Toronto, San Antonio talking Kawhi-DeRozan Swap (UPDATE: Done deal)

I feel for Demar and with now having more information about his background, career, feelings and drive to stay in Toronto this doesn’t look good at all for the organisation. I know winning cures all, but if Leonard walks, then Toronto will need a long time to recover unless they decide it’s Ujri’s fault or make him the scapegoat. It’s just odd Ujri dealt with Demar the way that he did.

 

Just imagine, if LeBron, KD, Cousins, Dwightmare, or even like Kobe did something like that the media/ex-players/fans would be ripping them a new one.

 

Really? Thought they would get the benefit of doubt as Spurs org have misdiagnosed injuries. Danny Green confirmed that.

 

Hell, Harden has been nothing but a model citizen, great role model, and has given back to the community in spades, yet if you go to Reddit (or any other sports aggregating website), the hate that he receives from non-Rockets fans is disgusting.

 

Kawhi takes it to the extreme for sure...

But Lebron once sat out like 13 games because he was tired.

Everyone is treated generally unique to their situation. Kawhi is not the media personality that the above guys are. That might be on him, but it also in many ways speaks directly to what he was apparently trying to change situationally... that he's an MVP candidate in SAS and they win chips, but they aren't treated like other superstars. Apparently that's what he wants to change...

 

Kawhi's Group were working overtime since the very beginning of this debacle to minimize the bad media PR they were expecting from this. Throwing the spurs under the bus, saying that they misdiagnosed his injury, saying they didn't offer Kawhi the super max, etc etc. You had Chris Carter whose group is the same group behind Kawhi backing up Kawhi's behavior.

 

I think he has been treated differently b/c he is so damned quiet. There are no tweets to trumpet and dissect. No statements to reporters. No whining. No bragging. Just nothing. Modern media, and modern sports fans too I guess, just can't handle it. They move on from a blank, unspeaking face as fast as they can click on something more exciting.

 

Part of that was the fact that the Spurs organization never confirmed any of the negative reports over the last year. They kept saying everything was fine, and Kawhi would be coming back whenever he felt ready. They denied reports from trustworthy guys like Stein and Woj who broke the story on the "rift" between Kawhi and Pop/Buford, while the Spurs constantly denied it. Had this really run its course in the media, Kawhi would be more of a villain and get tons more hate. But now he's in Toronto, who nobody really cares about, so we may not really hear about him much, unless he returns to MVP caliber skill.

 

Yeah, people often say that he is not focused on basketball, doesn't take seriously like other past scorers, and he's unclutch ... but I know that's just hate from other "jealous" fans.

 

So you're telling me DeRozan doesn't know how to execute a reverse pivot?

 

Most of todays players lack basic fundamentals. They practice all their lives doing flashy dunks and fancy dribbles to go no where and shooting deep 3s. The NBA is garbage now.

 

Typical Spurstalk poster/troll: "Crater face welcomes the mountain ranges of Acne".

 

Spoiler

 

https://www.tsn.ca/nurse-excited-about-new-look-raptors-after-first-meeting-with-leonard-1.1149521

[...]

“I sat down first and said, ‘Do you have any questions?’ and he started firing them [at me],” Nurse told TSN and The Toronto Star in a wide-ranging interview from Las Vegas on Friday. “It led us to a really easy going [meeting]. It was not what I was expecting. He’s very smart, very intelligent, and very engaging. It was really enjoyable.”

All in all the conversation lasted 45 minutes, and could have gone on longer if Leonard wasn’t whisked away to the next stop on his tour of the Raptors practice facility, formerly known as BioSteel Centre.

“He lit up like a Christmas tree,” Nurse said. “He was prepared, he had a list of questions. Then when I got up he started asking me about the offence, and I told him how we built it and the things that we do, the shot spectrum, and showing him the spacing. He got out of his chair and got up at the board with me, and they had to drag us out of there in the end because they had to go do something else, but it was great.”

