The All-Star’s move from San Antonio to Toronto leaves both of the main players in the deal dissatisfied but it could work out in the long run

One of the most bizarre storylines in NBA history has almost, sort of, come to an end. And you know what’s extra strange? The anti-climactic feel of it all.

Kawhi Leonard’s year-long stare-down with the Spurs came to a conclusion early on Wednesday morning, with the star moving to Toronto in exchange for DeMar DeRozan, youngster Jakob Poetl and a draft pick.

If I just gave you these facts: A top-five player in the league would be traded for the best player on the best team in the history of a franchise. If I gave you nothing else, you would presume it represented a seismic, landscape-altering shift of powers in the NBA.

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But the deal doesn’t quite feel like that. In fact, it’s one of those rare moves in which everybody and nobody wins.

Let’s start with the Spurs: this is supposed to be the end of a sorry saga. Leonard fell out with management due to a reported misdiagnosis of a mysterious quadriceps injury. The team and player could not agree on the injury, nor the way to treat it. Leonard hasn’t been able to trust the team since mid-January when he reinjured the damaged quad. His relationship with the organization quickly evaporated and he demanded a move.

Through that prism, the Spurs did about as well as any team could hope in securing the Raptors deal. The team didn’t have a lick of leverage in negotiations. In landing DeRozan, they bagged another All-NBA player to go with LaMarcus Aldridge – both of whom are under contract until 2021. They will enter 2018 with a starting five that has two of the 15 best players in the league. Not bad.

In a vacuum, It’s a fantastic haul. But what exactly does it do for them?

San Antonio opted to prolong the back-end of the Gregg Popovich era, rather than indulge the inevitable tear-down that will come in the post-Pop world. I guess that’s a win. The other alternative was to start the rebuild in earnest and finally close the book on one of sport’s greatest championship runs.

This deal keeps that door ajar, slightly. But DeRozan isn’t bringing the Spurs any closer to contention. They may be better in 2018 than 2017, but it won’t mean much come the playoffs (DeRozan is a historically poor playoff performer) or beyond next season.

It’s trickier to analyze for Toronto. The deal is low in actual cost, high in emotional toll.

Leonard is the best two-way player in the game. And he should be at the apex of his powers. The actual cost was a lowly first-round draft pick (likely to become a pair of second-round picks), a fine young player, and a star who’s been a disappointment when it matters most. It sounds like a proverbial steal.

There’s three issues, though. The first: Leonard’s mysterious injury. Nobody knows if he will ever return to MVP form (he’s yet to pass a physical), let alone what the problem actually is – or if it can be fixed.

Another issue: DeRozan had a real, emotional connection with the Raptors fan-base, which what sports fandom is all about, and his Instagram posts over the last few days indicate he’s not happy about moving south. Other NBA players agreed: “He was loyal to the soil and got stabbed in the back,” tweeted Lou Williams, his former teammate at the Raptors.

Lou Williams (@TeamLou23) I’m hurt bro. I’m hurt. My dog gave that city and organization his heart and soul. He was loyal to the soil and got stabbed in the back.

The third: Leonard may never play for the Raptors. ESPN’s Chris Hayes reports Leonard has “no desire” to play in Toronto. He wants to be in LA.

I guess that last one seems like kind of a big deal. The team would be able to levy fines against the star were he to opt against dressing for practices or games — the team can fine him up to the total amount of his contract.

Still: it would be more than a PR disaster were Leonard to refuse to suit-up.

Masai Ujiri, the Raptors president of basketball operations, swung for the fences this offseason. He fired Dwane Casey, the coach of the year, and has now exported the franchise’s most popular player since peak-Vince Carter.

Ujiri helped usher in Toronto’s first era of basketball relevancy. The DeRozan-Kyle Lowry-Casey fulcrum delivered the city its best regular seasons in franchise history: three 50-win seasons in a row. All of which ended with playoff meltdowns at the hands of LeBron James.

Something had to give. But that something could have easily been LeBron. With James skedaddling out West, the path was clear for that Raptors core to take a real run at the East — only Boston and Philadelphia stood in their way. But Ujiri opted to hit the ejector seat instead, firing his coach (Casey left before James had made his free agency decision to move to Los Angeles) and moving on his best player (poor DeRozan cannot escape James’ playoff shadow).

It’s a bold, gutsy move. It could pay-off big-time – Leonard is the most talented player ever to don a Raptors uniform. Or it could become a soap opera.

Ujiri is hoping to follow the Sam Presti-Oklahoma City-Paul George model. When the Thunder made a similar play for George a year ago, it seemed obvious the pending free agent would use Oklahoma as a stop-gap, before returning home to play in Los Angeles for the Lakers.

George admitted as much in his recent three-part ESPN documentary series (one of the all-time greatest unintentional comedies). Presti, the Thunder’s general manager, gambled that the franchise could use the 2017 season as a year-long recruiting pitch, rather than spending an hour or so with the player in a conference room come June. It worked. George enjoyed playing alongside fellow star Russell Westbrook, the team’s culture and the financial incentives of sticking around in Oklahoma City for at least a couple more years. He also, according to his documentary series, was put off by the Lakers presumption that he was always going to sign there. He didn’t feel wanted, he claimed – the Lakers passed up the opportunity to trade for George prior to the Thunder deal.

The same could be true for Leonard in Toronto. That’s what Ujiri and the Raptors are banking on: a successful sales job. They didn’t have any other real path to improve. It could work. Or, Leonard could never play for the team, whether the Raptors opt to flip him in two months after failing to secure a physical (a disaster) or Leonard decides to sit another full season (a basketball apocalypse).

The medium case scenario: Leonard plays in 2018, re-establishes his credibility among the basketball public, and cements himself once again as the best non-James, non-Durant wing in the league. Then he follows James to Los Angeles.

And Leonard, it turns out, is the ultimate winner, non-winner in all of this. He’s out of San Antonio: win. He’s in Toronto, not LA: Loss. And, given the contract he could have signed with the Spurs compared to the deal he can make on the open-market next offseason, he cost himself $80m: a loss or win, depending on your perspective.

It’s intriguing, sure. But something about this whole sorry affair leaves a weird taste in the mouth. And it isn’t quite over yet. In the end, everybody won, and everybody lost.