Raptors Spurs trade after thoughts

The Spurs and Raptors just pulled of one of the strangest trades in NBA history. 

The Raptors receive: Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green

The Spurs receive: Demar Derozan, Jakob Poeltl and 2019 first round pick (20-30) or 2 second round picks in 2020

When the news broke both center pieces of the deal (Derozan and Leonard) were upset that they where traded. Even though Kawhi asked for a trade he wanted to go to sunny California not a different country. Demar never wanted to leave Toronto, he considered this his home and wanted to be a lifer. As we all know the NBA is a rigorous business, and management is forced by ownership to compete or to tank so they will be set up to win. Being the middle man in the NBA is the worst. As the dust settles we can now take a closer look into this deal. 

Raptors point of view:

WHAT A DEAL! After getting past the fact they traded Demar because of the player he is not the person. Demar is one of the most loyal NBA superstars and a great guy, but Kawhi is just a better player. They have similar games offensively except Kawhi is just better at everything Derozan does except play-making. On top of this Kawhi can shoot the three pointer, which is a very important skill in today's league. Also is there even a comparison on defense, Kawhi is a 2 time DPOY compared to Derozan who is sub-par at best. If Kawhi plays like we last saw him the Raptors won this deal easily. On top of all this they get Danny Green who is an excellent 3-D player. He will bolster the defense along with Kawhi on the wing and the Raptors will be trouble with his ability to space the floor and knock down threes. Giving up Jakob Poeltl and probably 2 second round picks make this deal worth it.

However, let's get to the elephant in the room. Kawhi says he wants to play in Los Angeles. Well first of all he will play this season and the Raptors have a chance to make the finals. They were the number one seed in the East last year (not Philly, not Boston) and they just added two amazing players. The Raptors will compete this year with the conference's best player in Kawhi Leonard and the East's best team. In 2016-2017 Kawhi was single handedly beating the Warriors in Game 1 of the WCF. This Raptors team is better than that Spurs team, so if the Raptors figure it out they have a real shot. If all of this is not enough to convince Kawhi then the Raptors only could land Kawhi if they relocate to Los Angeles. If Kawhi does leave it will be the time to start a rebuild. It just moves it up one year without Derozan. With Demar the Raptors would have been a middle of the pack playoff team and that is the worst thing possible in the NBA. With this they are going for it and you can never fault that. 

Spurs point of view:

Well the Spurs won 45+ games last year and made it to their 20th straight playoff appearance. They were playing without Kawhi Leonard for the season who played in 9 games for the season. They added an NBA All-Star in Demar Derozan in the hopes to remain competitive. They will be in the playoff mix again and look for them to shock a couple of people. With the leadership of Pop, Demar will elevate his game into a new level. The Spurs want to remain competitive until Pop retires in 2020 and they did that by getting an established NBA star in Demar Derozan.