DeMar DeRozan, the kid from Compton, Calif. who once professed “I am Toronto,” is no longer a Raptor.The team’s longest serving and most successful player, who morphed from a shy teenager drafted by the Toronto Raptors into a four-time NBA all-star, is part of a franchise-altering trade for disgruntled San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard.The loss of DeRozan was made a bit more tenable, perhaps, by the fact Raptors GM Masai Ujiri did not have to include any of his top young prospects or a plethora of draft picks.According to league sources, Toronto will get Leonard and guard Danny Green — a free agent next summer — and will give up DeRozan, third-year centre Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 draft pick.By not having to include either of OG Anunoby or Pascal Siakam, both seen as key pieces to Toronto’s long-term future, Ujiri has kept intact most of the team’s depth.For Ujiri, the trade continues a summer remake of a team coming off its best regular season ever that was once again crushed in the playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers.Ujiri first fired Dwane Casey, the team’s most successful and longest-serving head coach and replaced him with Nick Nurse, one of Casey’s assistants.Now Ujiri is on the verge of dealing away the 28-year-old DeRozan, who embraced his role with the franchise, the city and Canada like no other Raptor ever has.DeRozan has always said he wanted to spend his entire career in Toronto and twice eschewed any serious look at free agency to remain with the Raptors. He sits atop, or is right close to the top, every significant statistical category. But his impression on the team runs much deeper than that. His willingness to stay here, the inestimable skills that made him an Olympic champion and one of the most dangerous shooting guards in the league today, combined to make him unique in franchise history.“Be told one thing & the outcome another,” DeRozan said in an Instagram ...
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