Lakers’ latest deal bodes well for Raptors
Trade of Davis from New Orleans to L.A. could help sway Leonard to stay in Toronto next season
The Kawhi Leonard guessing game just got more complicated on Saturday afternoon.
And maybe the odds of Leonard staying with the NBA champion Raptors tilted ever so slightly in Toronto’s favour after it was reported that Los Angeles had acquired Anthony Davis from New Orleans to join LeBron James with the Lakers.
The Lakers have been described as an internal mess since the NBA regular season ended. But now, they would be declared favourites to follow the Raptors as NBA champions.
So what does Kawhi do now? Typically, from Las Vegas, he’s not saying.
The word around here all year long has been that three things motivate Leonard: 1. Winning. 2. Maximizing his money. 3. Living with and close to family in California.
The Raptors have won a championship. The challenge now is to repeat. They can pay him more than any other team in the NBA and with an additional year. They can’t give him California but a California that includes the Lakers with Davis and James might not be what he wants.
LeBron is the best player of this generation, Davis is a current Top 7 NBA player and who knows how Leonard might interpret any of this?
A decision has to be made soon. I figured it was certain he was leaving before the Raptors won. And now that they have, we don’t how if he will take stock of this Davis trade.
Kawhi had a remarkable playoffs leading the Raptors to an unexpected championship. He scored the third most playoff points in history — just behind Michael Jordan and LeBron, probably the two best players ever in the NBA. Had there been a Game 7, he might have set the single season mark. What we won’t know, until he says something, is whether Davis’ move to California means there’s a better chance for Kawhi to stay in Toronto. But certainly from the outside you can interpret it that way.
THIS AND THAT
Years ago, Larry Tanenbaum’s wife asked her husband about selling his share in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. She was tired of all the losing, the toll it was taking on her husband and the social implications of being associated with teams that had no hope.
Then Tanenbaum bought the Argos and they won a Grey Cup. And right after that Toronto FC won an MLS title, followed by the Marlies winning the AHL. He was present for all those championships, celebrating the victories. But the big one came Thursday night. The big-league championship. At the Oracle
Arena, fans were chanting his name. He was signing autographs. He couldn’t stop beaming. After years of losing with the Leafs, Raptors and the soccer team, these are the good times.
No one is more deserving of them than the chairman of the MLSE himself, who desperately wanted to win for years and didn’t know how to accomplish it ... Fred VanVleet got one vote for Finals series MVP. The vote came from 85-year-old Hubie Brown, the former coach turned broadcaster. VanVleet had a terrific finals, especially the fourth quarter of the final game, but MVP, it has to Leonard ... Danny Green is a free agent. Would you re-sign him? You can’t help but like him. Not sure I’d sign him ... The best deal the Raptors have going forward — Pascal Siakam under contract for two more years at entry level money ... Did you know that Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol were all paid more this season than Kawhi was paid? ... The brilliance of Masai Ujiri: If this season didn’t go well, he would lose Kawhi for certain in free agency, lose Green, and lose Lowry, Ibaka, Gasol — almost $80 million in three contracts — at the end of next season. Ujiri took care of this year and if needed, took care of next year. That’s what great managers do.
HEAR AND THERE
The Summer of Dubas is a large piece of Ikea furniture, with some parts missing. There’s too much to do and not everything will fit. But he has to sign Mitch Marner first, before he can proceed from there. Without knowing Marner’s salary, preferably before July 1, the Leafs can’t proceed with our pertinent business ... Leafs have, by the way, utilized the Cone of Silence on the Marner negotiations. If stuff comes out, it doesn’t come from them. They’re in pure Lou Lamoriello mode now ... All Kyle Dubas has to do now is figure out what to do with Marner, Patrick Marleau, Jake Gardiner, a backup goalie, Andreas Johnsson, Kasperi Kapanen, Nikita Zaitsev and finish off a coaching staff. No wonder he turned the invite down to go to Oakland for Game 6 of the NBA Finals ... Thought it was kind of funny that I read a tweet this week indicating that the Leafs were quietly shopping backup goalie Garret Sparks. They weren’t so quiet when they awkwardly removed Sparks from the dressing room and pushed him away from the team just before the playoffs began, which is almost unprecedented in team history ... Way back when, when the Blues were just about the worst team in hockey, the Leafs inquired about what it would take to bring in pending free agent Alex Pietrangelo ... Phil Kessel has won a Stanley Cup. Tyler Bozak has won a Stanley Cup. Does that mean James vanRiemsdyk and Philadelphia are next? ... The Blues’ Stanley Cup winning coach Craig Berube was part of the player package Cliff Fletcher sent to Calgary in the famous one-sided Doug Gilmour trade of 1992 ... Really, John Ferguson Jr. deserves a raise as assistant GM, maybe a promotion after all, he traded Tuukka Rask to Boston for Andrew Raycroft. Rask has played more games in goal for the Bruins than anyone in history — and that includes Gerry Cheevers, Eddie Johnston and Tiny Thompson ... Actually Rask has played more games for the Bruins than the legend, Johnny Bower, played for the Leafs.