Kawhi Leonard didn’t need long to remind Toronto why his arrival changes everything.
In his first game back at Scotiabank Arena as a member of the Raptors since 2019, Leonard delivered a sharp introduction in a 135-92 win over the Chicago Bulls. He played 24 minutes and finished with 23 points, six rebounds, four steals, two assists and a block, giving Toronto exactly the kind of two-way snapshot the team has been waiting for as he works his way toward full speed.
The shot chart wasn’t clean. Leonard hit only five of his 17 attempts from the floor. But he was relentless at the line, going 11-for-11 from the charity strike, and the broader point was clear: even without peak rhythm, he still bends a game.
Leonard said after the win that there is no set target for when he’ll be all the way back.
“I don’t have targets (for when he will be up to full speed),” Leonard told reporters after the win. “You can’t rush greatness.
Whenever medical things I can push forward and I’m feeling great, whatever numbers they’re looking at, that’s when the time will come. But I’m just happy to be out there and do the best I can with the minutes I have.”
He also made sure he got a little extra work in once the game was out of reach. Toronto had already built a comfortable cushion entering the fourth quarter, but Leonard asked to return for more run so he could keep getting comfortable in the offense.
“I haven’t gotten a chance to play a lot,” Leonard said, via TSN’s Josh Lewenberg. “I know we were blowing them out, but the goal was to get 23, 24 minutes tonight, and I just needed more reps to learn plays.”
Kawhi on why he asked to go back in the game in the 4th: “I haven’t gotten a chance to play a lot. I know we were blowing them out but the goal was to get 23, 24 minutes tonight and I just needed more reps to learn plays… This is where you get better… You need game reps.” pic.twitter.com/ZXH1pZWYvB
Head coach Darko Rajakovic was happy to see that kind of push from his star. He said Leonard asked for more time after the staff had planned to keep him on the bench.
“I really love the fact there that he asked to play more minutes in the fourth quarter just to get his legs under him,” Rajakovic said.
"We had a plan for him, but he was like, 'Coach, I would like to play a little bit more there,' Rajakovic added So, I mean, the game was kind of at that point a little bit out of the reach, but I wanted just to save him, and he was like, 'No, no, I want to go back.' So I put him back."
For Toronto, that matters. The Raptors need Leonard building chemistry with Scottie Barnes and the rest of the roster, and they need that process to happen while the wins still keep piling up. Leonard has long carried the “16-game player” label more than the “82-game player” one, and the source material makes the point that lack of cohesion can hurt a team before the postseason ever arrives.
There’s also the reality of Leonard’s recent availability. He played 65 games with the Los Angeles Clippers last season while managing knee and ankle issues, and he has reached 65 games or more in a season only five times.
Still, Toronto is in a better position to manage the ramp-up than most teams would be. This is largely the same group that won 46 games last season and pushed the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games in the first round of the playoffs. So while Leonard may need time before he looks fully himself, the Raptors have enough talent and depth to survive the adjustment period.
His return wasn’t a finished product. It was something more useful than that: a sign of what’s coming. Leonard’s scoring and defensive presence give Toronto a layer it didn’t have last season, and if he gets back to the statistical level he showed a year ago, this team could turn into a serious favorite to come out of the East.
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