Toronto Raptors Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Leonard Sue Nike, Reportedly Buys Property

June 3rd, 2019 at 6:58pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard filed a federal lawsuit against Nike on Monday, claiming he designed the logo that appeared on his Nike apparel and the company copyrighted the logo without his consent, Matthew Kish of the PDX Biz Journal reports.

In a separate development that could foretell his summer plans, Leonard apparently bought property in his current NBA city, according to Michael Landsberg of TSN (hat tip to Dan Feldman of NBC Sports). Landsberg said in a radio interview that “What we’ve heard is that he’s purchased a property in Toronto,” and that “we’ve heard this now from two different sources.” That could be an indication that Leonard, who will opt out and become a free agent this summer, plans to stick with the Raptors.

The Raptors will hold their fourth pre-draft workout on Tuesday, according to Blake Murphy of The Athletic (Twitter link). The list includes guards Jalen Adams (UConn) Australian William McDowell-White, Kyle Allman (Cal State Fullerton) and Jared Harper (Auburn) and forwards Dedric Lawson (Kansas) and Dean Wade (Kansas State).

Kawhi Has Left Knee Issue; Lowry Has Ligament Tear In Thumb

June 3rd, 2019 at 2:42pm CST by Luke Adams

While their star players haven’t been forced out of action like some Warriors have been, the Raptors are dealing with some health issues of their own in these NBA Finals, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic.

According to Vardon and Sam Amick of The Athletic, the leg injury that has been bothering Kawhi Leonard since the Raptors’ series against the Bucks is a left knee issue. While the right quad injury that sidelined Leonard for nearly all of 2017/18 hasn’t been a problem, his knee pain stems from overcompensating for that quad issue, Vardon writes.

Meanwhile, Vardon also provides more specifics on Kyle Lowry‘s left hand injury, noting that the Raptors’ All-Star point guard has a ligament tear in his thumb. Lowry has previously hinted that he may need to undergo a surgical procedure on the injury after the season, but he appears set to play through it for the rest of the Finals.

Raptors Notes: Finals, Leonard, Lowry, Ujiri

June 2nd, 2019 at 7:01pm CST by JD Shaw

Having the Raptors in the NBA Finals will help significantly boost the league’s global ambition for success, Jerry Brewer writes for The Washington Post.

The NBA enjoys promoting the league and the sport of basketball as a worldwide activity despite having the most of its events in the United States, scheduling games in countries such as England, China and India in recent years. The entire country of Canada has rallied around Toronto in its pursuit of an NBA championship this season, with some dedicated fans even arriving to Sunday’s Game 2 more than 16 hours before doors opened.

“It’s overwhelming because you think, when I look at all the international players we have on our team . . . it’s really brought us together, and I think it says so much because that’s how our city is,” Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri said, according to Brewer. “That’s how the country is, that we can all relate to the multicultural or the diversity of Toronto and Canada, and that’s how our team is. They talk in different languages on defense. They talk in different languages in the locker room, and it’s like that in our organization. And being international myself and being from Africa, I’m proud of that.”

The NBA has generated more of a global audience in recent years, and with the success of the Raptors, these numbers could continue to grow. Toronto finished with the second-best record in franchise history this season at 58-24, one game behind last season’s record of 59-23.

There’s more out of Toronto tonight:

Kawhi Leonard remains the mystery man for the Raptors both physically and vocally, something the team is perfectly content with, Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe writes. “I just try to take my experiences and just keep moving forward and just have fun,” Leonard said. “Like I said, just basketball at this point. Win, lose or draw, I’m still going to be living, still got a family. This is all for fun. But for me, it’s just the way I play. Until we win the game or it’s all done, then I’ll show some emotion. But I want to stay even-keeled while I’m going through it.”
Tim Bontemps of ESPN.com explores how Kyle Lowry became the last Raptors player standing from when he first joined the team in 2012. Since then, Toronto has undergone a series of personnel, coaching and culture changes, culminating in a spot in the NBA Finals this season.
Masai Ujiri deserves a large portion of credit for getting the Raptors through the Eastern Conference, Washburn writes in a different story for The Globe. Ujiri attributed some of his team’s success to former head coach Dwane Casey and former Raptors All-Star DeMar DeRozan for helping jumpstart the winning process in past seasons. “To give Dwane Casey credit, he prepared us for this, too. This is not something that started in one year,” Ujiri said as part of a larger statement. “I want to say that Dwane Casey and DeMar DeRozan are a part of this, they are part of our journey and how far this has come.”

Raptors Assistant Facing The Warriors For The Fifth Straight Finals

June 2nd, 2019 at 11:44am CST by Arthur Hill

Sam Amick of The Athletic talks to Raptors assistant coach Phil Handy, who is facing the Warriors in the NBA Finals for the fifth straight year.

Knicks Notes: Morant, Barrett, Hawks, Green

June 2nd, 2019 at 9:05am CST by Arthur Hill

The Knicks never believed Ja Morant was a sure thing for the second pick even before news of his scheduled surgery came to light, a source tells Marc Berman and Mark Fischer of The New York Post. Morant will undergo a minor scope on his right knee tomorrow to remove a “loose body.” Even though the procedure is considered routine, Morant will be sidelined three to four weeks and appears unlikely to play in the Summer League.

