The Toronto Raptors have been incredible this season. It begs the question, are they better without Kawhi Leonard? I’ll outline why the answer is yes.
The Toronto Raptors are having one of their best regular seasons in franchise history which is saying a lot considering they’re coming off a 58-win season that culminated with a championship. But the Raptors have been dominating teams all season long. This can be seen through their franchise-record 15-game win streak earlier this month.
According to FiveThirtyEight, the Raptors are projected to finish this season at 57-25 which would have them firmly in the second seed in the East heading into the playoffs. So far this season the Raptors have shown no signs of missing Kawhi Leonard, however, that doesn’t mean they’re better or even just as good without him… or does it?
This Toronto Raptors team seems as though they have improved in a lot of areas this season, most notably on defense, and haven’t seemed to drop off significantly in any areas at all. This is quite surprising because most teams, if they lose a top-five player in the league, would see at least some regression on at least one or both sides of the ball.
This is what makes this Raptors team somewhat of an anomaly. If you look at other teams who lost generational stars and got nothing in return, most notably the Cleveland Cavaliers after they lost LeBron James, they are usually much worse the next season. But not this Raptors team, if anything, they may even be better.
Here are five reasons why the Toronto Raptors are BETTER without Kawhi Leonard.