Leonard asked his new coach how they plan on using him, where and how they want to get him the ball, among a series of other detailed questions about the coming season. Nurse couldn’t help but get excited about the possibilities.

[...]

Not much will change on the offensive end, Nurse says. The system they ran last year is roughly how he wants them to play this season, with a few tweaks here and there. Where the trade should really pay dividends is on the defensive end.

“We’ll have a much different thought process [defensively],” Nurse said. “We will be a little bit more aggressive. We’re going to really make a focus on trying to create more turnovers. I think we got more wings, more athleticism. I mean, listen, both [Leonard] and [Green] guard the (expletive) out of people. They guard the (expletive) out of people. So automatically you’re thinking, okay, how does this change the way we’re going to play to use those guys?”

[...]

Nurse knows there’s a cloud of uncertainty hanging over Leonard and the rest of his team going into the new season. Team chemistry has been shaken up after the trade of DeRozan, a long-time and beloved fixture in the locker room. Leonard, despite all his talent, is not known as a vocal leader and hasn’t exactly come around to the new-look Raptors, refusing to answer questions about the team or the trade following the USA Basketball minicamp on Friday. Nurse is conscious of those concerns. Is he worried about them? That’s not the word he would use. He knows that winning is likely to answer a lot of those questions.

“To me, your best chance of keeping any free agent is to have a really successful season, that they enjoy being a part of, that they’re an integral part of,” said Nurse. “We know there’s going to be about five things that are going to happen. We know [Leonard’s] going to be surprised by how awesome Toronto is, the city. He’s going to love the fans. He’s going to hate how cold it is. There’s a bunch of stuff that’s going to matter, but if he feels a special way about the way our team’s performed and that the environment is making him thrive, I think that’s got to factor in.”

“We know we’ve got a good team. Let’s just hope that good team becomes a really, really good team or a great team, and I think that enhances our chances. But for me, I’m going to coach the team. I can’t be worrying every week about who’s coming and who’s going. Two weeks ago I was doing line-ups and rotations for a different group of guys, and now I’m here, and that may change again. My job is to coach the team and get them to try to play the best they can come April, May and June.”

“You’re going to hear me say that a lot.”​

 

Kawhi Leonard makes a fine first impression on Raptors coach Nick Nurse
THE STAR - Toronto Star
By DAVE FESCHUK
Fri., July 27, 2018


LAS VEGAS—When Nick Nurse, the new Raptors head coach, was preparing for his introductory meeting with Kawhi Leonard, the new Raptors all-star, Nurse spent time pondering certain possibilities.

Leonard, as much as he’s been one of the league’s best players, has a reputation as an incommunicative enigma who prefers silence over noise. He hasn’t spoken publicly since he was traded to Toronto in the deal that sent DeMar DeRozan to San Antonio. And Nurse only knew the player by his reputation.

“I’d never talked to him before. I don’t think I’m alone in that. So you get a perception of him,” Nurse said. “I’ll be honest with you. I kind of went in there thinking, ‘What if he doesn’t say anything? What am I going to do?’ ”

Nurse, a fast-talking basketball lifer with a gift for salesmanship, figured he’d simply introduce himself to Leonard by sketching out his coaching background and the Raptors’ recent history.

“I figured I’ll tell him the whole story, this is how our offence is the way it is … I’ll just talk,” Nurse said Friday. “And if he doesn’t want to say anything, I’ll have plenty of energy.”

So Nurse was pleasantly surprised when, after sitting down alone with Leonard at the BioSteel Centre during Leonard’s brief overnight stay in Toronto last weekend, the popular perception of Leonard was promptly turned on its head.

“I sat down and said, ‘Do you have any questions?’ And he started firing them,” Nurse said. “And it just led us to a really easygoing (conversation). Not what I was expecting. Very smart. Very intelligent. Very engaging. Really enjoyed it … (Management) had to drag us out of there in the end because they had to go do something else. But it was great.”