The news has sparked rumors that the Grizzlies are looking harder at other options with their No. 2 pick. They reportedly have been sending “mixed messages” about the selection and tried to get Duke’s R.J. Barrett to come to Memphis for a private workout.

The Knicks had Morant ranked higher than Barrett on their draft board going into the combine, according to Berman and Fischer. Their front office has been watching Morant for a long time and considered him a first-round pick after his freshman season in 2018 based on his potential.

There’s more this morning from New York:

Barrett has a lot of fans in the Grizzlies organization, Berman and Fischer add. His Canadian roots add to his appeal for Memphis draft consultant Glen Grunwald, who serves as CEO of Canada Basketball. Barrett has a workout scheduled for New York on June 10, but reportedly refuses to schedule a session with the Grizzlies because he prefers to go to the Knicks at No. 3 or the Lakers at No. 4.
The Hawks haven’t been contacted by the Knicks about a rumored trade involving the No. 3 pick and Atlanta’s selections at No. 8 and No. 10, according to Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Cunningham believes Hawks GM Travis Schlenk would be open to a two-for-one deal if he believes the conventional wisdom that this year’s draft is especially top-heavy, but in general Schlenk’s philosophy is to accumulate draft picks and take as many chances as possible at landing a great player.
Raptors guard Danny Green is too focused on the NBA Finals to discuss a possible move to New York, but it’s a discussion that could come into play this offseason, Berman speculates in a separate story. A Long Island native, Green will be a free agent this summer and the Knicks will be in the market for shooters. He talked briefly to New York during his last free agency experience. “The (Knicks) reached out (in 2015) and sent a text,” Green recalled. “My deal (four years, $40 million) was done so fast I was pretty much only talking to them. It happened so fast. I was barely a free agent. I knew we had a good crew coming back (in San Antonio) and felt I had a good chance of winning again.”

Raptors Notes: Leonard, Green, Gasol, Siakam

June 1st, 2019 at 10:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

Last summer’s trade that landed Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green from the Spurs not only shook up the Raptors‘ roster, it brought two players with championship experience to a franchise that didn’t have any, writes Steve Popper of Newsday.

Leonard and Green, who will both be free agents this summer, were teammates on San Antonio’s title-winning team in 2014. They helped to calm any nerves in Game 1 by scoring the Raptors’ first six points.

“I didn’t notice that until you mentioned it to me,” Green said. “We got out running, able to run our offense how we’ve been doing most of the year. When we’re in our transition that’s when we’re at our best. [It’s] very important, especially playing against three-time, four-time, whatever champions. So many times they’ve been [to the Finals]. You’ve got to protect home court. It’s what we fought for all year. Can’t give them any type of life or confidence and keep taking advantage of the advantage that we have.”

There’s more tonight from Toronto:

Marc Gasol is making his first NBA Finals appearance after nearly a decade in Memphis, but he tells Jim Slater of Yahoo Sports that he’s not in awe of the experience. “My brain doesn’t function that way,” Gasol said. “You’re playing basketball like you did your whole life and it’s the most fun. You got to stay poised during the whole game so your brain can’t go anywhere else but every possession.”
Pascal Siakam, the hero of Game 1 with a 32-point performance, has a background unlike any other NBA player’s, notes Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. Siakam was introduced to the game as a teenager in his native Cameroon when he attended a Basketball Without Borders camp to visit his sister, whom he hadn’t seen in five years. “I didn’t even know if I really dreamed of being at this level,” Siakam said. “I couldn’t even think about this moment because it wasn’t reachable for me.”
Former Raptors assistant and G League head coach Jerry Stackhouse said he felt like a “proud papa” watching Siakam’s outburst, relays Frank Isola of The Athletic. Stackhouse, who accepted a job at Vanderbilt in April, also worked closely with Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell, who have played important roles in Toronto’s playoff run. “It’s a good advertisement for the league,” Stackhouse said. “That’s what the development league is supposed to do. Those were three guys with a lot of pride who all worked hard. They earned it.”

Clippers Fined For Tampering On Kawhi Leonard

May 31st, 2019 at 2:19pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA announced today in a press release that it has fined the Clippers $50K for violating the league’s anti-tampering policy. The penalty stems from comments made by head coach Doc Rivers about Raptors star Kawhi Leonard during a television appearance.

“(Leonard) is the most like (Michael) Jordan that we’ve seen,” Rivers said while participating in an ESPN panel earlier this week, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic. “Like, there’s a lot of great players. LeBron (James) is phenomenal. KD (Kevin Durant) is phenomenal. Not like he is Jordan, or anything like that. But he’s the most like him. Big hands. Post game. Can finish. Great leaper. Great defender. In-between game. If you beat him to the spot – bumps you off. And then you add his 3-point shooting…”

The NBA generally doesn’t crack down as hard on potential tampering violations when players and coaches talk about rival players, preferring to limit its penalties to comments made or actions taken by executives and owners.

