witnessing this type of dead-eyed domination...
The truth is, I'd rather attempt to read the entire Bible in braille than try to read the mind of man and machine's first lovechild, but I'd imagine that it's still pretty far from made up. That said, if the Raptors' main selling point is what, at the very least, looks to be an inevitable Eastern Conference Finals appearance, then they'll basically be doing the equivalent of inviting their friend out to a club they can't even get remotely close to without him using his name at the door. Winning definitely cures all, but - in that analogy - this 2.0 version of Kawhi Leonard that we're seeing is the prescribing doctor whose practice can quite easily withstand relocation to almost any city of his choosing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
January 2020
|