Guest writer Jordan Braiuka joins me today in offering his thoughts on the rumoured Kawhi-to-Toronto trade.

Luca: I live and breathe basketball. Therefore, it’s probably not a surprise that, like I’m sure many of our readers, I am a member of multiple NBA group chats on Facebook.

Amidst all the laughing at the r/nba offseason shit posting and salivation over Summer League prospects, one topic has dominated all these chats. “Should the Raptors trade for Kawhi Leonard”?

For those who have not been keeping up with the NBA offseason, out of seemingly nowhere, the Toronto Raptors have emerged as the overwhelming favourite in the Kawhi Leonard sweepstakes, as teams like the Lakers and Clippers balked and bowed out from the asking price. The proposed package: Kawhi Leonard for DeMar DeRozan, OG Anunoby and a future first round pick.

Full disclosure, as a Lakers fan, I did not want any part of any of the Kawhi Leonard trade scenarios that were being floated about. The reasoning is simple: If we give up all our young talent on the roster to get a superstar to pair with James, it still doesn’t put us above the Warriors. Also, with Leonard at his peak right now and James (theoretically) leaving his prime, there’s no room for us to grow.

The Lakers mystique is built on their history of winning championships, not just being there to make up the playoff numbers. Our potential ceiling is maximised by keeping most of our young talent, and grabbing one of many top tier free agents in next year’s class to pair with James and our young nucleus. This strategy banks on our young talent entering their prime just as the Warriors begin to decline, whilst still being competitive in the short term by having two superstars on the roster.

The Raptors are not the Lakers. Their best players are squarely in their prime, and they’ve had the same DeRozan/Lowry/Valanciunas nucleus for years now. They’ve retooled and added depth over the years, and the added depth led to the best regular season in Raptors history this previous season. However, they have not once looked like a threat in the playoffs once they go there. LeBron James has utterly obliterated them every time they’ve faced each other. Even with LeBron’s departure, teams like the Celtics and the 76ers are rapidly on the rise, meaning that the East is no longer looking like the cakewalk it once was.

It’s hard to imagine there is a lot of internal improvement left with DeRozan and Lowry as your stars. While guys like VanVleet and Anunoby are great pieces, they’re very unlikely to be the difference maker that the Raptors need to make a trip to the NBA finals.

Some Raptors fans I know have argued that they’d be giving up too much to get Leonard. Personally though, I believe that it’s worth the risk. Kawhi Leonard is a difference maker. He’s a proven championship winner, he’s young (just turned 27) and most importantly, he shakes things up. He might not necessarily lead Toronto to a title. Heck, he might leave for one of the LA franchises next season. Anyone but the most optimistic of Raptors fans though, doesn’t think that the current iteration of this team is a title threat.

Why not roll the dice? They could catch lightning in a bottle with team chemistry or Leonard could take his game to the next level. At this stage, I’d prefer to throw caution to the wind. Worst case scenario, they blow it up a la Philly a number of years ago, and rebuild through the draft. There’s no glory in being merely good. Basketball is about striving to be great.

Jordan: I agree with everything you said above Luca. I myself have experienced exactly what you’ve described through the lense of my own fandom. For those who don’t know, I am a long time Rockets fan.

I watched the 22 win streak, and the Ron Artest experiment. I sat there through the “dark years” and watched as Aaron Brooks won Most Improved Player, laughed when 6’6″ starting center Chuck Hayes got a triple double, and cried when Yao finally retired. I saw us trade for Harden, sign Dwight, lose Dwight and everything since. I loved every minute.

Last year had a different feel to it. Last year we had a legitimate shot. For years, people are going to argue till they’re blue in the face that the Rockets would or wouldn’t have lost with a healthy CP3, but you cannot argue that we weren’t a legitimate title threat. Last year was like a drug. I’m addicted to hope. The idea that this could be our year, that we could finally have bragging rights. I believed right up until the final siren of Game 7.

Luca: Title contention is the reason that teams play this game. Many years ago, the Rockets were in the same boat as these very Raptors: a good team that’s fun to watch, but never an actual threat to win a title. That all changed when the men in red pulled off a blockbuster to get Harden to the Rockets. Without the benefit of hindsight, the Rockets gave up a lot to get him. Kevin Martin was a great scorer, Jeremy Lamb was young and loaded with potential, and there were also two first round picks and one second round pick included in the trade as well.

They risked a lot to get their guy, but the risk was worth the chance that Harden would become a superstar and lead them to title contention. Leonard has already shown that he is a superstar in this league when healthy. He’s won a Finals MVP in San Antonio, won 2 DPOY awards, and in his last healthy season, demonstrated that he could be a #1 option on an elite team.

No disrespect intended to DeMar DeRozan, who, truth be told, is a very nice player in his own right. But DeRozan is not the same calibre of player of Leonard. It’s not often that you have the chance to get a 27 year old superstar who is in his prime. If I’m the Raptors, I don’t hesitate to roll the dice on the chance that they get their James Harden.

Jordan: In my last article, I argued that a players legacy shouldn’t be tied to the rings on their fingers, so no doubt people are going to call me a hypocrite. But hear me out. In my eyes, these are separate arguments. A team should always go all-in and risk everything for a shot at the title. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean players should be blamed if they fall short. I just can’t understand lowering the bar and settling on your peak goal at just something like a Division title and short playoff run.

I get it if you’re a team like the Sixers or Celtics. Your team is on the upward swing. Stand pat and watch your players mature and grow for a deep playoff run. Toronto are not up and coming teams. They are what I call a “not quite there” team. Now is not the time to hunker down and be cautious. Now is the time to push all your chips into the middle of the table for the big play.

Trade for Kawhi Leonard and take a risk. It’s the same logic that will probably lead to another “not quite there” team to sign Carmelo to an MLE and set him up for a bounce back year, or to see if Brandon Jennings wants to come back from China and spark their bench unit. There’s plenty of gold out there (see Green, Gerald (2017)).

The infamous Brooklyn Nets-Boston Celtics trade was horrible. Worst trade of all time. They had the right idea, just gambled on the wrong players. The idea was sound though, to put it all on the line for a chance at the ultimate prize. If I was a Raptors fan, and the price of legitimate championship hope is one of my stars, a rotation player and a draft pick or two, I hope my team isn’t content with merely being “not quite there”.