Kawhi Leonard causes stir with Raptors ‘talent’ comments

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Kawhi Leonard usually is a man of few words. Sometimes when he does speak, though, his message can be a bit confusing.

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That was the case at NBA all-star weekend in Los Angeles, when Leonard was asked about his 2019 Toronto Raptors championship team having so many future all-stars (in addition to himself, Kyle Lowry and Marc Gasol, who all had previously been all-stars before the team won the title, with both Lowry and Leonard making it again that year).

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Ex-Raptor and close Leonard friend Norman Powell amazingly made his first all-star game in his 11th NBA season at age 32 this year, joining Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet as former Raptors youngsters who would go on to reach those heights (Siakam just made his third appearance and also is a two-time all-NBA team selection).

Leonard tried to praise his former teammates, but it didn’t come out quite right.

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“You know, everybody comes into their own, but the talent wasn’t there, but the work ethic was, and that’s the reason why everybody thought they were better than they were,” Leonard said in response to the question from Will Lou of Hello and Welcome.

“They competed at a high level every night and I’m happy for him, especially for Norm, even trying to get here. He was able to leave (the Los Angeles Clippers, where he was reunited with Leonard) and still make a contribution to the Heat, and he made it, so I’m happy for him.”

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Leonard likely meant that during the time he was in Toronto, many members of the group (and he could have included OG Anunoby here, since he’s one of the best defenders and outside shooters in the league) were young, inexperienced and not yet close to developed as players. But they had the will, work ethic and desire to get there one day, which they did.

The trio of future all-stars originally were reserves, part of Toronto’s Bench Mob, with Siakam and VanVleet even teaming up to win Raptors 905 a G League championship. Siakam and VanVleet emerged as key contributors to the title team — Siakam was the second-leading scorer and dominated the Golden State Warriors at times in the NBA Final, as did VanVleet, who helped rescue the team in the conference final against Milwaukee and was so good against the Warriors that he got the lone MVP vote Leonard did not receive.

Some spun Leonard’s words as justification for why he left the Raptors to join Paul George in Los Angeles, but it’s hard to imagine that’s what he was getting at.

VanVleet revealed in December that Leonard told the Raptors from Day 1 that he didn’t plan to stick around after the season.

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