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Miami Heat Scouting the Enemy: Toronto Raptors

By John Jablonka

Kawhi Leonard #2 of the Toronto Raptors drives to the basket in the fourth quarter against Bam Adebayo #13 (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
Kawhi Leonard #2 of the Toronto Raptors drives to the basket in the fourth quarter against Bam Adebayo #13 (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /
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Marc Gasol #33 of the Toronto Raptors tries to save the ball from going out-of-bounds during the game against the Miami Heat (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Outlook

Although they lost their off-season, their season isn’t over just yet. They obviously don’t appear to be the team that got to the finals last year or even a team that could make the conference finals this season, but they are a team that could surprise everyone.

The team still has the same core that won the championship, and that core did very well at times without Leonard. The Raptors played 22 games without Leonard, winning 17 out of those 22.

It will be their defense that will have to keep them afloat and they have the exact tools to try and do that. Let’s look there.

Marc Gasol may be 34-years-old and he may not be the Defensive Player of the Year that he once was, but he isn’t washed up either. According to BBall-Index.com he had a Defensive Player Impact Plus-Minus of 3.5.

This was tied for third-best across that particular metric. On the other side of the court, he isn’t a liability either. Gasol still managed to average 13.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists on a 56.5 true shooting percentage last season.

He isn’t the only defensive-minded player on the team though. There are at least two more plus defenders on the Raptors’ roster that are worth a mention. These two other stellar defensive players on the current Raptors roster are Stanley Johnson and Serge Ibaka.

They aren’t players that the Raptors can necessarily rely on offensively, but they will give maximum effort on defense. Even Johnson has a DPIPM of 1.2, which ranks him 10th best amongst small forwards.

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