When you get deep into a postseason run, every team is going to have scorers and people who can close out games with clutch buckets. This is why teams with elite perimeter stoppers often go further in the playoffs than more offensively oriented teams, because they can truly shut the faucet off. This is the Toronto Raptors' biggest advantage over other contenders this upcoming season.
With the NBA officially concluding its investigation into Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers' salary cap circumvention, Leonard could officially be a Raptor very soon. With a trade expected to be made official soon, the idea of Scottie Barnes, Collin Murray-Boyles, and Leonard all sharing the court has only gotten more real. When you look around the league, there isn't another team that has three elite all-around stoppers that are close to the level of Toronto’s defensive trio.
More than any other reason, this trio is my biggest reason why the Raptors could come out of the East in 2026-27. Whether it’s Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Cleveland, or Miami, it doesn’t matter. Because between Barnes, Leonard, and CMB, they have the defensive talent to shut down any of those team’s stars.
A three-headed monster no one in the league can match
Let's break this down.
Starting with Leonard because he is probably the one out of this trio that Toronto wants to demand the least from defensively, so he can be a No. 1 option-type of scorer. Leonard's resume speaks for itself: seven All-Defensive Team selections and two Defensive Player of the Year awards. While he isn’t a top three defender in the world anymore, he’s way closer to the top than the middle of the pack. And to have someone with his resume and skill set be the player defending opposing teams' third-best scorers down the stretch is insane.
CMB will likely draw the other team's big in most battles because of his rim protection, rebounding, and the physical play he brings. We saw in his rookie season that CMB is a future All-Defensive team member and will likely go down as the 2025 NBA Draft’s most versatile and talented defensive player. He can switch from one to five and plays with a level of discipline that isn’t common for a player of his age. Murray-Boyles also finished second last season in defensive rating among rookies to play an average of 20-plus minutes per game and appear in 55-plus games.
As far as Barnes goes, what is there to say that hasn’t already been said? He’s elite. He can guard anyone, was the anchor of a Raptors defense that finished fifth in the league last season, and is only getting better. If Victor Wembanyama didn’t exist, it’d be hard to picture a future where Barnes didn’t win Defensive Player of the Year.
All three of these guys can rotate and switch both on the perimeter and in the paint, giving them an ability to adapt to any matchup and situation down the stretch. When you get into the playoffs, and the game slows down, and possessions are longer, having one elite stopper is a massive boost. This Raptors team has three. Even when they don’t share the court, I’d imagine Darko Rajakovic would make sure one of Barnes, Leonard, or CMB is always on the floor in the postseason.
The league's most unstoppable player is Victor Wembanyama, and the Knicks showed how to stop him last season. Front him with an elite wing and have a big man sit on the backline. The Raptors have put together a defense way scarier than the one New York rode to an NBA title last season, meaning Toronto may have a much higher ceiling than anyone wants to admit.
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