It’s been nearly two weeks since Kawhi Leonard was traded to the Toronto Raptors and it’s still a hot topic.
While Raptors fans continue to debate the trade, head coach Nick Nurse finally had his first meeting with Leonard, which Nurse called “great” after talking to Kawhi.
“I sat down and said, ‘Do you have any questions?’ And he started firing them,” Nurse told the Toronto Star. “And it just led us to a really easygoing [conversation]. Not what I was expecting. Very smart. Very intelligent. Very engaging. Really enjoyed it … [Management] had to drag us out of there in the end because they had to go do something else. But it was great.”
“We could have gone forever. [Raptors management] kept knocking on the door and I was like, ‘A couple more minutes.’ Because we were really into it,” Nurse said. “It was fun to listen to his take. He asked me, ‘How are you going to use me? Where are you going to get me the ball? What do you see?’ And I told him, ‘Listen. To me, you can do pretty much everything. You can post. You can drive. You can handle it up the floor. You can play screen and roll. You can come off pindowns.’ I said, ‘Did I miss anything?’ He’s like, ‘No, that’s about it.’ I said, ‘You’ll probably be doing all that stuff.’”
Leonard, along with Danny Green, was traded to Toronto from the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a draft pick on July 18.
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