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Toronto Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard speaks at the Raptors media day in Toronto on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Jon Blacker\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n
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Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes speaks at the Raptors media day in Toronto on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Jon Blacker\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n
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Toronto Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard speaks at the Raptors media day in Toronto on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Jon Blacker\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n
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Toronto Raptors forward RJ Barrett speaks at the Raptors media day in Toronto on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Jon Blacker\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n
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Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic speaks at the Raptors media day in Toronto on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Jon Blacker\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n
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TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Kawhi Leonard acknowledged how long it took to complete the trade that sent him back to Toronto, but didn\u2019t want to talk about why.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI know why some of you guys came,\u201d Leonard said in an opening statement to a crowded media conference. \u201cYou want to hear about the investigation. Talking with the NBA and the (National Basketball Players Association), I think the best decision is to move forward and focus on my time being a Toronto Raptor. I already was a distraction for the past 70 days and wasn\u2019t able to meet my teammates, do any of that minicamp stuff with them. Moving forward, I just want to talk about the Toronto Raptors. … I just want to focus on basketball again.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The 35-year-old Leonard spent one season in Toronto after he was acquired from San Antonio in 2018, winning his second NBA Finals MVP and leading the Raptors to their lone title in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a proven winner and he\u2019s done it here,\u201d Raptors forward RJ Barrett said.<\/p>\n
Leonard left Toronto after that title to head home and sign with the Los Angeles Clippers. The end of his tenure there was overshadowed by a salary-cap circumvention scandal that led to massive sanctions against his now-former team.<\/p>\n
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The investigation into that scandal also delayed the deal, completed earlier this month, that sent the seven-time All-Star and two-time NBA champion back north of the border.<\/p>\n
Last week, Leonard agreed on a two-year contract extension with Toronto that could be worth $115 million if he plays both seasons, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s media day, held in a lounge atop a lakefront hotel, overlooked the spot where the championship parade got rolling a few days after Toronto\u2019s six-game triumph over the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals.<\/p>\n
The Raptors have just one playoff series victory since, a first-round sweep of the Nets in the 2020 COVID-19 postseason bubble.<\/p>\n
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Still, Leonard said he likes his chances with this Toronto team, featuring two-time All-Star Scottie Barnes, which pushed Cleveland to seven games in a first-round defeat last spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to be back,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cThe team played amazing last year. I like to be in a winning environment and I think they give me that here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Limited to nine games because of injury in 2017-18, Leonard played 60 regular-season games for Toronto in 2018-19, and another 24 in the playoffs. He hasn\u2019t topped that total since, and missed an entire season after right knee surgery in 2021.<\/p>\n
Head coach Darko Rajakovic said the Raptors \u201cknow what we\u2019re walking into\u201d when it comes to keeping their new star healthy.<\/p>\n
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\u201cTo be honest with you, I want Kawhi to play 82 games and 48 minutes every night,\u201d Rajakovic said. \u201cBut the reality is, his age and his history with injuries, we\u2019ve got to be super smart there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex McKechnie, the Raptors\u2019 vice president of player health and performance, still leads the training staff that kept Leonard on the court throughout the championship run of 2018-19.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played 65 (games) last year,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cHopefully this year I can play more and even build on that, adding games in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard is coming off the highest-scoring season of his career, averaging 27.9 points.<\/p>\n
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\u201cEspecially off the season that he just had, I think everybody is very confident in his ability to be that kind of superstar that he is,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cI think he\u2019s a Hall of Fame player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard is a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, while Barnes said Monday that it “felt kind of disrespectful\u201d he wasn\u2019t named to the All-Defensive first team last season.<\/p>\n
With Leonard playing alongside him this season, Barnes promised trouble for opposing attackers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can be real dangerous on that end of the floor,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got guys that move their feet really well, pick it up full court. It\u2019s starting from 94 feet throughout the whole game. I think it\u2019s going to be real scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
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See AP\u2019s full NBA coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard speaks at the Raptors media day in Toronto on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[477111,64,63,726,79986,1175,146000,146002,145996,280639,145998,62604,85,3920,477110],"class_list":["post-908877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-alex-mckechnie","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-darko-rajakovic","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32547-ap-online-basketball-game-stories","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-r-j-barrett","tag-sports","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors-media-day-nba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}