Kawhi Leonard’s chances of becoming a Toronto Raptor seem less like a pipedream and moreso legitimate as everyday passes. OddShark’s betting odds placing the Raptors as favourites for Leonard were simply a market reaction, but now the team is getting legitimate hype in the Kawhi sweepstakes from some of the biggest reporters in the game.
Today’s big advancement comes in the form of Brian Windhorst and Zach Lowe on today’s Lowe Post podcast, and can be heard here.
Rather than simply reporting something vaugue along the lines of the Raptors “making sense” for Kawhi or “generating buzz”, they provided very interesting insight in a much more specific way:
“I think they’re in the driver’s seat for Kawhi because I think the Lakers have given up, the Sixers have given up. And with the Nets, Bulls and Hawks spending their cap space, it makes it harder to assemble a multi-team trade. I think the Raptors are in the driver’s seat.”
They then talk about potential offers, and Lowe adds this:
“I will say this, I guess I would offer DeRozan, Siakam, and at least 1 first round pick. And I’ve seen a lot of snark on Twitter that the Raptors stuff is a joke, that the odds went up because of something I said on my podcast and that you said on TV. I’ve seen it being dismissed. It may not happen, most NBA trades don’t happen. But if you think it’s a joke, you should probably recalibrate your expectations.”
Of course, Adrian Wojnarowski has reported that Kawhi will eventually alert rival teams considering trades for him that his intention is to sign in LA when he can become a free agent in 2019. However, there are only a very select amount of superstars in the league, and for a player of Kawhi’s caliber, all bets are off. The deal would certainly be a risk, but nevertheless, a bigger splash for the Raptors front office than anyone could’ve ever imagined.
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