After trading DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, the Toronto Raptors won their first championship as a franchise in 2019
DeRozan feels they would have won even without the trade.
On ESPN's First Take, DeRozan praised the team but feels their fortunes would have remained unchanged if he had stayed.
Never dismiss those folks. They won. They deserved it. I had finally reached a point where I felt happy for them. But for sure. "I definitely feel like that," DeRozan admitted.
DeRozan then described what the Raptors' main difficulty was before they won the title.
The only one we couldn't beat was LeBron. That's exactly what it was. I felt off the previous year; all we needed was one more element to drive us over the top.
That item ended up being LeBron heading to the West, and I didn't get to witness what transpired.
But I am really confidence in myself, and I have no doubt that the same thing would have occurred."
From 2016 to 2018, the Raptors suffered three consecutive losses to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Toronto consummated the transaction with the San Antonio Spurs after James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers the following offseason.