Kawhi Leonard joins Celtics in Atlantic Division

The All-NBA forward, who asked to be traded by the San Antonio Spurs last month, has landed with the Toronto Raptors in a four-player deal that was finalized on Wednesday.

They were listed among the favorites to acquire Kawhi Leonard once he asked the San Antonio Spurs for a trade in mid-June.

The Celtics had young, talented players plus appealing future draft picks to offer if they wanted to make a run at the All-NBA forward who had grown disgruntled in Texas.

But right from the start, it was pretty obvious that the Celtics were not going to give up someone like Jaylen Brown as part of a package to get Leonard, who was probably only going to be around for one season.

“If I feel like it’ll help our team, we explore every trade of players of certain magnitude, superstar, first-ballot Hall of Fame-type of players,’’ president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said on June 29. “We’re going to take a look and kick the tires and see if there’s something there.

“But that’s all. I think those things (a major trade) are unlikely.’’

So the Celtics stood pat as expected, comfortable with entering the 2018-19 season with a starting lineup of Brown, Jayson Tatum plus All-Stars Kyrie Irving, Al Horford and Gordon Hayward.

After what happened on Wednesday, though, they will be seeing a lot more of Leonard, who will be joining the Celtics in the Atlantic Division.

The Toronto Raptors, who had the best record in the Eastern Conference last season and then fired coach Dwane Casey, traded for Leonard and Danny Green in exchange for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poltl and a first-round draft pick.

Just when the Eastern Conference needed a boost of talent, it came in the form of Leonard, a two-time All-NBA first team selection, the defensive player of the year in 2015 and 2016, and the NBA Finals most valuable player four years ago.

Provided Leonard is healthy – he appeared in just nine games with the Spurs last season due to a quadriceps issue – the Raptors have upgraded their team for the 2018-19 season by adding one of the game’s top players and will be no pushover for the Celtics.

But the question of whether the trade helps the Raptors in the long term remains to be seen.

Not long after the trade was made Wednesday, there were reports that Leonard is not interested in staying in Toronto, which means he could leave as early as next summer thanks to an opt-out clause in his contract.

Leonard, a native of southern California, seems destined for a spot alongside LeBron James with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Raptors are taking a gamble, hoping that Leonard will like playing in Canada and committing past this coming season.

Or they could trade him to Los Angeles before the deadline next February and receive some of the Lakers’ young talent back in exchange and take their chances in free agency in 2019.

One of the Raptors’ strengths last season was depth, and that will remain unchanged. Leonard gives them more defense and frontcourt versatility.

The Raptors won 59 games and finished four games ahead of the Celtics, who had Hayward for only six minutes on opening night while Irving played just 60 games.

The Celtics are the favorites to win the East next season thanks to the return of those two players plus the development of Tatum and Brown.

Following the Leonard trade, the Celtics were still the top pick in Las Vegas to make it to the NBA Finals from their conference with the Philadelphia 76ers next and the Raptors a distant third.

The Sixers were hoping to somehow find a way to get Leonard onto their young roster, but with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons off limits, the Spurs weren’t interested in making a deal with them.

So it is the Raptors who are taking a chance with Leonard, sending away the popular DeRozan, who signed a long-term contract to stay in Canada.

Leonard and the Spurs had a rough final season together and now he is gone to north of the border.

The Celtics took a hands-off approach, deciding it wasn’t worth the risk to pay a high price for someone who might be out of Boston at this time next summer.

All has been quiet for the Celtics this summer with the final piece of the puzzle being to get restricted free agent Marcus Smart signed.

After he received no offers on the market, there were reports Wednesday that Ainge and Smart’s representatives have started talking about a four-year deal that could pay him roughly $12 million annually.

That would put the Celtics over the luxury tax but also keep a key piece of their winning formula intact.

With Leonard now in their division, the Celtics can use all the help they can get to make sure he doesn’t make a major difference in the 2018-19 season.