{"id":95231,"date":"2024-09-11T15:19:50","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T19:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=95231"},"modified":"2024-09-11T15:19:50","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T19:19:50","slug":"raptors-former-cornerstone-demar-derozan-bold-kawhi-leonard-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/11\/raptors-former-cornerstone-demar-derozan-bold-kawhi-leonard-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Raptors Cornerstone Makes Bold Kawhi Leonard Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a one-on-one with ESPN\u2019s Stephen A. Smith, Sacramento Kings star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/derozde01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DeMar DeRozan<\/a> made a shocking proclamation. Asked by Smith whether the Toronto Raptors \u2014who he played for during the first nine seasons of his career \u2014would\u2019ve won a championship had they not traded him for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leonaka01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kawhi Leonard<\/a>, the six-time All-Star responded in the affirmative.<\/p>\n<h2>Former Raptors Cornerstone DeMar DeRozan Makes Bold Kawhi Leonard Claim<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cYeah,\u201d DeRozan says. \u201cNever to discredit those guys; they won it, they deserve it. I finally had got to a point to where I was happy for them. But, for sure, I definitely feel like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only person we couldn\u2019t beat was LeBron (James),\u201d he recalls. \u201cThat\u2019s just what it was, and I felt off the year we had before, we just needed one more piece to kind of push us over the top. That piece came to be LeBron going to the West and I didn\u2019t get the opportunity to see what would\u2019ve happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">DeMar DeRozan believes he would have won a championship with the Raptors if the Kawhi Leonard trade never happened:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have no doubt in my mind the same outcome would have happened.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>[via <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FirstTake?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@FirstTake<\/a> ] <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iRxW2OvdVc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/iRxW2OvdVc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 BASKETBALL ON \ud835\udd4f (@BASKETBALLonX) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BASKETBALLonX\/status\/1833924264392540588?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 11, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut (having) the utmost confidence in myself, I have no doubt in my mind the same outcome would\u2019ve happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Conflicting Statements?<\/h3>\n<p>DeRozan has spoke on the Raptors\u2019 inability to get past James before. Last month, he told the <em>Club 520 Podcast<\/em> that James \u201cwas impossible to beat\u201d during his second stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers. In fact, he went as far as to say that there was nothing Toronto could\u2019ve done to get past James.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Demar Derozan claims Lebron was impossible to beat back when he was with the Raptors <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vploUgsZQI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/vploUgsZQI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 \ud835\ude6f\ud835\ude64 (@ogchabzo) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ogchabzo\/status\/1828180126716113368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>On the one hand, DeRozan doubling down on James\u2019s dominance gives that take more life. On the other hand, his comments on the <em>Club 520 Podcast<\/em> kind of run counter to his response to Smith, as he told the ESPN pundit that he thought the Raptors could\u2019ve defeated James if they had another weapon.<\/p>\n<p>The question then becomes whether DeRozan\u2019s belief that Toronto would\u2019ve won without <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2018\/07\/18\/report-kawhi-leonard-traded-to-toronto-raptors-for-demar-derozan\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the trade for<\/a> Leonard has merit.<\/p>\n<h3>Fair or Foul?<\/h3>\n<p>Ultimately, it\u2019s fair for DeRozan to believe the Raptors would\u2019ve made to the NBA Finals without Leonard. In the 2016 NBA Playoffs, he managed to lead Toronto to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they fell to the Cavs in six games. Based on that series, he and his supporting cast may have had enough for a Finals berth.<\/p>\n<p>However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lowryky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Lowry<\/a>\u2019s steady decline makes it possible that they never got that chance. Furthermore, in the Raptors\u2019 championship season, Toronto was ranked eighth in made 3-pointers per game (12.4) and sixth in 3-point percentage (.366). It was the only time since James left the Miami Heat that the Raptors were in the top-10 of both categories.<\/p>\n<p>The defense was also elevated in Leonard\u2019s brief tenure. Toronto was a strong defensive team before his arrival, but that was in spite of DeRozan\u2019s deficiencies at that end. Leonard, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, was a two-way star. Conversely, DeRozan was an offensive specialist.<\/p>\n<p>In a close series like one the Raptors and Warriors played, those marginal advantages become magnified.<\/p>\n<p>Still, it\u2019s worth noting that DeRozan would\u2019ve likely played for Toronto much longer. As James and the Golden State Warriors entered the twilight of their prime, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2019\/07\/16\/free-agency-2019-the-return-of-parity\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the league had parity<\/a>. So, while the Raptors may not have won immediately after James went West, it could\u2019ve happened eventually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a one-on-one with ESPN\u2019s Stephen A. Smith, Sacramento Kings star DeMar DeRozan made a shocking proclamation. Asked by Smith whether the Toronto Raptors \u2014who he played for during the first nine seasons of his career \u2014would\u2019ve won a championship had they not traded him for Kawhi Leonard, the six-time All-Star responded in the affirmative. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":95256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1608,62,3,29],"tags":[350,168,596,1382],"class_list":["post-95231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-raptors","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-kings","tag-demar-derozan","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-trade"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}