TORONTO – Kawhi Leonard wanted to know one thing. Two days after the San Antonio Spurs met his trade demand last July, following a bizarre, season-long stalemate with the organization and its training staff, Leonard showed up at the Toronto Raptors’ practice facility, scraggly beard and all, and got directly to the point with team president Masai Ujiri:



Why did you trade for me?



“Because you’re the best player in the league,” Ujiri told him in that initial meeting.



Ujiri showed no hesitation in his response, or in his desire to acquire a player whose arrival would immediately transform the expectations for a franchise that has spent much of its existence being neglected, ignored or disregarded. The Raptors were nowhere on Leonard’s radar when he asked out of the only organization he had known. Leonard was seeking a homecoming to his native southern California but Ujiri swooped in, viewing his availability – which came...