Photo: Clutchpoints
After losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018 for the third consecutive year, the Toronto Raptors moved on from the partnership of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, trading the latter to the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Leonard.
Coincidentally, it was the same offseason where LeBron James left the Cavaliers to take his talents to the Los Angeles Lakers. With him changing teams, a new team was bound to finally make it past the Eastern Conference Finals, and that happened to be the Raptors led by Leonard.
Plenty of fans and pundits couldn’t help but think where the Raptors would be in 2019 if they didn’t trade for Leonard and retained DeRozan. For DeRozan’s part, it was clear that his former team would’ve still won a championship if he didn’t get traded.
“Most definitely,” DeMar DeRozan told Smith. “It sucks that we couldn’t see what could have happened with me still being there. That just changes the whole dynamic & everything. But I definitely felt that.”
“Most definitely. It sucks that we couldn’t see what could have happened with me still being there. That just changes the whole dynamic & everything. But I definitely felt that.”
DeMar DeRozan believes he’d have a ring if the Raptors would’ve kept himpic.twitter.com/rsHUj75FSr
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 6, 2023
