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“Who is this guy?” he recalled asking. “What does it mean?”

Coolen was worried about the fate of the Raptors, and the brand, and his program, without DeRozan.

But his contact wasn’t worried, insisting the trade would take the Raptors to “the next level.”

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Nearly a year later, the Raptors are indeed at the next level, ahead two games to one in the first NBA finals in franchise history — and McDonald’s is out more than two million medium-size orders of french fries.

That’s nearly three times the 700,000 orders the company projected its Ontario restaurants would give away during the promotion.

Coolen said they based the forecast model, in part, on a previous fry giveaway program with the Montreal Canadiens.

We believe it will pay off in the future Mike Forman, McDonald's franchisee

Judging by the previous season — in which the Raptors averaged 11.8 threes a game without Leonard or proficient three-point shooter Danny Green, also acquired in the Leonard trade — McDonald’s had figured the Raptors were likely to hit at least 12 three-pointers in about half of the 82 games in the regular season.

After the Leonard trade in July 2018, there was time to tweak the 12-shot threshold, since the program wouldn’t start until the fall season, but McDonald’s chose not to.

The Raptors’ three-point shooting, though slow in the early part of the season, outpaced the previous season, but not by much.

Last season, the Raptors hit 12 or more three-pointers in 43 of 82 games, and added another five games in the playoffs. This season the three-point threshold was reached 44 times in the regular season and another 10 — so far — in a much longer playoff run.