DeMar DeRozan was traded to the San Antonio Spurs in 2018, although he revealed that he and Kyle Lowry were almost traded together.
When the Toronto Raptors traded franchise icon DeMar DeRozan to the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Leonard in 2018, the Raptors knew that Leonard was a one-year rental and would sign with a California team the following summer.
By trading DeRozan, Toronto opened a one-year title window, which they maximized, beating the Golden State Warriors to win their lone title in 2019.
Leonard was surrounded by home-grown talent like Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, Norman Powell, and OG Anunoby, as well as Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, and Kyle Lowry, who is arguably the greatest Raptor ever.
Lowry and DeRozan led Toronto to five playoff appearances in a row before the arrival of Leonard, although they never were able to get past LeBron James. The Raptors were running out of patience, and almost blew up their core well before Leonard joined the team.
Photo by Kathryn Riley/Getty ImagesToronto Raptors nearly traded Kyle Lowry
In 2013, the Raptors traded Rudy Gay, their best player, to the Sacramento Kings for a smattering of role players who appeared in a combined 550 games and never managed to turn into stars.
After Gay was shipped out, DeRozan, who had just made his first All-Star Game, expected him and Lowry to be next.
“I remember when we traded Rudy (Gay), Kyle was going to get traded, and I was going to get traded because they was going to blow it up and at this time they were going to tank for Wiggins,” he revealed on Run Your Race. “You know what I mean? So that was the whole plan. Everybody screaming, ‘Tank for Wiggins.’”
The Raptors would finish the 2013-14 season with a 48-34 record, making the playoffs for the first time in six years and eventually becoming a playoff fixture.
Lowry would go on to be the second-best player during their title run, and rebuilding around the top players in the 2014 Draft likely wouldn’t have worked out, unless they missed Andrew Wiggins and landed Joel Embiid.
Lowry is a Raptors icon
Kyle Lowry will end his career as the greatest Toronto Raptors player ever. Yes, DeRozan has more points, and Leonard guided them to a title, but Lowry remained the face of the franchise.
His six All-Star appearances are the most of any Raptors player, and he is in the top three in games, points, assists, steals, 3-pointers made, and leads the franchise in win shares.
It’s hard to forget, but Lowry spent six seasons in the league before ending up in Toronto and was generally seen as a role player, not a star. Had Toronto traded him in 2013 or ‘14, he was yet to make an All-Star game, and the return would not have been substantial at all.
When Toronto traded Gay in 2013, they were 6-12. They would then finish the season with a 42-22 record over the remaining games, and Lowry would make his first All-Star team the following season.
At the time, building around the promising Wiggins, a Canadian native, seemed like a dream scenario for Toronto, although their patience with Lowry certainly paid off.