Toronto Raptors President: Kawhi Leonard Has 'A Fire Inside Of Him'

Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri says everyone involved in the franchise is excited for Kawhi Leonard in the upcoming 2018/19 NBA season.

Leonard was traded to the Raptors from the San Antonio Spurs earlier this summer, though it was well-documented that the 2014 NBA Finals MVP preferred a move to his native Los Angeles.

Regardless, he will start his new chapter in Toronto at least for the next season as his deal runs until 2019 and having not played since January due to a quadriceps injury, Leonard is finally fit and ready to return to action. He is yet to speak to media since his move, however.

"He is determined and seems in the right frame of mind," Ujiri said Tuesday, as quoted on the Washington Post. "You will be hearing from him shortly. I think there is a fire inside of him and we are all excited about that."

Leonard was expected to be a Spurs for life but fell out of love with the franchise this past year, with the main reasons being their mishandling of his injury as well as public comments by teammates and head coach Gregg Popovich at the time.

Ujiri could not comment much on the situation in San Antonio, but says the franchise will remain themselves.

"There is nothing we are going to do different. We are going to be ourselves," Ujiri explained. "I think the situation with him in San Antonio, which I don’t want to talk about because I don’t know much about it, but he’s a quiet kid. That’s his nature. We can’t all be the same kind of people."

"But he is as engaging as he would want to be and he’s very interesting. There is no maintenance with him. There are no tons of people around him. His (focus) is on basketball which is what you want. He is a basketball junkie," he added.

Toronto's deal for the 28-year-old was certainly a risky one given Leonard's contract status, potentially making him a one-year rental. However, it was also criticized by many because it involved trading their own star player in DeMar DeRozan.

Initially, Ujiri said it was something that needed to be done while point guard Kyle Lowry seemingly took the trade hard, refusing to speak to reporters about it during a U.S. national team training camp in July, although the duo didn't always see eye-to-eye.

"Kyle is close to DeMar and he’s going to be sensitive," Ujiri added. "That was a blow to him. I think basketball-wise Kyle is always ready, he’s always going to be ready, he’s training hard and he’ll be ready."

Training camp begins for the Raptors in Vancouver next week while they will kick off their season against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Oct. 17.

According to an ESPN projection index from late last month, they have a 25 percent chance of making the NBA Finals as well as a 10 percent chance of winning a first-ever championship.