The Toronto Raptors knew what they were getting themselves into when they traded for Kawhi Leonard over the summer.
Leonard will be a free agent this coming offseason, and he has not committed to staying with the Raptors long term. In fact, the general consensus is that Leonard will leave Toronto for a team such as the Los Angeles Clippers come July.
If Leonard does, in fact, leave Canada this summer, Marc Stein of The New York Times surmises that the Raptors will blow it up, trading point guard Kyle Lowry and beginning a rebuild.
This is definitely not surprising.
As a matter of fact, before Toronto acquired Leonard back in July, many felt that the Raptors should trade away Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, as, after multiple playoff failures with the same core, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Toronto just did not have enough to get over the hump.
Of course, the Raptors do hope to convince Leonard to stay, but in the likely—if not inevitable—scenario that Kawhi does leave, Toronto can say that it traded for Leonard with aspirations of winning a title this year.
And you know what? That certainly wasn't a bad gamble, even if the Raptors don't win it all.
While Toronto has stumbled a bit after a scorching hot start, it remains one of the best teams in the league and absolutely has a chance to make it to the finals this season.
That's a heck of a lot better than getting swept by LeBron James year in and year out, right?
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