Over the past few seasons, the Toronto Raptors had a lot of regular season success, but in the playoffs, specifically against LeBron James and the Cavaliers, the Raptors had some serious struggles, which caused their former head coach Dwane Casey to lose his job and led to the trade of DeMar DeRozan to the Spurs for two-time All-Star Kawhi Leonard.
On paper, the Raptors look like a better team, but it’s imperative for the Raptors to have a lot of success. First, because they want to win a championship, and the other reason is they want to keep Leonard, who can opt out of his contract next summer. Leonard reportedly wants to be in Los Angeles, but as we saw with Paul George, nothing is guaranteed.
Former Raptor Jamario Moon, who started his NBA career with the Raptors, believes Leonard will fall in love with Toronto.
“For me, Toronto was the first city I played in, and I loved it,” Moon recently told Paul Gant. “Toronto is like a cold Miami, or a cold Los Angles, so I love Toronto, me personally, but everybody got different opinions about different places. But I think Kawhi will love Toronto; the fans are going to treat him like God. They treated me like one of their own, so I feel like he’s going to love it because I loved my time.”
In the end, you don’t know what is going to happen, until it happens, but Toronto can get to the NBA Finals, especially with LeBron James out of the Eastern Conference.
Listen below as Moon talks the BIG3, Raptors chances in the Eastern Conference and Kawhi Leonard: