Armed with new personnel and a rookie head coach, the Toronto Raptors have put the NBA on notice with their 4-0 start to the season.
Sports Illustrated and NBA.com had the Raptors at the top of their latest Power Rankings while ESPN slotted Toronto in the No. 2 spot behind only the mighty Golden State Warriors.
Bolstered by the arrival of Kawhi Leonard, the new-look Raptors are getting plenty of recognition out of the gates. Here’s a sampling of what the United States media is saying about Canada’s team.
Windhorst: “I think Toronto has the opportunity to do something special because I think they have quietly built a team that is kind of like Rockets North.”
MacMullan: “For sure.”
Windhorst:”Because the Rockets are a team that was designed to kill the Warriors, and unlike the Rockets, the Raptors have essentially done it. They have a team full of wings, they have a savvy point guard, and they have a coach who was raised by the Rockets who just wants to shoot 3s and layups.”
MacMullan: “And you know what else? Kyle Lowry, wait until you see how things improve for him with Kawhi Leonard on the floor. We can’t possibly overstate this. I think Lowry has a chance to become again, which I think he’s shown he can be in the past, a catch-and-shoot player. I think he’s going to have a big year. I really do.”
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It Didn’t Take Long for Kawhi Leonard to Display His Superstar Pedigree — Sports Illustrated
The team has always been good enough to be in conversations about May and June, but there was never one player who was great enough to capture imaginations in the meantime. In some ways, debating the ceiling was inevitable. It was the most interesting conversation anyone could have about the Raptors.
After that Boston game, there are reasons to believe in this year’s Toronto team as legit Finals contenders—Danny Green looks fantastic, Kyle Lowry is playing out of his mind, Fred VanVleet remains a truly elite role player, and with a collection of rangy athletes like Green and OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam, Nick Nurse has weapons to harass anyone his team faces in the playoffs. There are also reasons to be cautious—Lowry’s playoff history isn’t great, Siakam and OG remain a work in progress on offense, and the best big man on the roster is Serge Ibaka, who will be a wild card all year long. Ibaka looked great against Boston, but trusting him in the postseason will be its own adventure. Also, the Celtics should be much better in May.
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The Raptors Finally Look Like a Complete Contender — The Ringer
The starting quartet of Lowry, Leonard, Green, and Siakam has outscored opponents by 35 points in 52 minutes so far, and has recorded a positive plus-minus with either Ibaka or Valanciunas (two starts apiece) at center. The additions of Leonard and Green alongside Siakam, Anunoby, and hard-nosed fire hydrants Lowry and VanVleet means that virtually any combination of perimeter players Nurse picks can dribble, pass, shoot, and D up. There are very few glaring holes to be poked at and prodded; this is as complete a team as there is in the NBA…
It’s been true in the past, but it looks like it’s true again: This is the best Raptors team in franchise history, and if Leonard’s going to look like this all season, Toronto is absolutely a championship contender. Toronto’s demons will be there until it exorcises them, but the Raptors have everything they need to do it.
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Raptors, Spurs can both claim trade victory — Associated Press
This could have gone bad for both clubs. If Leonard wasn’t healthy or wasn’t back to at least close to his former self, Masai Ujiri would be hearing it in Toronto. If DeRozan hadn’t snapped out of his post-trade funk — he acknowledged that he wasn’t happy how things went down, though never badmouthed the Spurs organization — then San Antonio would have been in a very unfamiliar place.
Thing is, this deal was destined to work from a personality sense.
The Spurs love guys who talk on the floor and say very little off the court — Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, David Robinson, Tony Parker, LaMarcus Aldridge, Popovich, even Leonard. DeRozan didn’t exactly need training on that front; he’s always leaned toward the quiet side.
Leonard hasn’t gone loquacious now that he’s in Toronto, but he brings something they needed — besides super-elite talent on the court. The Raptors have long embraced the ‘nobody respects us’ approach, bristling over the years about things as silly as Chris Bosh saying the city didn’t have great cable TV and media members complaining about how bitterly cold it was there for All-Star weekend in 2016.
This season for the Raptors is about winning, and winning over Leonard. They need him to stay and not depart as a free agent for this to truly have worked out. This is their chance, once and for all, to prove that top players will think about going to Toronto instead of escaping Toronto.
