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TORONTO – Kawhi Leonard has yet to talk to the media in Toronto since his exchange with the Raptors, but team chairman Masai Ujiri said Tuesday that his acquisition was happy and healthy.
"He is determined and seems in the right frame of mind," said Ujiri. "You will soon hear about him, I think there is a fire inside him and we are all excited about it."
Leonard, twice defensive player of the year, was the centerpiece of one of the NBA's biggest off-season trades. The Raptors have bought San Antonio Spurs with Danny Green in exchange for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a draft pick. Ujiri negotiated the case in Kenya working with his Giants of Africa, a non-profit organization.
Australian swingman Deng Adel heads for the NBA Raptors.
The small attackers tried to do it for a long time.
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While Leonard, 27, remained on the move, he worked with the Raptors coaches in Los Angeles and visited Toronto a few times, according to Ujiri, who said he did not worry about the commitment. from Leonard in the franchise.
"Basketball person I like the game," Ujiri said. "Want to play the game and be very competitive.You can say that he is a very competitive kid.It's all about basketball.After you start talking about basketball, his eyes change."
The Raptors training camp will open next week in Vancouver, and Ujiri said Leonard, who had had a lot of contests with the Spurs, would have no special treatment.
"We will not do anything different, we will be ourselves, I think the situation with him in San Antonio, which I do not want to talk about because I do not know much, but he is a quiet child", Ujiri said. "That's his nature. We can not all be the same kind of people. But he is as endearing as he would like and he is very interesting. There is no interview with him. There are not many people around him. His [focus] is about basketball, which is what you want. He's a basketball enthusiast. "
Ujiri said it was a tough decision to negotiate with DeRozan and veteran guard Kyle Lowry had also taken over. Lowry refused to discuss the trade with reporters at a training camp of the US National Team in Las Vegas in late July.
"Kyle is close to DeMar and he is going to be sensitive," said Ujiri. "It was a blow to him, I think Kyle is always ready for basketball, he will always be ready, he's training hard and he'll be ready."
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