Raptors Get Multiple Updates... Kyrie Rumours Escalating Once Again

The Raptors beat the Bulls by 43 points on opening night, and since that moment, 24 hours later, the news around this squad has gotten a bit crazy. The Kyrie Irving trade rumors are back, and the Toronto Raptors are once again being named out there in all of this discourse. Kawhi Leonard made a video for the fans, and he told us exactly why he did it. Josh Giddey uncovered an injury after facing off against the buzzsaw that is the Toronto Raptors defense, excusing him for all the turnovers he had last night. And on top of it, a former Toronto Raptor that I am really rooting for had a big game yesterday. So in this video, we'll cover five new stories regarding the Toronto Raptors as they all end up circling around one specific thing. The Toronto Raptors are back right now and everybody is watching this team. And there's one more thing for Friday that I will save for last, but let's start with the rumor that's going around regarding Kyrie Irving. Obviously, Kyrie Irving has been a huge topic of discussion over the past couple of months. And yesterday, an account called The Basketball Ground posted that the Heat, the Rockets, and Raptors are reportedly monitoring Kyrie Irving's situation and could make offers if he decides to join a contending team. Now, that account has 481,000 followers. It's an aggregator account, not an official reporter, but it's something that a lot of Raptors fans are running with right now. Here's what the reporters are saying about the situation, as Mike Scotto of HoopsHype said that SiriusXM that a lot of playoff caliber teams will be monitoring Kyrie Irving throughout the season, and he didn't name any names specifically. And over the summer, outlets like Bleacher Report pitched trades, sending Jacoby Walter, Immanuel Quickley, and a first round pick to Dallas in return for Kyrie Irving. Those are different ideas, not specific reports, but that's why it feels like it's escalating once again, especially after game one of the season. Kyrie right now he is healthy Kyrie tore his ACL on March 3rd in 2025 and last night 597 days later he played his first game back and had 15 points on six of nine shooting in just 24 minutes of action in a game where the Dallas Mavericks lost 128 to 110 to the Houston Rockets and before the injury he was still Kyrie in the 24-25 season he averaged 24.7 points per game and shot 41.1 percent from 3. And that was a year that the Dallas Mavericks were coming off of a finals appearance. For the Raptors, this is the one thing that this roster currently doesn't have. Kyrie is a guard that can get his own shot, pull off a really good look in the last five minutes of a close game. He's a creator. He's a scorer. He would complement a lot of players on this team very well. And that's why his name keeps circling back to this Raptors squad. And here's the part that makes Raptors fans look twice. We brought this up a lot in recent weeks. I feel like we're half of Dallas Mavericks channel right now, but Masai Ujiri is running the show out there down in Dallas, who of course was the previous president of this Raptors team. But now onto the math, because this is where it gets real. Kyrie Irving makes $39.5 million this season with a $42.4 million option next year. Mavericks gave him a three-year deal and genuinely believe in him out there on the roster. But given the construction, given everything that's fallen apart since the Luka Doncic trade, yes, they do have Cooper Flagg, so that should be brought up, but the timelines aren't really matching down there in Dallas right now. And the Toronto Raptors are hard capped at the first apron and they're about $960,000 under it. So to take on Kyrie Irving's salary, they'd have to send out at least $38.5 million. So assuming we want to keep RJ Barrett, that's the type of package that will acquire Emmanuel quickly, a guy like Jacoby Walter, as well as Kyle Anderson in order to make the money work. That package for Kyrie Irving straight up clears us by just $230,000. So the green flag is that Kyrie Irving's back, you know, had 15 points in his debut, but obviously picking up a guy that's dealt with an injury for that long was out that long of time, given his age and injury history in his own right, that is a big risk for the Toronto Raptors to give up some legitimate assets for it. I know it's one game, but especially with how well Emmanuel quickly played on the opening night, how would you feel about sending a package around him and one of our young guys? Because Jacoby Walter is another player that I have zero desire in just throwing into a trade here right now. Of course, for Kyrie Irving, you do have to give up legitimate assets, but it is a significant risk. But sometimes these are the moves people pitch when you're trying to win right now. So I want to know in the comment section right now, would you want to see the Toronto Raptors make this trade? type why in the comment section for yes type n for no and let me know why my take is very good of a fit as Kyrie Irving would be I'm not sold his injuries are going to hold up and we have so many guys with injury risks and risks on them on the roster right now that we need to if we're trading for a star if we're doing a blockbuster move we need someone we can stand on to you know go out there and play as close to 82 games as possible of course unless you're getting a superstar for the right price but who knows if Dallas is losing by February and Kyrie is looking amazing we will see how things turn around but next we're diving into Kawhi Leonard's message on Tuesday the day before the opener Kawhi Leonard posted a video essay to Raptors fans on his own social media and ran footage from the 2019 championship run and the message was simple time moves on but some memories last and he talked about how young this roster is and them having a real chance now Kawhi is pretty to himself he has a pretty introverted personality so it was a bit of a surprise to see him come out and make this video and when asked about it following game one of the regular season he said he just wants to give respect to the fans show them that he does care about this season and that he's going to be doing things on and off the floor for a guy that's always let his game do the talking this means a lot this means a lot to the fan base that he is showing he wants to be here to Toronto he wants to come back and represent this city give back to the fan base and he's fully committed