Kawhi Leonard Is Coy About His Future, But Came To Toronto With ‘An Open Mind’

The Kawhi Leonard era in Toronto began in earnest on Monday morning, as the All-Star forward threw on his new uniform and met with the media as part of the Raptors’ media day. Naturally, because Leonard’s future is up in the air, a major topic of conversation was whether he’ll stay in Toronto for longer than this season.

While Raptors fans certainly would have loved for Leonard to say he plans on being in Toronto for the rest of his career, he was much more reserved in his response. When prompted, Leonard spoke of the process that he believes is going to play out during the next year of his life.

“I look at it as a day-to-day process,” Leonard said. “Like I said, my focus is on this year, this group that I have, and striving to get to a championship. We all want to win and if you look in the future, you’re gonna trip over the present. So, this is what I’m focused on is this year, tomorrow, and just keep going after that.”

In a way, this is good news for Masai Ujiri and the rest of the Raptors organization, because if Leonard isn’t already looking ahead to free agency, the window is open for them to use this year to pitch him on why staying in Toronto longterm is the best option. Plus despite the original rumblings that he wasn’t happy with getting moved to Toronto, Leonard told the assembled media that he’s entering this new chapter with “an open mind.”

“I want to play here,” Leonard, according to Sportsnet. “As long as I have a jersey on, I want to play basketball. I came here with an open mind. I want to do great things … By winning games, that’s how you get star-caliber players who want to come here.”

Naturally, viewing something that’s said at media day as canon is a risky proposition, but the Raptors couldn’t have asked for a much better start to the Leonard era. He even laughed at something that popped up at media day, which for someone as famously stone-faced as Leonard was a bit of a surprise.

Anything can happen once games start, but if the Raptors can keep Leonard smiling and laughing all year, perhaps his free agency will be more drama-free than anyone anticipates.