The Kawhi pitch: Toronto’s finest case to maintain its celebrity free agent

What does Kawhi need?

That is the important query that has occupied the Toronto Raptors since their daring commerce for Kawhi Leonard final July. Leonard is without doubt one of the NBA’s most inscrutable superstars, a person of few phrases and little subtext.

He is not uncommunicative, however he’s fairly literal. When he was requested after the Raptors’ Sport 2 blowout street loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, “The place do you go from right here?” Leonard replied, “To Toronto for Sport three.” This is not a participant fascinated with disseminating messages within the media to convey his emotions or leverage his energy.

For NBA groups, trafficking in superstars is a two-part course of — acquisition, then retention — and it is that latter stage that presents the best problem. Any entrance workplace with the requisite belongings can commerce for a celebrity, however just one expert on the artwork of persuasion can hold him. Tied 1-1 with the Golden State Warriors within the NBA Finals (Sport three, 9 p.m. ET on ABC), the Raptors will quickly shift their consideration to the retention undertaking they have been planning for practically a 12 months — signing Leonard to a long-term contract in free company to stay in Toronto.

How do you promote somebody not simply bought? How do you sculpt a pitch about exterior elements when the goal of that pitch is somebody so internally centered? What can you actually supply that different main NBA organizations cannot? How can the Raptors compensate for his or her geographic drawback to a group just like the LA Clippers in recruiting a Southern Californian whose desire for temperate climes is well-known?

The Raptors executed the commerce final summer season with the assumption that, when it got here time to make their sale to Leonard, they’d be a robust incumbent with a observe file of competence and achievement. That is the case Toronto could make to Leonard with confidence.

Kawhi:

Once we began crafting our pitch to you to make the Raptors your long-term dwelling, we realized that crucial concerns aren’t essentially the issues we expect we do effectively as an NBA franchise, however the belongings you consider are most essential as an NBA celebrity. This determination is about each your skilled and private lives, and it is the primary actual alternative you have had to decide on a house with no restrictions.

Your honesty is without doubt one of the qualities we most admire in you, so in figuring out the elements we really feel at work on this determination, we would be sensible to take you at your phrase. We take into consideration your introductory information convention from final September, once you have been requested what you need most to perform in your NBA profession.

You responded, “Simply be capable to be wholesome. That is my No. 1 purpose — play a protracted, wholesome profession, be capable to be dominant wherever I land. That is about it. I need to win championships and get in these file books.”

1 Associated

You are a uncommon breed — a participant who’s well-aware of his greatness, however who additionally appreciates the restrictions of a human physique towards the grueling NBA schedule. That is why once you arrived in Toronto, you clearly articulated your expectations: A dedication to your bodily well being was what you wished from our group this season, above all else. That meant a coordinated effort during which each stakeholder — you, our entrance workplace, our teaching workers, our medical group, these you belief to advise you — would work towards that frequent purpose.

It is truthful to say that, over the previous 12 months, Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors collectively created a brand new template for the NBA. as we do this what was referred to casually — and sometimes dismissively — within the media as “load administration” was a lot greater than your discovering relaxation on back-to-back stretches. It was a collaborative and considerate course of befitting of an athlete who performs with unusual magnitude and pressure, whose each motion on the courtroom is a portrait of intention.

You teamed up with our director of sports activities science Alex McKechnie, physiotherapist Amanda Joaquim, in addition to others in our group, and methodically navigated your output to perfection. Whenever you mentioned in March that the NBA’s common season was “82 practices,” we totally embraced that characterization, simply as we endorsed your bigger method. McKechnie, for years, has been on the forefront of this efficiency motion, and we take into account your partnership with him an achievement.

We’re a forward-thinking NBA franchise that understands that there are lots of causes you have been the MVP of the 2019 playoffs — your expertise, preparation, temperament. However there’s additionally your devotion to finest practices. We take a look at an otherworldly celebrity like James Harden and surprise had he not crossed the three,000 minute threshold someday throughout Sport four of the Rockets’ first-round sequence — a multiyear sample for him — whether or not we would be dealing with Houston and never Golden State within the Finals.

