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The Toronto Raptors have done it, they traded for Kawhi Leonard, perhaps one of the best five players in the NBA — but now the impending noise to come will be deafening.
Not only did Masai Ujiri have to answer to allegations that he lied to DeMar DeRozan before the trade went down, but also the implications of taking such a high risk for a player coming off an injury, and one who's yet to commit to staying in Toronto.
If that wasn't enough, nothing hurts the ear more than silence — and no one has specialized in bringing more silence to the NBA than Leonard.
Leonard ranked ninth in scoring during the 2016-17 season, sandwiched by LeBron James and Stephen Curry to round out the top 10 in the league, but if silence was a stat, he would be the unquestioned league leader and by a mile.
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A San Antonio Spurs insider even went as far as calling him “practically mute,” according to Doug Smith of The Toronto Star.
“Leonard treats a lot of questions and inquiries as intrusions he doesn’t want to deal with,” wrote Smith. “He’s neither mean-spirited nor vindictive. He just seems to treat the entire public persona part of being an NBA all-star as a nuisance to be avoided. He is not going to stand patiently in front of his locker night after night dissecting what just happened in a game.”
Perhaps what is most concerning is that Leonard is no different with the front office, still a reserved person when it comes to personal matters, making it that much tougher to diagnose his intentions heading into a mysterious 2018-19 season.
The Raptors will want to act quickly if Leonard is hellbent in ending up in Los Angeles, as the Lakers have already made up their mind that they will not trade assets for a player that would come to them no matter what.
