Richard Jefferson says the Raptors must be sharp with their game planning and real-time adjustments vs. the Warriors in the NBA Finals. (1:21)

TORONTO -- When Masai Ujiri made the decision to trade Toronto Raptors franchise icon DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard last summer, he knew it was a decision that -- from outside the organization -- would come with a lot of second-guessing.

DeRozan was beloved here, a California kid who chose to make Toronto his home, and had led the Raptors to the best stretch in franchise history. Leonard, meanwhile, was coming off a season when he only played nine games for the San Antonio Spurs because of tendinopathy in his left quadriceps, and it was unclear he'd be willing to stay north of the border past this season, given his looming free agency this summer.

But Ujiri made the move for one reason: He thought Leonard was the best player in the world. And when Toronto's president of basketball operations got Leonard into the building, he knew right away the questions about Leonard's health -- and his ability to once again play at the highest level -- would go away.

"Honestly, as soon as we made the trade, I thought that," Ujiri said Wednesday morning at a pre-NBA Finals news conference. "... He made it clear that his health was a priority for him. It was a priority for us, and to see the progress ... just his mindset when he came into the building, and into training camp, the work he did in the summer, coming into training camp, and the work he's done all year.

"Kawhi's quiet but he's relentless. I tell you, his work ethic is almost crazy [with] his regimen, taking care of his body and doing all the work. ... When you see the preparation throughout the season you know what this kind of player, or you feel what this kind of player is going to produce. You don't wish this kind of injury on anybody, but you could tell with him it was a priority to get back to the highest level."

Leonard certainly has done that. The dynamic two-way forward has powered Toronto's run to its first NBA Finals appearance with a scintillating postseason full of highlight moments -- none bigger than his shot that bounced off the rim four times before falling through the net a full two seconds after the final buzzer sounded in Game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The result: Leonard has launched himself back into the conversation as being the best player in the world. Ujiri believes Leonard is the only correct answer in that debate.

Ujiri announced that to a delirious crowd here at Scotiabank Arena during the trophy presentation on Saturday night following Toronto's Game 6 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals, and doubled down when asked Wednesday why he believes that to be the case.

"I don't know that any of those people will argue with me that he's the best two-way player in the NBA," Ujiri said, "and when we talk about basketball, we're talking about playing on both ends.

"I feel that if we put him on both ends of the court, he has the ability to be the best player in the league. That's where it came from."

Leonard's performance during the playoffs has only given strength to that argument. He is averaging 31.2 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, shooting 50.7 percent overall, 38.8 percent from 3-point range and 87.5 percent from the foul line, and providing the elite defense Ujiri referenced

It also has given belief to the Raptors that, despite going up against the heavily favored Golden State Warriors -- who are on a quest to complete the first three-peat in almost 20 years -- they have a chance to win the first championship in franchise history.

"You put the team together and we all dream of a championship," Ujiri said. "We all think about that and I think the change was hard at the time, but we knew the kind of player we were getting, and if we overcame and we dealt with all the issues that we felt that could come together. I think we were all positive about this kind of moment and all dreamt about it.

"The players have been unbelievable, the coaches have been remarkable, we have had remarkable leadership from Kawhi, Kyle [Lowry], Marc Gasol and Nick [Nurse] leading the way. ... They have done an incredible job."

Ujiri went out of his way to give credit to DeRozan and former Raptors coach Dwane Casey -- the two most prominent members of the Raptors, along with Lowry, from the past several years of playoff disappointments. While Toronto has reached this year's heights after replacing Casey with Nurse and flipping DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a first-round pick for Leonard and Danny Green, Ujiri said the work they put in over the past few years allowed Toronto to reach this point.

"To give Dwane Casey credit, he prepared us for this, too," Ujiri said. "This is not something that started in one year. I don't know that a team can just start in one year. So I think, I want to say that Dwane Casey and DeMar DeRozan are a part of this. They are part of our journey and how far this has come."

That Toronto is here at all is something that fans wouldn't have thought possible when Ujiri arrived from the Denver Nuggets in 2013. But after remaining steadfast in his belief that Toronto, despite being outside of the United States, could become a place any NBA player would want to play, Ujiri now hopes the city can witness the Raptors make history over the next few weeks.

"We just feel like we have ... prepared well to be here," Ujiri said. "[When] you go through that grind, it's very flattering for us as a team, as an organization. I know our players would love that, that we get that support.

"But these guys have prepared, to be honest. We have been trying to prepare for this moment, to get here and it's been a grind. We get mocked. People talk about us in different ways, but for us that's the growth, that's the thing, those are the things that we have to go through.

"But I can tell you it's going to be crazy. It's going to be crazy here tomorrow [for Game 1]. It's going to be crazy here on Sunday [for Game 2]. It's going to be crazy here for a few days because that's the mentality of our fan base. We know it's across the world. That's something special about here. We can reach the world easy from here, from Canada, and we're happy to be the global team that represents the NBA."