How Toronto Raptors' cold feet helped quietly build NBA's best team
Back in 2019, the Toronto Raptors were in a spot almost no NBA franchise had ever been before.
In the days following their first-ever NBA title, most front offices would usually be able to relax, enjoy a legendary parade, and reminisce on an epic playoff run.
But for Toronto, they were at risk of having Kawhi Leonard be the first-ever NBA Finals MVP to leave his team in free agency the same year he won the title.
“Honestly, like, the day we won the championship, the only thing I was thinking about is, ‘Are we going to re-sign Kawhi?'” Raptors president Masai Ujiri detailed at his end-of-season press conference last month.
Leonard and his camp had been adamant about a desire to go to his home state of California, pretty much regardless of how his one year in Toronto went.
Ultimately, he opted to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers, while also influencing one of the biggest trades in league history to get himself a co-star in Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder. The trade was seen as the tipping point in getting Leonard to L.A., as the former had finished third in MVP voting in 2019 behind Giannis Antetokounmpo and James Harden, and was coming off the best season of his career.
Fast forward six years, and the Thunder are in the NBA Finals, fresh off a 68-win regular season, George is on the Philadelphia 76ers with former Raptors coach Nick Nurse, and the Raptors and Clippers have won a combined three playoff series since Leonard left Toronto.
What if the Raptors made the deal with OKC instead?
While it was seen as risky at the time, the deal that brought George to the Clippers has since been panned as one of the worst in league history.
George himself made three All-Star teams in Los Angeles before the team opted against re-signing him last summer, leaving him free to go to the 76ers.
But in return, the Thunder landed this year’s MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and a whopping seven first-round draft picks. The best player out of those picks so far has been Jalen Williams, taken 12th overall in 2022. He has emerged as a formidable co-star to Gilgeous-Alexander, making his first All-Star and All-NBA teams this season.
The Thunder gave up one very strong player late in his 20s for what’s panned out as two All-NBA talents, with both players still younger today than George was at the time of the deal. It is the defining move of Thunder GM Sam Presti’s entire tenure with the team, and one that inarguably helped build Oklahoma City into the NBA’s clear best franchise this season.
“Any time we discussed anything personnel-wise that he was dealing with — draft, free agency, trade — [Presti] just was not gonna let anybody through the door that was not moving in the same direction as we were,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault told Offside back in 2024. “We just had guys that were very, very aligned with what we wanted to get done.”
But would the trade even have been possible had Toronto not backed out?
Former ESPN personality Adrian Wojnarowski detailed that the Raptors and Thunder had discussed George and former MVP Russell Westbrook as part of a blockbuster deal, which would have vastly altered Toronto’s future. Toronto opted against seriously pursuing this path to keep Leonard, allowing the Clippers as the sole suitor to make the now-infamous deal with the Thunder.
We don’t entirely know what would’ve happened in an alternate universe with George, Leonard, and Westbrook running the show in Toronto. The trio ultimately teamed up in 2023 with the Clippers, though Westbrook was eventually relegated to bench duties and a far cry from his superstar days.
What we do know is that the Raptors would look vastly different, with likely none of Scottie Barnes, Gradey Dick, or Ja’Kobe Walter ever having been drafted by the team.
The Thunder would’ve looked vastly different as well, perhaps being led by Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet (who were rumoured to be leaving in the deal) instead of Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, and Chet Holmgren.
If they want to be crowned the NBA champions, Oklahoma City still has four more games to win, against an undetermined opponent. But if they do get the job done, perhaps Presti might just send a gift basket Toronto’s way for their role in one of the most influential moves in NBA history.
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