Toronto Raptors: Whose stock is rising/falling after week one

Kawhi Leonard

This is an easy place to start. Is anyone out there questioning the health of Leonard now?

Kawhi has looked every bit of the MVP calibre player the team wanted during negotiations. Despite missing the Wizards game on Saturday – the second night of a back-to-back – Leonard has averaged 28 points per game on a 56-percent effective field goal percentage.

The most promising aspect of Leonard’s acquisition has been the minutes he’s played. Nick Nurse hasn’t held Kawhi back by any means, averaging a workload of thirty-five minutes per night. He also leads the Raptors in usage with 31-percent.

Kawhi gives the team a completely different identity offensively and defensively. His scoring in isolation is among the best in the NBA. His defensive awareness allows a fluid switchable defensive system that can create havoc and mismatches. In short, this is everything the Raptors wanted. Toronto’s star player is no longer hidden away on an ‘easy’ defensive matchup. This guy is the real deal.

Leonard has anchored the defense across his four starts and looks committed to making this team a winner, evident with his diving steal against Minnesota on Thursday night, en route to a 35-point outing while also posting two steals and two blocks.

His shooting looked a little rusty in the opener against Cleveland, but everything is starting to look a lot more fluid. Toronto has a real star on their hands this season and Kawhi might just be a lock in the Up department of this column.