Kawhi Leonard warned Nick Nurse before playing that he could be leaving Raptors after one year
Kawhi Leonard spent just one season with the Toronto Raptors, but it’ll be hard to imagine any player ever having a greater one-and-done impact with the team.
In his sole season in Toronto, Leonard was the talisman behind the franchise’s only NBA championship to date. He led the team to glory as Finals MVP after being acquired in a trade from the San Antonio Spurs, which was centred around DeMar DeRozan.
After one season, Leonard departed in free agency back to his home state of California, signing with the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency, where he’s remained ever since.
The Clippers have made the playoffs in four of Leonard’s five seasons in Los Angeles, but injuries to him and others have often caused their playoff runs to come to a sooner end than predicted. The team’s furthest run came in 2021 when they made it to the Western Conference Finals before being dispatched by the Phoenix Suns.
Former Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, who now coaches the Philadelphia 76ers, was on the Draymond Green Show this week and spoke about how he had an inkling from day one that even a championship run might not be enough for Leonard to stick around in Toronto.
“There was a great conversation [between me and Leonard],” Nurse told Green of his initial talks with the star player following the trade. “He kind of said to me, ‘listen, all right, I’m gonna play to win, I want to play to win, I’m gonna play to win at all’. And he said, ‘I’m gonna do it for one year.’ After that he goes, ‘I’m not sure what’s going to happen, right? But for one year, I’m gonna play, I’m gonna play 100%, and I’m gonna play to win the title.’ And I was kinda like, ‘That’s a pretty good deal. Let’s start with that.'”
Leonard played 60 of 82 regular season games for Toronto while managing a knee injury, helping to coin the “load management” phrase that has become commonplace in the NBA with top players to preserve themselves for the playoffs. And while he sometimes looked like he was fighting through severe pain throughout the postseason, Leonard had a performance for the ages in his lone postseason in Toronto, where he averaged 30.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 3.9 assists in 24 games in the 2019 playoffs.
The full interview is available below:
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