The Toronto Raptors put together their best season in franchise history in 2017-18, winning 59 games and earning the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
Despite the regular-season success, Toronto came up short in the playoffs against LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers for the third consecutive year. Sensing changes were needed, Raptors president Masai Ujiri first fired Coach of the Year winner Dwane Casey, then traded franchise icon DeMar DeRozan as well as Jakob Poeltl and a draft pick to the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.
On paper, the new additions give the Raptors a better roster than the one that posted the Eastern Conference’s best record last year. If Leonard is healthy — a big question mark considering he was limited to just nine games last season — he gives Toronto a Top 5 player league-wide.
Former Raptor Tracy McGrady likes the deal for the Raptors, saying in a video uploaded to YouTube that it was time for the club to shake up its core after years of falling short of the ultimate goal.
“If you can make a trade for someone like Kawhi to join your team, at least for a year and hopefully you can convince him to stay, I’m all for it,” McGrady said. “You didn’t have too much success with the team that you had so you had to get rid of one of your stars and that was DeRozan.”
Even though McGrady approves of Ujiri and Co. pulling the trigger on the blockbuster, he doesn’t think the Raptors will sit atop the conference when the regular season ends, and believes the Boston Celtics will represent the East in the NBA Finals.
“Boston is a better team in the East. The 76ers are coming up,” McGrady said. “I don’t see Toronto, even with this trade, moving that needle to even be a No. 1 seed this year. I suspect Boston is going to come out of the Eastern Conference.”
Although DeRozan made it very clear he was upset about the trade, McGrady ultimately thinks playing for legendary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich will help the four-time all-star’s career.
“I like it for [DeRozan]. I actually think Popovich will elevate his game. Playing with San Antonio in that system I think he will do well.”
Watch McGrady’s full comments in the video below:
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