The Raptors are the best NBA team no one is talking about

Take a quick look at FanDuel’s listed odds for the Eastern Conference Champion and you’ll see the defending-champion New York Knicks there at +340. After them, you have the Philadelphia 76ers (+400), Boston Celtics (+500), Detroit Pistons (+850), and Cleveland Cavaliers (+900) rounding out the top five.

However, there is one team missing from that top five that may just be better than all of those championship hopefuls, and that is the Toronto Raptors, who currently sit at sixth-place in the Eastern Conference title race at +950 (an implied probability of 9.5%). If you ask me, this is a gross underestimation of their abilities, and the basketball world is going to rue the day they counted out the Raptors.

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There’s a reason SB Nation considers Toronto a top-5 championship contender in the entire league entering the season. Now that they have finally officially landed Kawhi Leonard, the Raptors all the pieces necessary to be a darkhorse for the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Why the Raptors are so good

I may be as bullish as anyone I know on the Raptors, but it’s hard not to be after seeing the unique way they were able to improve their team this offseason.

Let me explain. The Raptors and Pistons are not too dissimilar in the sense that they were both elite defensive teams (Raptors were 5th in defensive rating, Pistons were second), lead by their top five picks from the 2021 NBA Draft (Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham), who were using this offseason to find ways to get over the hump offensively (15th in offensive rating, 10th).

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For the Pistons, they had to go about this in a very orthodox way. Additions like Isaiah Joe, John Collins, and Ebuka Okorie helped improve their offense. But to get these guys they got rid of Isaiah Stewart (arguably the team’s second-best per minute defender), Tobias Harris (a metronomic veteran presence), and Caris LeVert (67th percentile Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus, per Dunks & Threes). Simply put, they improved their offense, but had to take a hit on defense to do so.

The Raptors’ big offseason acquisition (which looks like it won’t be getting rescinded by the league…

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Publish date : 2026-09-15 12:00:00

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