Toronto Raptors: 3 bold predictions for 2018-19 NBA season

3. Toronto will rank top five in both PPG and opponent PPG

The Raptors were already one of the best two-way teams in the league this past season, scoring the fourth most points per game while holding opponents to the sixth-lowest per game total.

Following the deal that netted both Leonard and 3-and-D stud Danny Green, Toronto has improved tremendously on both sides of the basketball.

During his last full season, Kawhi averaged a career-best 25.5 points a night — shooting 3-pointers as well —  while imposing the same will on the defensive end that netted him consecutive Defensive Player of the Year awards in 2015 and 2016.

In contrast, Green is a career 39.5 percent outside shooter, whose length and San Antonio Spurs pedigree gives him the ability to stick to even the toughest of opposing guards.

With both these players on a team that already proved itself as one of the elites in the league at both ends, Toronto won’t see massive improvements, but it will see enough to establish the team in a exclusive group reserved only for the NBA’s elite.