Toronto Raptors: 3 big questions heading into 2019-20

1. Can Toronto repeat?

Things are much different in Toronto than they were when the team won their first title last spring. Leonard and Green are gone. Teams will gameplan for Siakam. Nick Nurse is no longer a precocious first-year coach with a fresh message.

Expectations are lower as the NBA has shifted beneath the Raptors’ feet.

But expectations weren’t particularly high at this time last year either. Worked out just fine for Toronto, thank you very much.

Many pundits think this season could go one of two ways for Toronto:

1. Toronto runs it back and makes there way to at least the Eastern Conference Finals
2. Toronto struggles without Leonard, deals their veterans at the deadline and operates on the fringes of the playoff conversation

The former seems more likely. Leonard may be gone, but Siakam and Anunoby are ready to pick up a good chunk of that production. Nurse has another year under his belt. Lowry, Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka still have something to prove.

Besides, the Raptors have one of the NBA’s best personnel men in Masai Ujiri, who rejected overtures from the Washington Wizards to remain in Toronto. If Toronto is sniffing the postseason, Ujiri will push the right buttons.

Repeating is a tough order. The upper echelon of the Eastern Conference remains strong, with the Brooklyn Nets potentially jumping into the fray if Kevin Durant returns this season.

Any Western Conference team would be favored against any Eastern Conference team in a realistic NBA Finals projection.

Count out Toronto at your own peril, though. In the past decade, the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat and Golden State Warriors have all repeated as champions. Toronto could be next.