There are stars, entrance workplaces and coaches who reject this considering, who reside in an old-world sensibility the place toughing it out in a “man’s league” is the dominant worldview. Not us. Such as you, we admire that each small determination is a part of a a lot bigger entire. There is no one recreation, single follow or particular person exercise that stands aside from the higher purpose of successful a championship; each selection impacts the higher end result.

Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Photos

Watching you go about your corporation each day has been a revelation to us. From the second you arrive on the facility, it is an train in machine-like effectivity: weights, pictures, medical, movie, follow, ice, and no matter else your preparation calls for. Not a second or motion wasted. And it isn’t merely that we admire how you place in a day’s work — we have discovered from it. You made us conscious early on that you are a participant accustomed to construction, and we listened. Consequently, we’re a greater basketball operation right this moment than once you arrived, one thing that has been borne out this spring.

Our head coach, Nick Nurse, has gained at each degree all through his profession — however extra importantly, he is a listener. Whenever you requested questions on defensive rotations or protection schemes, we defined that our rules of ball strain and getting in gaps have been much less particular of their directives, however over the course of the common season and playoffs, we melded our approaches. In doing so, we extinguished the East’s top-ranked offense, rendering it impotent in a six-game sequence.

On the opposite finish, we put in an offense that each maximizes the collective intelligence and inherent unselfishness of our unit, but additionally empowers your distinctive particular person ability set. We have labored with you to place you in the very best place to succeed on a given possession by furnishing you with the brightest teammates who intuitively perceive the place, when and the way you just like the ball. Whereas we respect that you’re going to survey the sphere for different franchises with expertise, we’re steadfast in our perception that you’ll not discover one other roster with extra professionalism, expertise and unselfishness. Nor will you discover a assortment of teammates with a willingness to defer to your dominance on the largest moments, whereas doing all of the little issues required so that you can reach these moments.

The Warriors and Raptors are set to conflict within the Finals. Tune in right here.

Wednesday, June 5
• Sport three | 9 p.m. ET | ABC/WatchESPN

Friday, June 7
• Sport four | 9 p.m. ET | ABC/WatchESPN

Monday, June 10
• Sport 5 | 9 p.m. ET | ABC/WatchESPN

We’ve veteran gamers who nonetheless have productive seasons forward, and younger gamers who’re solely going to get higher, together with Pascal Siakam, who’s projected to stroll away with the league’s Most Improved Participant award in a landslide. We chosen him with the 27th decide, simply as we’ve overperformed with so lots of our youthful gamers: We stole Norman Powell from Milwaukee by sending out Greivis Vasquez, discovered OG Anunoby with the 23rd decide, and picked up off the scrap heap an undrafted Fred VanVleet, who has been essential in serving to you win the largest video games in Raptors franchise historical past.

We might inform you why we expect Toronto is the best basketball metropolis on the continent, how being the face of a really nationwide franchise is a privilege, however we additionally know that you just may worth the strengths of our market in another way than others. We admire that peripherals aren’t as essential to you, however we all know skilled office devoid of exterior noise is. And we current the occasions of the final 10 months as proof that, on this respect, the Toronto Raptors are an ideal match for Kawhi Leonard.

An NBA group with a pending free-agent celebrity might be beset by intrigue and disruption, however regardless of the uncertainty about your future, our season collectively was devoid of excessive drama. That is a testomony each to your character and our dedication to doing issues the best means: We did not succumb to distractions as a result of, collectively, we merely would not permit it. If there’s a corporation that has produced a extra harmonious season of basketball in recent times with such uncertainty, we’ve not seen it. This wasn’t a fluke; we consider it’s — and might be — a elementary function of the Toronto Raptors in a Kawhi Leonard Period.

However greater than something, our boldest promoting level is you — particularly, our determination final summer season to vary the course of our franchise in an effort to make you a Toronto Raptor. Our rivals within the Jap Convention had higher sources and belongings essential to amass you. We won’t say why they did not. Maybe they did not consider you might restore your self to full well being, otherwise you weren’t price their finest prospects. Perhaps they did not have ample religion that the general high quality of their group could be sufficient to persuade you to remain.

We took the danger they did not, not solely as a result of we have been assured you’d discover the circumstances for each well being and on-court success to be current in Toronto, however as a result of we additionally understood that you’d make us a greater NBA franchise — you’d make us the type of group that might be the very best long-term dwelling for Kawhi Leonard.

Coming quickly: The case for the Clippers