The Toronto Raptors won their first and only championship in the season after trading Kawhi Leonard for DeMar DeRozan. Would the Raptors still have reached the 2019 NBA Finals had Toronto never made the deal? DeMar DeRozan seems to think so.

During ESPN's alternative broadcast of Game 3 between the Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets Friday, Stephen A. Smith contended that the Raptors would've won the Eastern Conference had the DeRozan-for-Leonard trade never happened. DeRozan agreed with that assessment.

“Most definitely,” DeRozan told Smith. “It sucks that we couldn't see what could have happened with me still being there. That just changes the whole dynamic & everything. But I definitely felt that.”

For a half-decade, DeRozan and Kyle Lowry gave the Raptors one of the NBA's best backcourts. They led Toronto to five straight playoff appearances from 2014-2018. The Raptors' best finish during that span was a trip to the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals, where LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers eliminated Toronto in six games.

James' Cavs ended the Raptors' season three years in a row. When Toronto earned the No. 1 seed in the 2017-2018 season and was swept by Cleveland in a second-round series, the Raptors decided that it was time for a change.

The Raptors swapped DeRozan for Leonard. Toronto fired head coach Dwane Casey and replaced him with Nick Nurse. Less than a year later, Leonard won the NBA Finals MVP award in his only season with the Raptors.

Leonard sure looked like the missing piece that Toronto needed for a championship run. In 24 playoff games, Leonard averaged 30.5 points, 9.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. Leonard was the best player in the NBA Finals against Stephen Curry and the back-to-back champion Golden State Warriors.

After falling behind 2-0 against the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2019 conference finals, Leonard took his game to a new level. Leonard averaged 29.8 points per game in the six-game series while guarding Giannis Antetokounmpo in crunch time during Toronto's victories over Milwaukee.

Leonard wasn't the only reason why the Raptors had a better roster in the season after DeRozan's departure. Pascal Siakam more than doubled his scoring average and won the NBA's Most Improved Player award. Fred VanVleet emerged as a reliable starting point guard.

At the end of the 2018 season, it was evident that Toronto had gone as far as it could with Lowry and DeRozan as its two best players. DeRozan averaged 16.8 points on 16.5 field-goal attempts per game in his final series as a Raptor. He totaled just 21 points in his final two games.

In 63 career playoff games, DeRozan is just a 41.8% shooter. The veteran averages 3.7 assists and 2.3 turnovers per game in the playoffs. Leonard, on the other hand, raises his game in the postseason and is one of the greatest playoff performers in NBA history.

It's certainly possible that DeRozan could've improved his playoff resume had he never been traded to the San Antonio Spurs. During his last two seasons with the Chicago Bulls, DeRozan has been among the most clutch players in basketball.

DeRozan averaged a career-high 27.9 points per game while shooting a personal-best 35.2% from 3-point range in the 2021-2022 season. DeRozan has been an All-Star in each of the last two years.