Kawhi Leonard has yet to play a game for the Toronto Raptors, but that hasn’t stopped the debate over what the polarizing superstar will elect to do in free agency next summer.

Raptors president Masai Ujiri, who theoretically will have some level of influence in Leonard possibly choosing to re-sign with Toronto next off-season, told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that he plans to sell the 27-year-old forward on who the Raptors are as an organization without making him any fake promises.

"There’s no fake sell job here," Masai said on a recent appearance on Wojnarowski’s podcast ‘The Woj Pod’, when asked how the team will approach Leonard's 2019 free agency. “We are who we are. I think you want to be genuine, you want to be real. We might not be the best ones in weather, but we might be the best ones in many other [categories].

“I think the diversity, the city, the uniqueness of our fans, the atmosphere – I think those things are so unique and it’s beginning to show everywhere that [Toronto] is a little unique. And then you have to put the basketball together. Maybe [in the past] the basketball wasn’t a part of it, but I know there’s a part of [Leonard] that thinks that this team has a chance with his teammates and seeing how hard these guys are working. We have to show who we are really."

Acquiring Leonard from the San Antonio Spurs with just a year remaining on his contract for popular guard DeMar DeRozan, who holds the majority of the Raptors’ franchise on-court statistical records and is signed through the 2020-21 season, was a calculated risk for the franchise.

There have also been numerous reports that Leonard is determined to sign with one of his hometown Los Angeles NBA clubs next summer.

"At some point, you have to put yourself out there, and honestly, there’s no reason to be afraid of that,” Ujiri said of the risk the Raptors took. “…How many chances are we going to get at a player at [Leonard’s] level? That’s what we’re talking about, and we weighed those chances of getting a player that’s the calibre of Leonard and, yes, the risk of injury, the risk of does he want to stay. We have to prepare.

"That’s what we said we were not going to do when we came here five years ago. We’re not going to question ourselves. We’re going to keep trying to rise and we’re going to believe in ourselves. That’s what we’ve told our fans. We’re going to believe in our city, believe in our basketball team, believe in our culture and what we’re trying to do."

Ujiri said he hasn’t seen Leonard work out on the court yet, but described what he has been told so far by the Raptors coaching and medical staffs about the forward as being “unbelievable.” A quad injury limited Leonard to playing just nine games for the Spurs last season.

“From everything I’ve heard, he’s very well,” Ujiri said. “Our medical staff has gone to see him a number of times. They feel comfortable. No verdict has been made, per se, they’re treating it as he feels and as we go, but he’s ramped up his training. … He should be in Toronto soon, and we’ll go from there.”

The Raptors’ recruitment of Leonard, which began the moment they officially acquired him, will ramp up on Sept. 25 when the team opens training camp.