Today on July 18th 2018 the San Antonio Spurs and the Toronto Raptors shook up the NBA. The Raptors sent DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green. Believe it or not both teams win in this trade give or take some negative factors on both sides.
The Raptors gave up DeRozan’s contract witch he will make almost $28M over the next three seasons, and took in Leonard’s One year $23M contract. The Negative to the Raptors side of the trade is Kawhi doesn’t want to play for the Raptors, some reports even suggest that he may sit out this upcoming year until he becomes a free agent.
Danny Green also coming to Toronto is owed $10M next season but like Leonard becomes a free agent next off season. Frees up enough cap room to sign someone to a max deal , key free agents that come to mind would be Demarcus Cousins if he can stay healthy and have a good season.
Another negitive on the Toronto side is that they lied to DeRozan and told him they wouldn’t trade him. This made DeRozan who has a great relationship with Kyle Lowry, very upset.
See what im getting at? Next season will be the last season on Lowry’s Contract. Being owed $31M for that last season he would be a big attraction in a trade scenario next season. So although this may set them back a year or two it will free up alot of cap space if Leonard, Green, and Lowry were all off the team by next season.
The Spurs look like Geniuses in this trade for many of reasons. The Spurs have recently parted ways with long time all-star Tony Parker. Along with the Kawhi Leonard drama where he came out and told everyone he did not want to play in San Antonio next season.
The Spurs needed to set their sites on a new superstar witch is exactly what they did. DeMar although upset with the Raptors for trading him has not expressed that he does not want to play for the Spurs. His anger that is can be looked at more as a positive because he is more inclined to have a breakout season due to having a “chip” on his shoulder.
They take the contract off of the Raptors but that is just about the only negative there is on the spurs side. With a line up of Murray, DeRozan, Gay, Aldridge, and Gasol the Spurs upside is to the sky with this trade. The west is way deeper this upcoming season and i think as much upside as this team has with DeMar they still wont be but a 5th seed team at best.
Trade Grade:
Raptors: C+
Spurs : A-
Written By:
Leave A Comment