5 reasons the Toronto Raptors may actually be better without Kawhi Leonard
By Nate Friesen
3. More team ball, less Kawhi ball
Last season it seemed as though there were two different Toronto Raptors teams, the iso-heavy team with Kawhi Leonard in the lineup and the free-flowing team with Kawhi out of the lineup. And the Raptors proved that they really didn’t need Kawhi in the lineup to win, going 17-5 without him. That trend proved to be a reality as the Raptors have had continued success this season without Kawhi.
The Raptors offense without Kawhi Leonard is just so much smoother. The ball moves around freely and rarely gets stopped for isolations. While the statistics for both Raptors teams, according to NBA.com, are similar in terms of both assists per game, 25.4 last year and 25.6 this year, and isolations per game, 7.7 last year and 6.9 this year, it just seems as though things are more evenly spread.
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Last season, Kawhi Leonard averaged 3.3 of the Raptors 7.7 isolations per game and this season Pascal Siakam is averaging 4.2 of the Raptors 6.9 isolations per game. This stat seems crazy to me because watching the games it doesn’t seem accurate.
However, just by watching the game I feel that the reason why it seems a lot more when Kawhi Leonard isolates is that he takes a lot longer. When Kawhi isolates, he takes a lot more dribbles and sizes up his opponent.
When Siakam isolates, he usually takes one or two hard dribbles towards the basket and either shoots or kicks. This is just my observation from watching the games, but I feel like this is the reason it seems the Toronto Raptors are a more cohesive offense this season.