ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski has reported the Spurs and Raptors have agreed to send Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green to Toronto in order to acquire DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl, and a protected 2019 first round draft pick.
Original Story
According to Shams Charania of Yahoo! Sports early Wednesday morning, the San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors are ‘engaged in serious talks on a trade centered on Kawhi Leonard and DeMar DeRozan,’ according to Charania’s sources.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN later reported both sides are finalizing a deal and the deal could be agreed in principle as early as Wednesday.
While no other players aside from DeRozan and Leonard have been mentioned by Charania or Wojnarowksi of ESPN, this is the first serious report of the Spurs engaging with a team regarding the possibility of trading Leonard.
Since Leonard made his trade request just before the NBA draft took place, most reports have stated that the Spurs have been listening to trade proposals but not seriously engaging with any of the proposals.
Wojnarowski noted the trade talks between the Spurs and Raptors have been ongoing for the last two weeks. The discussions intensified in the last few days according to Charania. Charania also notes Leonard has no intention of staying in Toronto past this coming season and DeRozan “also has expressed displeasure toward a possible move,” when DeRozan learned of the news late Tuesday evening.
Leonard will earn $20 million next season and DeRozan will earn $27.7 million, so, more players would need to be included in the deal to make it work.
The Raptors have intriguing prospects in OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam and according to Jordan Schultz of Yahoo! Sports, the Raptors have been hesitant to include Anunoby in a potential Leonard deal, but it’s unclear if not including Anunoby would stop the Spurs from the making a deal.
As far as future picks go, the Raptors own all their future first and second round picks going forward.
Shortly after the trade rumor went public, DeRozan posted a story on Instagram with the following three sentences in the slides.
“Told one thing and the outcome another. Can’t trust em. Ain’t no loyalty in this game. Sell you out quick for a little bit of nothing.”
“Soon you’ll understand.”
“Don’t disturb.”
According to Wojnarowski, Raptors management assured DeRozan at Summer League in Las Vegas recently he would not be traded.