Was trading for Kawhi Leonard instead of LaMelo Ball a mistake by the Raptors?

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Sunday night in Minneapolis gave the Toronto Raptors and team management a glimpse of the road not taken.

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Kawhi Leonard was a late scratch for the first, but surely not the last time this season, while on the other side, newly-acquired LaMelo Ball was the best player on the court.

While Toronto was thrilled to land Leonard in an early-summer deal that wasn’t finalized until September due to the Los Angeles Clippers’ salary cap circumvention saga, they did so well aware of his age, lengthy injury history and need to be load managed as he was in his first stint with the Raptors.

And though Raptors general manager Bobby Webster has said the Raptors made several attempts to bring Leonard back in recent years, it wasn’t the only swing for a star they tried to take.

“We’ve been stockpiling, and what we’ve been patient on over the past couple years, having a lot of assets, having our first-round picks, having players under rookie scale contracts,” Webster had said last June after the first wave of NBA trades but before the Leonard and Ball deals. “That’s allowed us to build and be the youngest team in the playoffs, but yeah, at a certain point we want to be all participant in the trade market, and so you know we’ll look to do that, over the course of the summer and even into the trade deadline next season.”

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The Raptors also tried to acquire Ball from the Charlotte Hornets when the former NBA rookie of the year and all-star was surprisingly placed on the trade block in June, per multiple sources. The club has long been high on the 6-foot-7 point guard who offers the rare combination of elite play-making and shooting, though his shot selection left much to be desired over his six seasons in Charlotte. He, like Leonard, would have been, at least on paper, an unbelievable fit in Toronto.

While star rookie Kon Knueppel got most of the accolades during Charlotte’s first good season in years, ultimately falling just shy of Cooper Flagg in rookie of the year voting, and though Brandon Miller is also a very talented young Hornet, moving off Ball was a bit shocking. That’s because he’s a huge point guard and a tremendous offensive talent who drove a lot of that rare winning for the Hornets. Most of the team’s best four-man or three-man lineups were led by Ball and the team still fared well when either Knueppel or Miller were out, but that wasn’t the case minus Ball.

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What did the Wolves give up for Ball?

Minnesota stepped up to send the Hornets Naz Reid, a former Sixth Man of the Year who is a multi-skilled centre who can space the floor and defend and is on a solid contract. They also got a 2033 unprotected first-round pick which has considerable value, a trio of first-round pick swap options and three second rounders.

The Raptors didn’t have a comparable package to offer to get Ball, who is 10 years younger than Leonard. It’s believed Collin Murray-Boyles was never offered and Charlotte would not have had interest in Brandon Ingram, even though he’s from North Carolina. It’s hard to see RJ Barrett and multiple first-rounders being enough to tempt them for Ball either.

Ball is fourth amongst all players in three-point attempts per game since entering the league and sixth in makes, but has shot only 36.5% from three in part because of his sometimes erratic shot selection. He’s already good enough to be a rookie of the year winner and all-star, but with some refinement and sheltered by the strong collection of defensive players Toronto has assembled, could thrive if a deal would have been reached.

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Was Leonard the better choice?

In Leonard the Raptors got a far more proven, but obviously much older player. Leonard provides much better defence than Ball and elite offence, as he had his best offensive season in 2025-26. They also knew how he’d fit, since he’d already been a Raptor and led the franchise to its only title.

And though it’s a bit concerning to see Leonard go through warmups and then get removed from the lineup this early in the season, it’s not like Ball is an ironman. Leonard’s actually played about half a season more than Ball since 2022-23 (though Ball has played in 18 more than Leonard over the last two seasons).

While a creative point guard would be a massive add, Leonard is a bigger, stronger, more dominant and reliable force.

He was the right choice, even if Sunday made one wonder what Ball would have looked like as a Raptor.

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