Kawhi Leonard's Impact on the Raptors: Fred VanVleet's Insights
Fred VanVleet has seen Kawhi Leonard change a franchise once. He sounds convinced Toronto is about to feel that shockwave again.
At Kyle Lowry’s block party, the former Raptors guard didn’t bother dressing it up. Asked about Leonard’s return to Toronto, VanVleet, now with the Houston Rockets, cut straight through the noise.
“I mean, listen, they didn’t get worse,” he said. “It didn’t get worse. I’m excited for the city. I’m excited for the organization. It’s good to see [Kawhi Leonard] back and yeah, they’ll be a damn good team, especially in the East. They’re going to be a tough out.”
From the man who lived through the most important season in Raptors history, that’s not hollow praise. That’s a warning label.
A Reunion With History Attached
Leonard and VanVleet will always be linked in Toronto. One season together. One banner. A lifetime of what-ifs.
Leonard arrived in 2018 as the reluctant superstar, traded to a city he didn’t choose. VanVleet was the undrafted guard fighting for a permanent place in the league. By June 2019, they were champions, with Leonard’s cold-blooded playoff run turning Toronto into a global basketball story and VanVleet into a made man.
Leonard left for the Los Angeles Clippers that summer, just as he said he would. VanVleet never pretended otherwise. Over the years he’s been consistent: no bitterness, only appreciation for what that run did for the franchise and for his own career.
That’s why his reaction to Leonard’s shock return carries weight. He knows exactly what a locked-in Kawhi looks like over nine months.
Toronto has paid a heavy price to find out if that version still exists.
To bring the two-time Finals MVP back, the Raptors sent Brandon Ingram, young guard Gradey Dick, unprotected first-rounders in 2031 and 2033, a 2027 pick swap, and two future second-round picks to the Clippers. It’s a franchise-defining gamble, the kind you only make for a player you believe can tilt an entire conference.
Leonard, now 35, will walk into a different locker room than the one he left. No Kyle Lowry. No Marc Gasol. No Serge Ibaka. Instead, he joins a younger, re-tooled group built around rising star Scottie Barnes, with expectations that Barnes grows into the face of the franchise while Leonard reclaims his role as the closer.
If VanVleet is right, the East just got a lot more complicated.
“I Don’t Want To Be Here”: The First Kawhi Chapter
On the “Hello and Welcome” podcast, VanVleet pulled back the curtain on that 2018–19 season and how blunt Leonard was from the very start.
“He said it from day one, I’m not staying here,” VanVleet recalled. “So, from day one, he said, ‘I don’t know why they traded for me. I don’t want to be here. I’m not staying here.’ Now, Toronto put their best bid in, man. The city bowed down as we’ve never seen before, man.”
The front office pushed in its chips. The fanbase embraced him. Leonard never wavered. His mind, VanVleet said, was made up.
“And so yes, as for us regular people, we can look at it and say, man, how could you leave that? But his mind was made up, man. Kawhi is Kawhi.”
That’s the paradox at the heart of Leonard’s relationship with Toronto. He never promised permanence. He delivered immortality.
He played through questions about his health and his future, then ripped through the postseason with a ruthless, business-like edge that VanVleet has credited many times for changing lives in that locker room. The title validated the franchise and pushed VanVleet onto a trajectory that would lead to major contracts and a central role in Houston today.
“I’m Better Than Kobe”: The Mindset Behind the Machine
For all the stoic press conferences and deadpan interviews, Leonard’s self-belief has always run hot. VanVleet shared one moment that crystallized that confidence.
“Kawhi [Leonard] changed my view on a lot of shi*t, but there was one thing in particular that I overheard and he didn’t say it to me, I just overheard it and it was a conversation that was being had,” VanVleet said. “And the sentiment of the conversation, because I ain’t going to quote nobody, but the sentiment of the conversation was when we won the championship about all that sh*t is like, ‘I’m better than Kobe.’”
VanVleet admitted his first reaction was disbelief. Kobe Bryant was his basketball north star, the player he idolized from childhood into his own playing days.
“Right? I had the same reaction because Kobe is my man. Kobe, that’s it for me. That’s as good as it gets for me as a little kid up into a man, my eyes, what I seen.”
Leonard’s résumé doesn’t match Bryant’s volume of titles or scoring records, but the hardware he does have is heavy. Two NBA championships. Two Finals MVPs. Two different franchises built around his two-way dominance when it mattered most.
Those are the credentials walking back into Scotiabank Arena.
A Different City, The Same Edge?
This time, the context is flipped. Leonard isn’t the one-year rental on an expiring deal. He’s the veteran centerpiece imported at significant cost to accelerate a retool.
Barnes has blossomed into an All-Star level talent. The roster is younger, more athletic, and still unproven in the highest-stakes moments. Leonard’s presence changes the equation. It changes the way defenses load up. It changes what Toronto can run in the final two minutes of a playoff game.
VanVleet’s verdict is simple: with Leonard back, the Raptors are dangerous again.
“They’ll be a damn good team, especially in the East,” he said. “They’re going to be a tough out.”
Toronto once watched Leonard arrive reluctantly and leave on his own terms, with a parade and a championship ring as the parting gift. Now he returns to a city that already knows exactly what he looks like at full power.
The question hanging over the East isn’t whether Kawhi Leonard can still shift a series.
It’s whether, at 35, he can do it one more time for the team that still lives in the shadow of the season he already gave them.