pot in to building up his legacy building up this organization and being one of the faces and one of the Toronto Raptors greats because we know what he's going to do out there on the basketball court right in game one he had 23 points, 6 rebounds, four steals, zero turnovers in 24 minutes went 11 of 11 from the free throw line of course the efficiency was a little bit down out there from the field but even in an off night for Kawhi he put up a remarkable stat line like that that we broke down in the post game was uh you know only done before once by John Stockton or twice by John Stockton start and the team around him made it the biggest win in opening night in Toronto Raptors history and as we touched on yesterday Kawhi Leonard asked to go back into the game when it was a blowout when the Raptors had this game surely in hand and it's just a testament to how much this guy actually cares getting back in his rhythm getting back in the swing of things and just being that superstar player that the Raptors really fell in love with this guy for back in 2019 and he had one line that really stuck with me he came out and said that i'm just going to go out there play hard try to have some fun out there and try to make the city proud you can tell this return genuinely means something to Kawhi, there are some people that are jaded saying oh he's trying to rehab his reputation for because of the investigation all these different things i don't know man this guy feels like he is trying to build up his legacy build something here and of course he had his reasons his personal reasons for going back to california leaving toronto the first time and some people choose to believe them or not i believe the man if he wants to go be close to his family but he genuinely built a connection here with the fan base and is trying to re-ingratiate himself with this fan and I absolutely love it especially a guy with that level of talent that's coming up here and doing his thing next we're talking about a piece of news that I genuinely found very very funny and it's Josh Giddey not because he's injured because news came out or he came out and said he has a wrist injury but it's specifically the timing and how people are trying to spin this Josh Giddey last night had two points one of ten shooting from the field, shot 0 of 4 from the 3 point line and had 5 turnovers and a minus 39 in 24 minutes of action. This is not some scrub. Josh Giddey last season averaged 17, 8 and 9 and was a guy on the bulls that they pay him $25 million a year now through 2028-2029 season. But it's the fact that after the game, Josh Giddey came out and told reporters he hurt his left wrist out there in the preseason and that is something he's going to have to manage throughout the regular season and asked if it was a tissue injury he deferred to the medical team but he's coming out and dropping that immediately post game after the Toronto Raptors just put on one of the most incredible defensive performances of all time no it wasn't the Raptors defense no it wasn't anything like that my wrist is hurt my wrist is injured I had to come out and this is why I'm bad I don't know man I'm sure he's not lying like without a doubt I'm sure there's a legitimate wrist injury there I wish him a speedy recovery I'm not trying to downplay an actual injury but coming out after you lose by 43 points you have an abysmal performance and we don't really hear much talk of this coming into the game I'll leave it at at the the self-description it is something that's a little bit corny in my opinion but let me know what you guys think in the comment section down below next we have a feel-good story for Toronto Raptors fans as a guy that a lot of people fell in love with when he was drafted a few seasons ago obviously not on the team right now but Grady Dick had a pretty nice performance out there in his debut for the Los Angeles Clippers. Of course, Grady was traded to the Clippers in the Kawhi Leonard deal. Him and Brandon Ingram, along with a bunch of picks, were sent out, and now he's in Los Angeles in a team that doesn't have a lot of high hopes for the future after they were stripped of all their draft picks, lost Kawhi Leonard, and are in a decently, you know, a pretty tough situation. But last night, his first regular season game as a Clipper, he had 12 points on 3 of 4 shooting, shot 5-6 from the line, had 4 rebounds, and a block out there in 19 minutes in the Clippers' 121-96 win over the Sacramento Kings. Again, he showed a ton of promise early on in his Raptors career, but of course, last season, only averaged 6 points per game and lost his spot to Jacoby Walter as he just shot 30% from the 3-point line. But I'm happy to see Grady Dick take advantage of his new opportunities out there in LA. I'm genuinely wishing the best for him out there in his new destination with no contract extension right now he is playing for his next roster spot and I hope he earns himself a bag down there in LA and finally the Toronto Raptors face off against the Washington Wizards tomorrow Friday and we have some new injury reports that just came out today news has come out that the Wizards will be without number one pick AJ DeBansa in this outing as he ended up injuring his left ankle during the preseason finale and has been ruled out. DeBansa was the number one pick in June out of BYU, so the Raptors missed the rookie everyone wanted to see at least this one time. But don't sleep on the Wizards this year, as without him, Washington beat the Milwaukee Bucks 128-116 in their opener, and Anthony Davis looks like he's back at 34 points, 12 rebounds, and Trae Young put in 20 and 13 assists. So it should be a very, very exciting game. So that's the rundown. Kyrie Irving, we have those trade rumors popping back up Kawhi Leonard he is embracing this time in his NBA career embracing his time back in the city of Toronto we have Josh Giddey bringing up his wrist injury Grady Dick coming out performing well out there in his debut and a look ahead to this Raptors team Raptors game against the Washington Wizards but one thing is clear this Raptors team is a wagon right now everyone's excited about what's going on with this squad and I don't want you to miss a single thing so make sure you hit that subscribe button and if you're joined all the content and more moves the Raptors could be making very, very soon. Check out this video right here as the Raptors are linked to Dalton Knecht and a couple more guys out there in the latest reports.