The last time Kawhi Leonard pulled on a Raptors uniform during NBA Finals play was Game 5 of the 2018–19 series. Wide-ranging debate persists over whether any other stretch of play in the franchise's history — one that entered the NBA back in 1995 — has matched what unfolded during that Raptors post-season run.

Toronto's victory in Game 6 at Oakland brought the Raptors their first championship while simultaneously handing Durant and the Warriors a third consecutive title bid that fell short, with the result also drawing the curtain on Oracle Arena as the franchise's home before the move across the bay to San Francisco took effect.

Both franchises have shifted considerably from their former selves, though Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and head coach Steve Kerr still stand as the Warriors' most direct connections to that championship-winning period. From Toronto, Leonard moved on to the Los Angeles Clippers after just one season with the Raptors, and his tenure with the L.A. franchise was ultimately overshadowed by a league investigation into salary-cap violations that placed lasting restrictions on the organization.

Since Golden State's run of titles concluded, no NBA team has managed to win back-to-back championships — a stretch of parity that some observers trace back to Toronto's victory. Clubs that exceed the designated salary threshold now face financial penalties under the revised rules, a structure the league designed with the goal of giving all franchises a more level footing when assembling their rosters.

With a Tuesday home pre-season date against the Raptors on the schedule, New York's front office faces a roster puzzle — namely, how to hold together the core players the team has built around as a group with championship ambitions. New York Knicks ownership has opted to stay below the second apron threshold, a tax territory that only the Denver Nuggets have ventured into among all NBA franchises.

Robinson's departure to Boston left the Knicks without a key frontcourt piece, though the team has been viewed as a title contender heading into the current campaign. Of all the players set to come back, Robinson was the one absent from the returning group.

Toronto's front office is said to be working toward bringing Leonard back to the franchise, roughly eight years after he helped the Raptors claim a title. After sitting out the club's previous two preseason outings — a matchup against the Miami Heat in Quebec City and another against the Clippers in Vancouver — he is anticipated to log minutes on Tuesday.

Pre-game introductions stand as the point where audience response toward Leonard is expected to peak. That four-bounce shot at the buzzer, delivered against Philadelphia in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinal, stands as a moment Toronto sports fans have pointed to ever since as a defining fixture in the city's athletic history.

Speculation that Leonard would skip his arrival in Toronto circulated widely after the deal sending him away from the San Antonio Spurs was finalised. Conversations around player workload management picked up notably across that stretch of the campaign. A contract extension keeping Leonard with the Raptors was put in place shortly afterward.

How many minutes Leonard takes the floor Tuesday depends largely on where his physical condition stands. For Leonard, the evening carried added weight — the Clippers had recently been handed a $700,000 penalty by the league following its inquiry into the organisation, and that backdrop lent a sense of resolution to the occasion.

Moving into a fresh chapter, the Raptors face a stretch where Leonard's availability, the trajectory of younger contributors like Collin Murray-Boyles as he builds on his first NBA season, and the degree to which Scottie Barnes raises his game following a seven-game first-round playoff meeting with the Cleveland Cavaliers will all shape what comes next.

Two back-to-back road contests will close out Toronto's pre-season schedule, starting Thursday night in New York against the Knicks and wrapping up with a visit to Detroit to face the Pistons. Toronto's regular-season schedule gets underway on October 21, when the Raptors host the Chicago Bulls at home. During Leonard's earlier tenure, the Raptors carried more depth and balance across their roster than the current group does, yet none of those players stood out as a clear match for Barnes in terms of individual ability.