Kawhi Could Stay With Raptors, Celtics Are East Favorites, Nance Jr Says

If the rumors are to be believed then it is a matter of when and not if Kawhi Leonard moves to one of the Los Angeles NBA franchises – the Lakers or the Clippers. But Larry Nance Jr. thinks the Toronto Raptors can convince him to stay long-term.

The two-time NBA defensive player of the year has made no secret of his desire to move back home to LA to one of the aforementioned franchises and was hoping to engineer a move this summer.

Leonard’s request for a trade was accepted by his former employers the San Antonio Spurs, but his wish of moving to Los Angeles was not heeded as he was traded to the Raptors for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a protected first-round draft pick.

The former Spurs star was not too happy with the decision, while the Raptors’ all-time top scorer DeRozan was also not happy to move to Texas. Despite him joining the Raptors for next season, talks have revolved around his potential destination in 2019.

Leonard can become an unrestricted free agent in 2019 by declining his player option, and it is expected the Lakers will make a move, similar to what they did with LeBron James this summer. A number of NBA insiders and experts believe he will make the switch to one of the Los Angeles franchises next summer.

However, Nance Jr, who was traded by the Lakers to the Cleveland Cavaliers this summer is of the opinion the Raptors have enough to convince him to commit his long-term future to the franchise.

The Cavaliers power forward cited the example of Paul George, who was expected to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder, when he became a free agent this summer. He was sought after by a number of franchises, but in the end chose to re-sign with the Thunder.

“Toronto has enough to make him stay, it’s a beautiful city and they love their basketball out there,” Nance Jr exclusively told Express Sport. “The organisation will do the best they can and the fans will embrace him, he’s already one of theirs.”

“We saw it with Paul George, he said he wanted to be Laker, but come free agency, he loved Oklahoma City so he re-signed,” he added. “I think it’s very possible we see another situation like that.”

The Raptors finished as the number one seed in the Eastern Conference last season, but failed to make it past the first round in the playoffs. They look a strong outfit and the addition of Leonard is certain to make them one of the top teams in the division.

However, Nance Jr has put the Boston Celtics as the favorites to progress to the NBA Finals from the East. The C’s finished second in the regular season and then were just one Game 7 win away from making the finals, but succumbed to James’ Cavaliers.

But the impressive bit about the Celtics was they achieved it without two of their All-Stars – Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. The former missed the latter part of the regular season and the playoffs with a knee injury, while the latter missed the entire season with a foot injury.

“The Raptors are going to be very good but personally I think the Celtics are going to be the team to beat in the east,” Nance Jr explained. “They were a tough out last year without two all-stars. You add them back in and they get even more scary.”