SMOOTH TRANSITION?
San Antonio bets franchise-altering star swap will reinvigorate team’s future
If all goes according to San Antonio’s plans, this will work out just fine.
DeMar DeRozan will work through the hurt and frustration that came with being shipped out of Toronto in exchange for Kawhi Leonard, forge a strong relationship with Gregg Popovich & Co., then go to work winning games for one of the best teams in the NBA Western Conference.
That part is inevitable, right, if only because DeRozan has two guaranteed years left on his contract and really no other choice?
Well, not exactly.
As the Spurs were reminded through the sordid Leonard saga that led to the NBA’s latest midsummer blockbuster deal, the personal dynamics always matter when it comes to team building.
It wasn’t long ago Leonard was telling the world he planned to be in a “Spurs jersey for life,” and next thing you know there was this bizarre season in which his quadriceps injury sparked a great divide between the two sides and, ultimately, this franchise-altering move.
So the reality that DeRozan, a fourtime All-Star, is not only angry at the Raptors for the way they doubled back on their word but also unhappy about joining the Spurs is no small thing. And talk about timing: DeRozan and Leonard are on the list of players invited to the Team USA training camp at UNLV next Wednesday through Friday, with none other than Popovich coaching the national team for the very first time. It’s unclear whether DeRozan will attend, but Leonard was considered likely to at-
tend before this deal went down. As NBA personalities go, DeRozan, 28, is as measured and mature as they come. He’s also a top-tier player in his prime who has every reason to be furious.
Just two years ago, DeRozan had a choice to make: Stay with the Raptors, who drafted him ninth overall out of Southern California in 2009 and made him the face of their franchise, or flirt with other suitors such as the Lakers who were hoping to lure him south of the border. He chose the former at the very start of the free agency period, agreeing to a five-year deal (with a player option in the fifth season) that said everything about his level of commitment to Toronto. Now just about the time the Raptors’ future was looking bright again, with their arch-nemesis, LeBron James, headed west to join the Lakers and Toronto coming off a franchise-record 59-win regular season, De- Rozan’s incredible run there is over.
The specifics of DeRozan’s ire toward the Raptors aren’t hard to understand. Not only was he told at the Las Vegas summer league this month that he wouldn’t be traded, but that message, according to a person with knowledge of the talks, came at the same time and location where the Raptors were gathering intelligence on Leonard for this deal. The person spoke to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity surrounding the situation.
For the Spurs’ part, this is deja vu during a post-Tim Duncan era that gets stranger and more conflict-ridden by the year. First it was big man LaMarcus Aldridge expressing his discontent last summer, making it known he’d prefer to be traded before doing an about-face. He mended fences with Popovich, then signed an extension in October.
Spurs assistant coach Ime Udoka had a positive influence on the situation during that time. He had a strong relationship with Aldridge that aided the cause. He might be key again this time, too, considering Popovich and DeRozan are known to have no prior relationship. Not only did Udoka play against DeRozan during the final two years of his career, but they routinely worked out together at Loyola Marymount during the 2011 NBA lockout and grew closer during that process. What’s more, Udoka is on Popovich’s Team USA staff as an assis- tant and would have a chance to reconnect with DeRozan if he takes part in the training camp.
Just about the time the Aldridge situation was being smoothed over, the Spurs’ relationship with Leonard went sideways. And a little more than a month after his associates made it known he wanted out, here we are.
The Spurs are shooting 50% in this category, their immediate future hinging on the question of whether they can hit this shot.
Young center Jakob Poeltl might turn out to be a fine rotation player who they’re happy to have landed from Toronto, and the top-20 protected 2019 first-round pick they also received could yield a good player. But this trade, for better or worse, was about replacing one All-Star with another.
Convince DeRozan that there’s a San Antonio chapter to be written in his already-impressive story, and one of the best franchises will have found a way again to keep this run of success rolling. Fail on that front, and this deal might go down as nothing short of a disaster.
Newly traded DeMar DeRozan and Kawhi Leonard are on the list of players invited to the Team USA training camp next week in Las Vegas, with none other than Gregg Popovich coaching the national team