In this case though, the NBA may have been sensitive to the perception that the Clippers have been recruiting Leonard all year while he’s under contract with Toronto. The Raptors have reached out to the league multiple times this season when they’ve felt the Clippers have crossed tampering lines, according to Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link).

Additionally, it’s not as if Rivers was simply a head coach discussing an opponent directly before or after playing him. The circumstances surrounding Rivers’ comments explain why the league was less willing to let them slide.

While it’s possible that Leonard’s NBA Finals run with the Raptors will help convince him to stay in Toronto when he reaches free agency in a month, the Clippers are still lurking in the shadows as his presumed top suitor, Amick wrote in a column before Game 1.

Marc Stein of The New York Times also provided some details this week on the lengths the Clippers are going to as they prepare their pitch for Leonard, reporting that the club explored the feasibility of buying a portion of the rights to Kawhi’s “Klaw” logo, which is still owned by Nike.

DeMarcus Cousins Will Be Active For Game 1

May 30th, 2019 at 11:35am CST by Luke Adams

The Warriors won’t have Kevin Durant back in their lineup to start the NBA Finals, but another injured star appears set to return. Head coach Steve Kerr confirmed today to reporters, including Mark Medina of The Bay Area News Group (Twitter link), that DeMarcus Cousins will be active for Game 1.

Cousins, who missed more than half of the 2018/19 season while recovering from an Achilles tear, suffered a torn quad in Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs against the Clippers. While that injury seemed likely to finish his season, he worked hard to rehab the quad and get healthy enough to return to the court before the end of the playoffs.

When Cousins signed a one-year, $5.34MM deal with the Warriors last summer, this was the sort of opportunity he anticipated. Having never appeared in a playoff game before, the 28-year-old wanted a chance to compete for a title, and he’ll get that chance beginning on Thursday night.

It’s not clear what sort of role Cousins will play against the Raptors. According to Medina (via Twitter), Kerr said he has a sense of the workload the big man will get in Game 1, but declined to offer specifics.

Technically, the Warriors were a better team with Cousins off the court than with him on it during the regular season and during his brief playoff stint. Plus, his presence would reduce the likelihood of Golden State playing Raptors center Marc Gasol off the floor. Those factors, combined with Cousins still needing to get his conditioning back to where it was, point to a limited role for the former All-Star, but we’ll see what Kerr has in mind.

As for Durant, Kerr said today that the former Finals MVP probably won’t be able to practice before Game 2, making it unlikely he suits up until at least Game 3 (Twitter link via Marc Berman of The New York Post).

OG Anunoby Questionable For Game 1

May 29th, 2019 at 9:39pm CST by clarkcrum

Despite Raptors head coach Nick Nurse saying Monday that forward OG Anunoby was still about 10 days away from being able to play, the team is now surprisingly listing Anunoby as questionable for Game 1 of the NBA Finals tomorrow night, tweets Eric Koreen of The Athletic.

Anunoby, who has missed the entire 2018/19 postseason after undergoing an emergency appendectomy in early April, still didn’t have a timetable to return as recently as a week ago, when Nurse said as much. But now, it appears as though a timetable has appeared and shortened within the span on a few days, with Nurse’s 10-day prediction upgraded to a questionable designation for tomorrow evening.

Anunoby could provide some much needed depth for the Raptors against the Warriors after the team relied on an eight-man rotation against the Bucks. This is especially true if Kevin Durant returns from injury, as Anunoby would give teammate Kawhi Leonard some much needed breaks from defending the all-time great.

Given Nurse’s original estimate about Anunoby’s return, it still seems unlikely that we will see him in Game 1, but the questionable designation does breed hope for an earlier return, perhaps in Game 2 on Sunday.

NBA Spoke To Raptors Regarding Drake’s Presence

May 29th, 2019 at 7:19pm CST by clarkcrum

In an interesting piece on the eve of the Raptors’ first ever NBA Finals berth, Michele Steele of ESPN is reporting that the NBA spoke to Raptors’ brass during the Eastern Conference finals about rapper Drake’s activity and presence on the sideline.

Drake, a Toronto native, was warned by the NBA last year for a confrontation with Cavaliers’ big man Kendrick Perkins during 2018’s Eastern Conference semifinals. He also drew national attention earlier this postseason for giving Raptors’ head coach Nick Nurse a quick shoulder rub during Game 4 against the Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals, an antic that seemed to rub Bucks’ head coach Mike Budenholzer the wrong way.

“I don’t know how much he’s on the court. It sounds like you guys are saying it’s more than I realize,” Budenholzer said. “There’s certainly no place for fans and, you know, whatever it is exactly that Drake is for the Toronto Raptors. You know, to be on the court, there’s boundaries and lines for a reason, and like I said, the league is usually pretty good at being on top of stuff like that.”

While it’s not entirely clear how the NBA’s conversation with the Raptors played out, Michael Grange of Sportsnet says that one of the league’s proposals was to have Drake sit out of the primary TV camera’s sight-line and/or further away from the team’s benches. Per Grange, Toronto denied this proposal.

It’s further unclear if anything came out of the discussion between the NBA and the Raptors or if any changes will be made by Drake or the Raptors, but by all accounts, it doesn’t appear that Drake will be limited in any way tomorrow night.