Торонто Рэпторс баг Кавай Леонардыг эгнээндээ нэгтгэх томоохон наймааг хийж, LA Клипперс рүү Брэндон Ингрэм, Грэйди Дик болон ирээдүйн драфтын эрхүүдийг шилжүүлэхээр тохиролцлоо.
Торонто Рэпторс 2019 онд аварга болоход гол үүрэг гүйцэтгэсэн Кавай Леонардыг дахин эгнээндээ нэгтгэж, Дорнод бүсийн тэргүүлэгчдийн эгнээнд эргэн орохыг зорьж байна. Леонард өнгөрсөн улиралд 65 тоглолтод оролцож, дунджаар 27.9 points, 50.5/38.7/89.2 shooting splits үзүүлэлттэй байсан нь түүний хувьд карьерын хамгийн өндөр үзүүлэлтүүдийн нэг юм. Түүнийг Скотти Барнстай хамт талбайд гаргах нь багийн хамгаалалтыг эрс сайжруулж, довтолгооны хувилбаруудыг нэмэгдүүлнэ гэж үзэж байна. Гэсэн хэдий ч 35 настай тоглогчийн эрүүл мэндийн байдал болон өндөр цалингийн асуудал нь энэхүү шилжилтийн гол эрсдэл болон үлдэж байна.
Нөгөө талд, LA Клипперс баг энэхүү наймаагаар залуу тоглогчид болон драфтын эрхүүдийг цуглуулж, багийн бүрэлдэхүүнээ шинэчлэх алхмыг хийлээ. 28 настай Брэндон Ингрэм өнгөрсөн улиралд 77 тоглолтод 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists гэсэн үзүүлэлттэй тоглосон нь багт шинэ эрч хүч авчрах боловч тэднийг шууд аваргын төлөө өрсөлдөхүйц түвшинд хүргэх эсэх нь эргэлзээтэй байна.
Шинжээчид Торонто Рэпторс багийн энэхүү зоригтой алхмыг B, харин LA Клипперс багийн шилжилтийг C+ үнэлгээтэйгээр дүгнэж байна. Торонто Рэпторс ирээдүйн олон драфтын эрхээс татгалзсан ч Леонардын туршлагыг ашиглан плэй-оффт амжилт гаргахаар төлөвлөж байгаа бол LA Клипперс багийн хувьд урт хугацааны бодлого баримтлах нь тодорхой боллоо.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Everybody loves a reunion show, and that’s exactly what we’re getting seemingly out of nowhere with Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors.
The Raptors have agreed to send Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-round picks (2031, 2033), a first-round pick swap (2027) and two second-round picks (2030, 2033) to the LA Clippers in exchange for Leonard. You may remember Leonard’s last stint in Toronto, when he spent one season there and delivered the Raptors franchise their only championship in 2019. Now Leonard will return seven years later to see if he can help get them back to the top of the Eastern Conference.
ESPN first reported that the deal was nearing completion. Is this reunion the right move for Leonard and the Raptors? What does this say for the direction of the Clippers? Let’s bust out the red ink and slap some grades on this trade.
Raptors acquire Kawhi Leonard
Would you have ever guessed that Leonard would be back on the Raptors? Until recently, that would have sounded like absolute nonsense. But with the Clippers unwilling to give him the extension he was looking for, Leonard had to get comfortable playing somewhere else. And by many accounts, he can find comfort in the idea of returning to Toronto. Leonard left Toronto immediately after winning that title to sign back home with the Clippers, but clearly, there is no ill will from either side here.
From a basketball standpoint, this makes sense … wait for it … as long as Leonard is healthy.
What a reunion with Kawhi means for the Raptors
Eric Koreen and Jeshua Kidd
The Raptors were average on offense last season, and shot-making came at a premium at times during their playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Leonard is coming off one of the best individual seasons of his career, which is saying something. In 65 games, he averaged a career-best 27.9 points per game, and he just missed out on a 50/40/90 season with 50.5/38.7/89.2 shooting splits. His 62.9 percent true shooting was the highest of his career, and Leonard’s accuracy from 3-point range will be highly welcomed for a team that was 21st in 3-point percentage. Defensively, pairing him with Scottie Barnes will create a monster duo. Leonard isn’t the Defensive Player of the Year he once was, but he still can guard anybody in front of him. That will allow Barnes to roam a lot more to create turnovers.
The question becomes about investing in a 35-year-old Leonard, who is willing to sign an extension with Toronto, league sources told The Athletic. That’s a lot of money for a guy who has missed as many games as he has. After leaving Toronto in 2019, his two healthiest seasons had him playing 68 and 65 games. The good news is that those happened in two of the last three seasons (he also missed just 15 games in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season).
The Raptors are going to have to approach Leonard’s availability very cautiously, in the hopes that he’ll be around for the playoff run in the Eastern Conference. Switching out Ingram for Leonard is an upgrade, and Ingram had his own injury issues. But he’s not 35. We know Leonard has a lot of mileage beyond what you’d expect from a 35-year-old player.
This is a risk for the Raptors, but it’s a good swing to take in an East that is the New York Knicks at the top and then a mess below.
Grade: B
Clippers acquire Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-rounders, first-round pick swap, two second-rounders
Ingram, 28, is coming off one of the best seasons, if not the best season, of his career. He was a healthy, productive and efficient All-Star. Ingram played 77 games and averaged 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists with 47.7/38.2/82.0 shooting splits. His 57.3 true shooting percentage is lower than Leonard’s last season, but still, it was a pretty efficient campaign. Ingram is just not the volume scorer and overwhelming force the Clippers were used to when Leonard was on the court. And this is the official shift of the Clippers from an era surrounding Leonard to a much younger team looking to be a perennial playoff squad in the West.
In the last couple of years, the Clippers have let Paul George walk to Philadelphia for nothing, swapped out James Harden for Darius Garland and moved Ivica Zubac for Bennedict Mathurin, a draft pick that became Keaton Wagler and another future pick. The Clippers never got to where they were looking to go — which was championship contention — in the Leonard era, and they won’t be any closer this time around. However, the Clippers are valuing youth, depth and future draft assets after mortgaging so much of that for the Leonard-George pairing.
If Ingram remains healthy (he missed 146 games in the previous four seasons), then he makes a pretty good pairing with Garland. No part of that duo, though, strikes fear into the hearts of the West. The Clippers have a lot more work to do. That’s where the picks will come in. Do they use that future pick from Indiana and these picks from Toronto for their own selections? Or will the Clippers end up trading those when a new star becomes available and Steve Ballmer is desperate to contend?
This isn’t an amazing haul, and the Clippers have taken a huge step back from what we saw in the previous few years. But it’s also not like they were actually contending then either. They just felt more dangerous because of what we’ve seen Leonard do in a postseason.
Ingram has $40 million coming to him this season and an option for $41.9 million in the 2027-28 season. It’s not a huge commitment by the Clippers, but it doesn’t give them full flexibility for next offseason. As for Dick, he was not good last season when the Raptors got serious about winning. The previous year, he showed a little promise on a bad team. He’s supposed to be a good outside shooter, but he’s just 34.3 percent for his three-year career. We’ll see if that potential gets realized soon.
Grade: C+