Surely, as the basketball talk with Leonard went on for some 45 minutes — and Leonard, in Nurse’s words, “lit up like a Christmas tree,” at one point rising to join Nurse diagramming schemes on the whiteboard — Nurse must have been breathing a sigh of relief. The incommunicative enigma who somehow had a falling out with the gold-standard franchise in San Antonio wasn’t some petulant nightmare. Instead, he sounded very much like a typical NBA player concerned about how he’ll fit with his new team, not to mention an elite NBA player deeply hooked on the game’s intricacies.

“We could have gone forever. (Raptors management) kept knocking on the door and I was like, ‘A couple more minutes.’ Because we were really into it,” Nurse said. “It was fun to listen to his take. He asked me, ‘How are you going to use me? Where are you going to get me the ball? What do you see?’ And I told him, ‘Listen. To me, you can do pretty much everything. You can post. You can drive. You can handle it up the floor. You can play screen and roll. You can come off pindowns.’ I said, ‘Did I miss anything?’ He’s like, ‘No, that’s about it.’ I said, ‘You’ll probably be doing all that stuff.’ ”

Spoiler: the rest of the interview

Nurse had plenty more to say in a wide-ranging chat Friday afternoon. He spoke of the possibilities for an improved defence with Leonard, a two-time defensive player of the year, and guard Danny Green, a gifted defender who came along in the DeRozan deal.

“We’re really going to make it a focus of trying to create more turnovers,” Nurse said.

He spoke of a roster that now includes “six starters,” or six players who are accustomed to starting — including Lowry, Leonard, Green, Jonas Valanciunas, OG Anunoby and Serge Ibaka — and talked of the importance of some of those players being open to coming off the bench. And he reiterated more than once his mission as a rookie head coach: playoff success.

“I’ve got to get them to play the best they can come April, May and June,” Nurse said. “We need to play in June. Let’s play in June. Maybe we can make up some T-shirts.”

Nurse had come to Las Vegas to watch from the sidelines as Gregg Popovich presided over the second day of USA Basketball minicamp. Leonard, who is on the U.S. roster, declined to attend the camp. But Nurse said he was planning to meet later with Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry, who was at minicamp alongside a bevy of NBA all-stars, including DeRozan.

Perhaps Lowry will be in a more talkative mood with his coach than he was with reporters on Friday, when he declined to discuss his feelings about the DeRozan-Leonard trade. Lowry, who said he preferred to keep the conversation to matters pertaining to USA Basketball, would only acknowledge that he’d spent quality time with DeRozan, whom he called his “best friend.” And while Lowry said he and Leonard share “mutual respect,” Lowry was coy about the details. At one point he was asked if he’d spoken to Leonard since the trade.

“I think so. I don’t know … I’m not sure,” Lowry said.

He wasn’t sure if he’d spoken to Leonard?

“No.”

What did he mean by that?

“I don’t know.”

After more head-shaking back and forth, Lowry suddenly seemed to come to the realization he had not spoken to Leonard. Go figure.

Lowry’s repeated indulgences in immaturity are familiar to anybody who follows the team. With DeRozan as a rock-solid foil, the point guard’s rebellious streak could be overcome. But with DeRozan now gone, with Lowry clearly not interested in being a team leader and Leonard bringing along a reputation for quietude, Nurse acknowledged team chemistry, a Toronto strength is recent years, is top of mind.

“Obviously when pieces come and go a little bit, you’ve got to see how they fall … Am I worried about it? No. Am I concerned about it? That’s probably not the right word. But it’s always what I think about,” said Nurse.

Not that there’s an easy answer. As Nurse said, there is no “chemistry potion.”

“It’s a tricky thing you have to monitor and hope for a little bit,” said the coach.

Then again, given Nurse’s experience meeting Leonard, maybe it’s best to set aside preconceived perceptions in the lead-up to a season that promises to bring with it plenty of surprises.

https://www.thestar.com/sports/rapt...t-impression-on-raptors-coach-nick-nurse.html​

lol...