DeMar DeRozan doesn't think the Raptors needed Kawhi Leonard to win an NBA title in 2019

While promoting his new book Above the Noise, DeMar DeRozan spoke about the trade that sent him from the Toronto Raptors to the San Antonio Spurs.

DeRozan, who began his career playing for the Raptors, enjoyed tremendous success playing alongside Kyle Lowry in Toronto. But after multiple All-Star appearances and late appearances in the postseason, the front office opted to trade DeRozan in exchange for Kawhi Leonard before the 2018-19 season.

The Raptors went on to win the 2019 NBA Championship, which was their first in franchise history. But on ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith asked an interesting question.

Smith argued that at that time in Toronto’s franchise, the only team that the Raptors seemed to struggle against were LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers.

He wondered if the Raptors would have still won a title in 2019 if they still had DeRozan, not Leonard, as James left the Eastern Conference to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers.

It seemed DeRozan agreed with the theory, stating the following:

“Never to discredit those guys. They won it. They deserve it. I finally had got to a point where I was happy for them. But for sure. I definitely feel like that. The only person we couldn’t beat was LeBron. 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. That piece came to be LeBron going to the West and I didn’t get an opportunity to see what would have happened. But the upmost confident in myself, I have no doubt in my mind the same outcome would have happened.”

Good for DeRozan to have the confidence in himself to truly believe this.

He is right: The only team that stood in his way was the Cavaliers and with James in the Western Conference on the Lakers that season, this was finally DeRozan’s shot to win it all. Instead, however, it was Leonard who won NBA Finals MVP in 2019.

Of course, it may have been a lot tougher for the Raptors to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers (who were juggernaut that season as well) without Leonard playing.