Kawhi Leonard is a Raptor again, and the season opens on Oct. 21 at Scotiabank Arena against the Chicago Bulls. Training camp started in Quebec City on Sept. 29, and the storylines are already bigger than any preseason score. A few of them deserve a closer look.
A Homecoming Months in the Making
The trade was agreed on June 30, then sat frozen while the NBA investigated the Los Angeles Clippers for salary-cap circumvention. The league punished the Clippers, and Leonard was fined $700,000 without being suspended. The Raptors finally completed the deal on Sept. 14, sending Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and several draft picks to Los Angeles, and Leonard signed an extension. He also waived a trade bonus worth $7.45 million, which helped the deal fit under the cap.
Leonard is 35 now, a seven-time All-Star who led Toronto to the 2019 title. He averaged 27.9 points over 65 games last season. For a Raptors team that finished fifth in the East at 46-36 and pushed Cleveland to a Game 7, that kind of scoring is a big addition. Coach Darko Rajakovic says last spring’s playoff run left his players hungrier and more confident.
Camp in Quebec City
The Raptors are working out at Université Laval, the same facility they used in 2019. Leonard sat out the live scrimmage on day one, and Rajakovic said he’s healthy and “locked in,” just on a ramp-up plan because he couldn’t play live while the trade was on hold. CBS Sports reports that he hasn’t done contact drills yet and is unlikely to play in Saturday’s preseason opener against Miami, and that the team has a load-management plan to keep him healthy through the winter. Sensible. It’s a long season, and he’s been hurt before.
Younger players are paying attention, too. Collin Murray-Boyles called watching Leonard work out mesmerizing, which tells you how the room feels. The schedule is short, with five preseason games, two of them NBA Canada games in Quebec City and Vancouver, and a finale in Detroit on Oct. 16. There’s very little time to build chemistry, so early results will be messy.
Three Questions That Will Shape the Season
First up is shooting. Toronto ranked 25th in three-point frequency and 18th in efficiency last season, according to Cleaning the Glass, and Rajakovic says there’s a plan to fix both. Ingram and Sandro Mamukelashvili, two of the team’s most efficient shooters, are gone, so he’s looking at Leonard, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Jamison Battle, Ja’Kobe Walter and Jamal Shead to make up the difference.
Second is health in the middle. Jakob Poeltl played only 53 games last year with back trouble, and general manager Bobby Webster says he looks good heading into camp. If he stays on the floor, Toronto’s defence gets a real lift.
Third is Scottie Barnes. Rajakovic doesn’t expect him to match last year. He expects better. Pair that with Leonard, and both men talk about defence as the starting point for their partnership. Barnes put it simply, saying defence gives the team energy, and Quickley called it the team’s identity again this year. That suits a team that wants to win ugly games as well as pretty ones. Barrett’s contract is another thing to watch, since Sportsnet’s Michael Grange reports there’s appetite on both sides to work something out.
Reading the Early Schedule
Preseason games tell you very little about a final record, but the opener against Chicago will give fans a first real look at the new group. Before the first tip, anyone who wants to compare licensed operators can see how topbettingsite.ca lays out the options side by side, then confirm any site’s registration in their province.
Early lines on a new-look team can be shaky, partly because nobody is sure how much Leonard will play in the first few weeks. Injuries, rest days and rotation changes move a number quickly, so a small budget and a calm head are the best tools you’ve got.
Why This Season Feels Different
There’s more attention on this team than there has been in years. It has a playoff run behind it, a young star in Barnes and a coach with a clear plan. Now it has one of the game’s best defenders back home. None of that guarantees wins. It does give you a reason to watch the opener, and the weeks after it, with real curiosity.
