NBA: Ranking every team’s best player in 2019-20

The Toronto Raptors are rightfully riding the wave of success, entering a season where the expectations are muted after losing their best player in Kawhi Leonard. The franchise is quickly approaching a pivot point, where they will decide whether to retool and stay competitive or move their veterans and build around their young star.

This was a team that wasn’t supposed to have a young star, not with so many consecutive years picking in the back third of the NBA Draft. Yet what they have done is put together a core-within-a-core, a young group of players gathered with minimal draft capital.

Without undrafted free agent point guard Fred Van Vleet the Raptors don’t win the title last year. OG Anunoby has stopper-upside on the wing. Pascal Siakam, most importantly, could be an All-NBA player as early as this season.

The question for the Raptors and the league is whether Siakam can be “the guy” instead of thriving in the presence of Kawhi Leonard. Siakam has the physical tools to be a two-way force, and during last year’s postseason run he was frequently the team’s best player in between flurries of Leonard imposing his will.

The Raptors have so many options for the future because they have a replacement for Leonard, something most teams that lose top-10 players cannot claim.

Looking ahead: There probably is not a scenario, barring injury, where Siakam is not on this list in a year. Kyle Lowry and Marc Gasol are great players, but well on the wrong side of the aging curve and may not be on the team after this season. None of the team’s young players have star-level upside either. This is now Siakam’s team.