Image via Illustrator/Albert Carbó
All season long the question was: What can the Toronto Raptors be without Kawhi Leonard?
They couldn’t be champions again—we learned that as they were eliminated in seven gut-wrenching games against the Boston Celtics. That was among the bad news. But there was plenty of good, too: Kyle Lowry adding a famous chapter to his playoff resume and OG Anunoby hitting a shot that created a memory Raptors fans will pass down for generations.
As the Los Angeles Lakers celebrate winning the 2020 NBA Championship, there have been other teachings about the Raptors that have emerged in their absence as well. Here are five key lessons we’ve learned about Toronto over the course of the post-season.
Kyle Lowry is a Hall of Famer
If you didn’t know, now you know: Lowry is a Hall of Famer. Lowry almost singlehandedly extended the series against the Celtics to seven games. In Toronto’s three wins, he averaged 28.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 7.0 assists, and 2.0 steals while shooting 42.9 percent from 3-point range.
When the series was on the line as the Raptors stared at an 0-3 deficit, Lowry made the perfect pass to Anunoby from out of bounds to help keep his team alive. Facing elimination in Game 6, Lowry put on a performance for the ages and clinched the game with a spinning fadeaway over Kemba Walker.
What was special about this playoff run for Lowry is that it finally seemed like many of his past doubters finally saw the light and gave him his due. Praise was thrown at him from all angles and, fair or unfair, that public acknowledgment of a player’s greatness helps with making the Hall of Fame down the line. From Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley to current players like Joel Embiid and JJ Redick, this seemed the first time Lowry gained worldwide respect.
And as if what he did on the court wasn’t enough, when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver addressed the media before the Finals began, he highlighted Lowry’s contributions to making the NBA Bubble in Orlando a possibility.
Pascal Siakam isn’t ready to be The Man… yet
While Lowry got plenty of love, Pascal Siakam seemed to receive all the hate—to the extent that team president Masai Ujiri even called out those who crossed the line with racial insults.
Siakam was bad, no doubt, and it’s fair to say there’s a significant gap between the level of his current game and that of a truly elite offensive option. But, it was also quite clear that he was so unrecognizable over the course of all the games in the Orlando Bubble that one can’t help but feel the COVID-19 stoppage had a significant impact on him. He went two months without playing basketball and had visa issues trying to get out of Canada to the United States to try and play.
The good news is he has shown an incredible work ethic since being drafted 27th in 2016 to go from the G League to becoming an All-Star and has already been seen working with development expert Rico Hines to right the wrongs of the Bubble and perhaps be closer to the level of being The Man next season.
Kawhi made the wrong basketball choice
Watching the L.A. Clippers completely capitulate against the Denver Nuggets (shoutout Canada’s very own Jamal Murray!) left us with the logical conclusion many believed right from the very beginning: Kawhi Leonard walked away from a dynasty in Toronto.
Yes, family was a big reason why he chose to leave the Raptors immediately after winning a championship and Finals MVP and it will always be a perfectly valid reason, but with the way things played out, one can’t help but wonder if Leonard realizes he took what he had in Toronto for granted.
The Clippers had chemistry issues all season, Paul George struggled to be the Robin to Leonard’s Batman, and Doc Rivers made his share of questionable decisions that contributed to their playoff exit and ultimately cost him his job. Meanwhile in Toronto, Leonard had great veteran leaders in Lowry, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, and Danny Green, while even the younger players Siakam, Fred VanVleet, and Norman Powell showed their toughness when needed most. Siakam was clearly capable of the Robin role and in Nick Nurse, Leonard had a coach who was incredibly creative and consistently problem solved effectively enough to win a championship despite trailing in each of the first three series they played.
Leonard threw all of that away, and now his brief reign at the top of the NBA heap is over. All season, people worried about what the Raptors would be without him, not stopping once to think what he’d be without them.
LeBron’s Lakers vs. Kawhi’s Raptors would have brought all the flames
On that note, it’s hard not to think about what could have been. Just imagine the hype if Leonard was still with the Raptors this season, playing in the Finals against James and the Lakers.
First off, there's the matchup itself between arguably the two best players in the game right now. Leonard and James famously have met twice in the post-season previously, when the Heat played the San Antonio Spurs in both the 2013 and 2014 Finals. Those series ended with one championship and one Finals MVP for each player, and Round 3 after a five-year wait would have had NBA fans across the globe licking their lips.
Then there would have also been the chance for the Raptors to exact some measure of revenge for all those LeBronto moments. For three straight years—2016, 2017, 2018—James ended Toronto’s playoff hopes and did so in embarrassing fashion. When the series was tied 2-2 in 2016, he said it wasn’t an "adverse situation"; there was a time he fake sipped beer, and another where he went through an assortment of moves that progressively crushed the soul of the Raptors. Who can forget the game winner he hit over Anunoby?
It all led to Ujiri reaching his limit in trusting Dwane Casey with the head coaching duties and DeMar DeRozan as the primary scorer. A title helped heal plenty of the pain Raptors fans felt at the hands of LeBron, but the chance to beat The King himself in the Finals? That would have exorcised every remaining demon.
The Raptors were a leader in the fight for social justice
Right from the very beginning when they rode double-decker buses from Naples to Orlando with "Black Lives Matter" painted across the side, the Raptors set the tone for where they stood in the fight against racial injustice.
Beginning with VanVleet and Powell and trickling all the way down the player list, everyone made sure their voice counted when they had the platform to speak. Before the Milwaukee Bucks refused to step on the court to strike in light of the shooting of Jacob Blake, the Raptors already discussed striking in unison with the Celtics ahead of their playoff series.
Nurse was a supporter of his players throughout and has created action through programs to help Americans living abroad to vote and understand the importance of the upcoming election. Ujiri has and continues his own personal fight against racial injustice with the ongoing case against Alameda County sherriff’s deputy Alan Strickland, but has also expressed his desire to ensure local Canadian issues are brought to light even with the Raptors done playing basketball.
It is still unknown when fans will finally be allowed back in arenas to cheer on their respective teams, but whenever they do, they’ll be back knowing there’s much more to be proud of than just what they accomplish on the court.