Warriors: How do the New Look Raptors Match Up with Golden State?
By Andrew Ites
The Warriors may have a new challenge in the Eastern Conference after the Raptors made a blockbuster trade for Kawhi Leonard.
The Warriors have faced LeBron James and the Cavaliers in each of the last four NBA Finals.
The fifth edition of that Finals matchup will not happen this season after LeBron’s move to the Lakers in free agency.
With LeBron in the Western Conference, the Celtics and Sixers looked to be the new favorites in the Eastern Conference with the Raptors not far behind.
The 12,000-pound elephant in the room is the health of Kawhi.
He missed nearly the entire 2017-18 season with a quad injury that may have a debilitating effect on his health in the future.
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Leonard doesn’t have a sterling health history before the quad injury. He’s never played more than 74 games in a season, and he’s only played more than 70 games in two of his seven NBA seasons.
But for the sake of this exercise, let’s assume that Kawhi is healthy enough to become an All-NBA player again next season.
If Leonard is healthy, as we’re assuming in this hypothetical, he is probably the best player in the Eastern Conference. In Toronto, he will be playing alongside another All-Star in Kyle Lowry.
The rest of the Raptors’ guard/forward rotation includes Fred VanVleet, Delon Wright, O.G. Anunoby, C.J. Miles, Norman Powell, and the newly-acquired Danny Green.
That group of players are all solid defensively, and Toronto can create a lot of different lineups that can switch everything and play small ball with nearly any team in the league.
Raptors big men Serge Ibaka and Pascal Siakam also have the ability switch, which is essential in defending the Warriors.
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A healthy Kawhi Leonard is maybe the only player in the league that can defend Kevin Durant one-on-one. The Raptors also have a solid amount of defensive guards to chase Steph Curry around, and the team’s switchability could emulate the Rockets’ scheme that slowed down Golden State in the playoffs.
The x-factor in a potential Raptors-Warriors Finals matchup would be DeMarcus Cousins, who could single-handedly destroy a switchy defense that Toronto is building. If healthy, the addition of Boogie could make the Warriors unguardable even against a Raptors team with a ton of defensive talent.
On the other side of the floor, Toronto probably doesn’t have the firepower to score enough points to really push Golden State.
A healthy Kawhi is one of the best iso scorers in the league, but the Raptors don’t have a ton of offensive talent around him.
Kyle Lowry is still an All-Star caliber player, but he’s 32 years old and should continue to regress as he ages.
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Jonas Valanciunas and Fred VanVleet are both solid offensive players to play alongside Kawhi and Lowry. However, neither of them would strike fear in the hearts of the Warriors.
While the new-look Raptors match up with the Warriors better than nearly any team in the league on the defensive end, their lack of a supporting cast on offense would be their demise in a potential Finals matchup.