TORONTO – A couple days later, the Raptors remain in awe of the mega trade that sent shockwaves around the NBA and throughout professional sports over the weekend.

They aren’t alone, to be sure. It’s not often that you see two all-league talents and future Hall of Famers – including a perennial MVP candidate in his prime – exchanged for one another. But what fascinated Toronto’s primary decision-makers most, even more than the sheer magnitude of the Luka Doncic-for-Anthony Davis swap, was that nobody saw it coming.

For more than a decade, the Masai Ujiri-led front office has prided itself on operating in the shadows. They’re routinely one of the only teams to keep their draft selection under wraps until it’s announced – remember when they stunned the basketball world by making an obscure prospect from Brazil the 20th-overall pick in 2014? They rarely leak information and like to keep their cards close to the chest, so they know how difficult that can be.

In this modern era, with social media, agents, insiders and a 24-hour news cycle, there are almost no secrets. Even before they pulled off the Kawhi Leonard gambit in 2018 there were whispers.

The list of people that knew the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers were cooking up something historic was limited to the parties involved and didn’t even include all the parties involved. Multiple clubs with room under the luxury tax, including the Raptors, received a call to gauge their interest in being the third team in a mysterious trade, according to league sources. The Utah Jazz obliged but all they were told is what they needed to know: they would be absorbing Jalen Hood-Schifino’s contract and getting a couple of middling second-round picks back for their trouble. They had no idea they were helping to facilitate one of the biggest and most shocking trades ever until moments before it went down.

Stealthy game recognizes stealthy game, and the Raptors tipped their proverbial hats in respect as they worked to determine whether they would make any big splashes of their own ahead of this........

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