Toronto Raptors: 2018-19 NBA season preview

Best-case scenario

Fueled by the events that took place last season, Leonard leads this team to the NBA Finals.

With this core, Toronto can definitely compete with teams like the Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers, who all are gunning for that Eastern Conference throne previously held by a certain kid from Akron. Naysayers will say that the Celtics are just too stacked, and that just might be too true. After all, they did manage to reach the Eastern Conference Finals without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. With those two healthy. that Boston team will be scary.

On the other hand are the Sixers, who are now hungry for revenge after the former took them out in five games last season. The great young duo of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons ought to perform better this time around in the playoffs, and we all know that J.J. Redick can heat up from 3-point land at any given period.

However, the one edge the Raptors do have over both these teams is their bench. Last year, Toronto’s bench unit consisting of Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet, C.J. Miles, Pascal Siakam and the now-gone Jakob Poeltl put up the best offensive and defensive net rating of all bench units who played at least 100 minutes together. As mentioned before, if Pascal Siakam does indeed make the jump, the Raptors’ bench can be very scary this year.

Anyway you split it, the addition of Leonard on its own already has the team in championship conversation. Sure, they might not beat a team of five All-Stars, but if this happens, Kawhi will definitely stay in town next summer.

Worst-case scenario

The worst-case scenario is the Raptors flop yet again in the postseason and Kawhi leaves Toronto.

At first glance, this sure does sound bad. Losing the presumed franchise cornerstone will hurt any team, but this was a risk Masai Ujiri was willing to take when he traded for him. The thing is, if this does happen, the Raptors can always rebuild.

This will definitely mean the exodus of all the other key pieces in the next year, including Jonas Valanciunas, Danny Green and C.J. Miles. In fact, even a Kyle Lowry trade could possibly be in the books. By doing this, the only cap-hurting contract they’ll have will be Serge Ibaka’s, and they’ll have tons of money to play around with next year.

In short, this means that a full-on rebuild will ensue. Ujiri, after all, did this trade with the expectation that they won’t be forced to do such a thing. However, it may be necessary if Kawhi leaves next summer.