Who are the Toronto Raptors’ top 5 current rivals?

Although a young franchise, the Toronto Raptors have spurred on multiple rivalries. What are the top 5 rivalries heading into the 2019 NBA season?

Because the Toronto Raptors are fairly young as a franchise, they don’t have those long-term rivalries like that of the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers do. Nevertheless, there are quite a few teams that Raptor fans will be extra excited to face in the upcoming season.

This article will bring up five teams that the Raptors currently have the biggest rivalries with by tying in the teams’ history, current players on each team and the threat they pose in the league.

These are teams that have throughout recent years have brought some of the most exciting games to the Raptors arena and have made their case as a threat.

The Toronto Raptors have consistently worked through the draft to build the majority of their recent rosters. Luckily they haven’t had many scenarios where a big-name player decides to sign somewhere else or blockbuster trades.

But with all the major changes that happened since the 2018 playoffs, where the Raptors were swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers, there have been a couple of players, and a coach, that have Raptors game’s circled on their calendar’s.

The biggest rivalries came with all the damage they did during the championship run. These rivalries were already there but just need a bit of help through a tough series to truly ignite it and spice things up in the East.

it should be mentioned that the Cleveland Cavaliers will not be making it into this list. Yes, they have been the Raptors biggest rival ever since their delivery of a crushing blow in the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals.

But because they’re currently going through somewhat of a rebuild, after LeBron James left, their contention in the east and the rivalry between the two teams has faded aside from a quick brawl between Serge Ibaka and Marquese Chriss.

Instead, here are five teams that all have a strong team and chance to win it all and alter the Toronto Raptors chances of defending their title.

With Toronto having no Kawhi Leonard or Danny Green they’ll be heading into the 2019-20 season with a chip on their shoulder and a group of young potential that are looking to prove themselves, especially against their rivals.