There’s still been no official comment from Kawhi Leonard since he was first dealt to the Toronto Raptors from the San Antonio Spurs.
Reports have suggested that the two-time defensive player of the year wasn’t too hot on the idea of playing north of the border though some have him beginning to come around on the move.
This is all rather unsubstantiated information, however, so no one can really say how Leonard feels about his new team with any certainty yet.
With that said, there’s at least one person who can make an educated guess on how Leonard will eventually feel about being a Raptor and that’s longtime Spurs teammate Danny Green who was also sent to Toronto in the blockbuster trade back in July.
Speaking on the latest episode of his Inside the Green Room podcast Tuesday, Green suggested that just by being in Toronto, the city’s charms have a good chance at seducing Leonard to stick around longer than just the one season remaining on his current contract.
“I don’t know where his mind is at for the future. I can’t predict or tell you. I can just tell you that the city of Toronto is gonna be hard to turn down after being there,” said Green. “I’ve been going every summer for the past 10-plus years. It’s a great city and the fans are amazing. … I’m getting a great amount of feedback, a great amount of love and all types of different stuff from the fans. So it’s gonna be tough for him to turn down.”
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As he explains on the podcast, Green has been working out in San Diego with Leonard and got a chance to pick his brain a bit. The new Raptors guard wouldn’t go into great detail about their conversation, but says Leonard’s looking forward to the season.
“He asked me some questions about how I feel about [the trade] and I was like, ‘It’s great, man. I love the situation,’” said Green. “[He] said his body looks good, said his body feels good. I’m looking forward to see how he comes out this year – everybody is, I’m sure – but I think he’s antsy. He said he’s been working out for two years.
“He’s played a little bit of one-on-ones here and there just to get in shape, get some contact in because he hasn’t played five-on-five much – he hasn’t played five-on-five for a while. But just to get some context, we played some twos with Toronto and some threes – well he didn’t play that – but we got some good workouts in, and then he gave me some good feedback.
“So right now, I think he’s just excited to play. It’ll be interesting to see.”
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