TORONTO — Ignorance is bliss, which means Kawhi Leonard’s basketball existence maybe a more comfortable one than it is, say, for any Toronto Raptors fan who can remember Vince Carter’s shot falling short, or the fumbled last possession in Game 7 against Brooklyn, or getting steamrolled by the Washington Wizards, or — more recently — losing 10 straight playoff games to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers over the course of three straight playoff exits, each more discouraging than the last.
Leonard was acquired in the off-season to turn all those Raptors fans’ frowns upside down, to give the story of the Masai Ujiri-Kyle Lowry era Raptors a happy ending, to make the kind of history that lasts.
He just doesn’t know it. One of the first questions Leonard was asked as he met with the media in the build-up before the Raptors open their first-round series against the Orlando Magic on Saturday afternoon was how he expected the championship experience he and Danny Green bring to Toronto from the San Antonio Spurs could help the Raptors get over the hump.
Pause. Silence.
Finally — or it seems like that given the way Leonard deliberately absorbs the entirety of each question before figuring out how to reply in the most economical way possible — he answered:
“What hump?”
It was perfect. Leonard does not do narratives and perhaps as the Raptors try to change their story the ideal guy to do it is one who has no idea what came before and what baggage remains attached to the present.
Leonard has called the regular season an extended practice for the playoffs, but now that the playoffs are here, he’s not about to fall over himself to drape Saturday’s opener in any more significance than required. He’s been to the mountain top, as his 2014 Finals MVP award proves. Game 1 is just the first step.
“You really have to buy in and win games,” said Leonard. “That’s what I value the most, just being closer [to your goal] and every game means something to a certain point.”
Leonard has been as advertised in his first — and quite possibly only — season with the Raptors. Look past the ‘load management’ that limited his output to 60 games and he put up one of the most dominant seasons in the NBA and one of the most complete offensive assaults in Raptors history, as he averaged 26.6 points and 7.3 rebounds in just 34 minutes a game with a True Shooting percentage of 60.6 per cent.
And if Leonard wasn’t in lockdown mode through every minute of every game defensively, the NBA’s defensive player of the year in 2015 and 2016 still averaged nearly two steals a game and won enough games with jaw-dropping defensive plays during crunch time that it seems like there’s a switch he can flip when needed.
“I would imagine he is going to get to a place and find some opportunities to make plays,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. “I have always said he is a rare guy who can make a play at the defensive end where he just decides ‘I’m going to figure out how to take the ball from somebody or jump in a passing lane.’ He can do that.”
The Raptors have never had that in their lineup for the playoffs before. DeMar DeRozan grew by leaps and bounds each year as an offensive player, but defensively he remained a weak point that teams could exploit. The hope is that Leonard can be the difference. In every series they play this spring there can be an argument that Leonard will be on equal footing with the other team’s best player or, in the case of the Magic — the best player — a big step ahead.
Leonard won’t be out there alone. He’s merely the linchpin in a starting lineup that boasts another former defensive player of the year in Marc Gasol, a former all-NBA defender in Danny Green and one of the smartest players in the game in Kyle Lowry, rounded out by Pascal Siakam’s rangy length and quickness and the ability to cover three or four different positions on any given possession.
But it’s Leonard that is the fulcrum, the kind of defensive presence who can force teams to throw to the other side of the field, to use a football analogy.
“He can screw up a lot of things. When you attack him, he covers a lot of ground, obviously. Put him on the ball, it’s hard. Put him away from the ball, he’s good at reading [the play] and understanding what the offence is trying to get and disrupting things,” said Gasol, who saw the damage that Leonard can do first-hand as a Memphis Grizzly, as Leonard and the Spurs knocked them from the Western Conference playoffs three times in five seasons.
“But it’s a team effort. We’re all gonna have to be locked in defensively. That’s something we can rely on, this team. I think everybody’s mindset on this team, defensively, is on the same page. I think it’s one of our biggest strengths for sure.”
After some fits and starts the Raptors finished up the season with the NBA’s fifth-best defensive rating and third overall in effective field goal percentage allowed. Parsing out exactly how Leonard contributed is tricky, defensive metrics being what they are. He led Raptors wings with a defensive rating of 105 points per 100 possessions and was second in Defensive Win Shares despite playing 19 games less than Siakam.
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But the expectation is that Leonard’s impact will loom larger in a playoff series when he can be deployed as a hammer and brought down on the Magic’s offensive actions where needed.
“I think it’s easy for any player to lock in on just one team. One series, game by game, you have a couple of days in between, rest, you play your best each time you step on the floor. Obviously you can do that for 82, but it’s extremely hard,” said Danny Green.
“…We know what he’s going to bring to the table, offensively. I’m excited to see how he locks in defensively, to see how he can raise his game on that level for us to where we can be one of the better defensive teams on the floor — him, Marc, Pascal, our length and versatility like I spoke earlier, guys being able to switch down the line, rebound, raise that intensity on that end of the floor, and be able to communicate.
“I think that’s the biggest key of getting to that stage. Usually the best defensive teams are the ones that make it there for a reason. Sometimes you have great shooting nights and sometimes you’re not. But if you [have] defence, you give yourself a chance.”
The Raptors went and got Leonard not only to give themselves the best chance they’ve ever had to win an NBA Championship, but to improve their odds.
The playoffs are here, practice is over and every day from now on is hump day.
