>This is a win/win either way for the Raps. If this fails and
>Kawhi never reclaims his glory (in Toronto at least), then you
>move him for assets. You have a Bench Mob young core that are
>coming into their own and you build on that. Alternatively, IF
>the raps had gone status quo with the same team, their tv
>ratings for the regular season would have sucked, cause again,
>everyone would be saying "thats nice. make it to ECF or
>Finals, then ill be interested". Then if they fail again in
>the playoffs, Masai has to offload Kyle & DeMar next
>offseason. SO WHY WASTE THIS SEASON. Now we might be an east
>favourite, maybe Kawhi ends up carrying us to an ECF/Finals ,
>loves the city and fans and decides he's happy here.
>
>Win/win.

It's obviously less than ideal for the top three reasons if Kawhi never settles in/never works for Toronto/never plays, but even if that happens, (a) the rebuild was coming, and (b) you could say you tried *something.* Best case scenario, you convince a Finals MVP to stay and help run the East.