Kawhi Leonard is back with the Toronto Raptors, but how soon until he’s actually back on the floor?
It could be a little while here before he plays in formal competition. The Raptors have pretty much confirmed that Leonard won’t be playing on Saturday in Vancouver, where they play their second of five pre-season games.
That makes it a good bet his first time playing with his new teammates against a live opponent will be next Tuesday, when the Raptors host the New York Knicks. There likely will only one more appearance after that since the Raptors' last two pre-season games are a back-to-back, first New York and then in Detroit on Friday, and we’ll just take a wild guess that Leonard will not be playing on consecutive nights in the pre-season.
The Raptors' reasoning for rationing out his pre-season minutes is sound, given that because the trade to acquire Leonard from the Los Angeles Clippers was put on hold for more than two months this summer, the 35-year-old was held out of full-contact, live scrimmages.
Leonard’s fitness seems fine — he said last week in Quebec City that he was already close to game shape — but getting into true basketball shape is another thing because there is no upside in taking unnecessary risks trying to rush anything.
“I feel good (but) being smart, taking it slow, just getting familiar with everybody, getting their names right with each coach, (the) player development guys, learning the plays and, yeah, just learning everything that (head coach Darko Rajakovic) has been doing the past three or four years,” Leonard said on Tuesday, after going through his second full practice following a week of lighter work during training camp in Quebec City. “But it's been fun, and everybody's making sure that I understand everything, and they're just welcoming in. So, it's been a great transition.”
For Leonard, easing into the regular season is old hat. As he heads into his 15th season, he can likely dial his preparation for opening night — Oct. 23, in this case — down to the minute. Even in his first tour with the Raptors, in 2018-19, he played only three out of a possible five pre-season games, which is about the norm for him in the years he’s come to training camp healthy.
The only year in the last eight he played more than three was in 2019-20, when he played in five of a possible eight pre-season games in his first season with the Los Angeles Clippers.
But, back in 2018-19 — even though he was coming off a season where he played just nine games for the San Antonio Spurs — Leonard was available for the Raptors' first pre-season game and there was an emphasis on him gaining as much chemistry with his new teammates as possible. Then-Raptors head coach Nick Nurse paired Leonard with point guard Kyle Lowry every minute they played.
This time around, the situation is a little bit different, for a number of reasons.
One is that Leonard is coming in late to a young team compared to the veteran group the Raptors had in their championship year. But perhaps even more significantly, the competition for a top-six spot and guaranteed playoff berth in the Eastern Conference promises to be exceptionally fierce this season. A slow start could put the Raptors in a tough position that won’t be as easy to work their way out from under.
Last season, the Raptors shook off a 1-4 start by winning 13 out of 14, thanks in part to a schedule that was laced with tanking or injured teams. That opportunity is unlikely to present itself, given the anti-tanking measures the NBA has implemented and the quality of the opposition in the conference as a whole.
No one is sounding any alarms, but getting Leonard up to speed and integrated isn’t something that can or should be taken for granted.
“We know what we need to work on, we know we need to get better. (Leonard) is ramping himself up, getting back into things,” said teammate Scottie Barnes. “He looks good out there to me. It’s about ramping him back up. These guys know what we are trying to achieve and we want to win.”
Playing well without Leonard has to be a priority for the Raptors this season too, given he’s played more than 60 games in a season just twice in nine years.
Getting the Kawhi-less lineups right has to be priority for the Raptors now and as the season unfolds. Rajakovic expects a lot of what made his team surprisingly successful last season: pressure defence, turnovers and transition offence.
“I think what really makes the difference in this league is when your second-unit guys come in and just take you to the next level defensively, pick up the pace, and be running,” said Rajakovic. “And I think all of those guys — Jamal (Shead), Ja’Kobe (Walter) and CMB (Collin Murray-Boyles), particularly — they fit that mold. They're going to come off the bench and be the guys that are going to take the game to the next level.”
And even if Leonard has been sidelined during scrimmages and misses the first two pre-season games, his teammates say his presence as the team’s ranking veteran and key cog — offensively and defensively — has already been felt.
“Kawhi's done a good job of talking to us and understanding that ‘Even when I join the line-up, doesn’t mean what we do on offence stops,'" said Shead. “He wants to be a swing, swing guy and then play off that and play off of us instead of us calling a play and him having to play iso every five seconds. He wants to be in the offence, he wants to be in the flow of the offence and he wants to connect and learn how to play off every single person.”
It helps too that the Raptors — even with a relatively young roster — pride themselves on a high level of basketball IQ.
“We’re all smart players, like, we’re here for a reason,” said second-year forward Murray-Boyles. “You don’t get here being a nuthead. We know what (Leonard) is capable of, how he likes to operate. We watched a lot of film on him and he’s watched a lot of film on us and how he could be implemented in our offence, so we’ll definitely make it work.”
The sooner that happens the better, because the Raptors will reach their ceiling only if Leonard’s addition proves relatively seamless.
Leonard doesn’t shy away from that, but he’s also realistic that some things can’t be rushed. He’s doing everything he can to integrate himself smoothly but is prepared to be patient too.
“Trying to come into practice focused and making sure we all focus on the details of the basketball game, making sure we're reading the game, not making it hard for ourselves,” said Leonard. “That's the main thing for me to help them. But for myself, it’s just day-by-day, just getting better condition.
“This game is fast-paced. You got to be in condition, able to sit in the stance on defence and you know carry the game for (48) minutes,” said Leonard. “That's what me and the staff is focused on, just getting that conditioning.
“Make sure our lungs are conditioned, the full body, muscle, legs, tendons. So you know we take it step-by-step … even if I was here last year. It's a whole new group. Everybody's a year older. People are getting better. Some people are slowing down, and then, yeah, it's just all about finding that right gel and rhythm, so we can be the best team possible.”
Three-point Grange
1. Copyright infringement? No one knows exactly how the Raptors pre-game conga line started. The most official explanation I ever got for how the pre-game dance where the youngsters on the Raptors second unit would organize themselves behind veteran Garrett Temple was back in the 2024-25 season, and it was pretty simple: Temple started dancing while the starters were being introduced and Shead and the rest of the team’s rookies followed Temple’s lead. But Temple retired in the off-season to become as assistant coach with the Dallas Mavericks, leaving the question: Who would lead the conga line? Into the void stepped Shead, now broadly considered one of the team’s leaders, even though he’s in only his third season. “I kind of forgot about it until the game started,” said Shead after the Raptors' pre-season game in Quebec City on Saturday. “I didn’t prep the rookies, I didn’t tell everybody what the gist was, so we didn’t do it like we were supposed to. It will be better doing forward.” Apparently Shead is free-styling this and hasn’t even connected with Temple to make sure he’s not guilty of copyright infringement. “I don’t need his blessing (but) I think he’s going to see the video and call me, so we’ll have a good chat about it," Shead said.
2. Getting healthy: The Raptors' list of walking wounded continues to dwindle. On Tuesday, the only players who didn’t practice were Trayce Jackson-Davis, who continues to be bothered by headaches, and training camp invitee Nate Bittle, who is healing up from strained ligaments in his right foot that were aggravated during summer training.
3. Growth mindset: Leonard might be starting his 15th season and have two NBA championships, two Finals MVPs, two defensive-player-of-the-year awards and seven all-NBA nods on his Hall of Fame resume, but that doesn’t mean he’s done getting better. “I’m just trying to make more shots, you know?" he said. "If I can raise my free-throw percentage, three-point percentage, expand my defensive play and just help the team, that’s all I’m focused on. It depends on what we’re struggling with as a team; I come in and try to carry that load.”
