DeMar DeRozan was heartbroken when he was abruptly traded from the Raptors in the summer of 2018. In a recent appearance on First Take, the former Raptors star opened up on the trade and revealed his opinion that he could have won a championship with the team had they never traded him that summer.
Stephen A. Smith: "The kryptonite y'all kept running into is LeBron James. The year [Kawhi] arrived, LeBron James went to LA. So my attitude is that if DeMar DeRozan stayed there, he'd have been a champion with the Toronto Raptors. How do you feel about that, once you hear something like that?"
DeMar DeRozan: "It's never to discredit those guys. They won it, they deserve it," said DeRozan to Smith on ESPN's First Take morning show. "I finally got to a point where I was happy for them. But, for sure, I definitely feel like [we could have won]. The only person we couldn't beat was LeBron and that's just what it was. I felt off the year we had before we just needed one more piece to kind of push us over the top. And that piece was LeBron going out to the West and I didn't get an opportunity to see what could have happened. I have no doubt in my mind the same outcome would have happened."
DeRozan, 35, is a 15-year veteran and current forward for the Sacramento Kings . As a crafty scorer and hard-nosed competitor, DeMar is expected to make a big impact with the Kings where he can use his experience and knowledge to help mentor his younger teammates.
The former 9th overall pick has yet to win a championship in his career but it's not for a lack of trying. Before signing with the Kings, DeRozan was with the Bulls for a few years and then with the San Antonio Spurs before that. But perhaps what DeMar is most well known for is his stint with the Toronto Raptors.
DeRozan began his career with the Raptors and he spent the next nine years there developing his skills as an All-Star. With averages of 19.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game, DeMar became a legend in the city and he grew close bonds with people within the franchise.
His best season came in the 2017-18 campaign, his last in a Raptors jersey. He averaged 23.0 points per game that season but he and his co-star, Kyle Lowry, led the Raptors to the best record in the East at 59-23 and they were among the favorites to win the Finals that spring.
It wasn't until the Raptors ran into LeBron James that things fell apart for the team from the north. At 34 years old, James was at the peak of his powers and he single-handedly carried a weak Cavaliers team to the NBA Finals . James averaged 34.0 points, 9.1 rebounds and 9.0 assists in 22 games in the 2018 playoffs and he was particularly effective against the Raptors.
No matter what they did, the Raptors had no answers for LeBron and they could not slow him down at all as he ravaged their defense play after play. It wasn't until a year later, when LeBron joined the Lakers, that the Raptors finally found success.
Instead of DeRozan and Lowry leading them, it was Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Siakam and they managed to do what nobody else had done before them. But had the trade never happened, it's tough to say that the Raptors would have gone past the 76ers (who lost on Kawhi's game-winning buzzer-beater in Game 7) or even the Bucks who had a younger version of Giannis Antetokounmpo .
Unfortunately for DeMar, they never gave him a chance to win the East without LeBron but you can't fault them for making the choice that they did. Trading for Kawhi was the right thing to do and even though he refused to stay it was the move that gave the Raptors the best chance to win.
Related: DeMar DeRozan On Raptors Winning A Title Without Him: "That Whole Narrative Was Just Frustrating."
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