A year ago, the Raptors were trying to get back into the playoffs conversation. They did exactly that. Toronto went 46-36, grabbed the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and made the playoffs for the first time in four years. The season eventually ended in Cleveland, but not before the Raptors pushed the Cavaliers all the way to Game 7.<\/p>\n
Now the bar is higher. Nobody will be satisfied with simply making the playoffs this time around. The Raptors are expected to add Kawhi Leonard<\/a> to a team that was already good enough to win 46 games, and that changes the conversation heading into 2026-27.<\/p>\n So, what does this season look like if things go right? What if they don\u2019t? And what happens if things go really, really poorly?<\/p>\n The Good: The Raptors make a serious run<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say everything clicks. The defence stays elite. Scottie Barnes takes another step. Kawhi Leonard stays healthy and puts up MVP numbers once again. The younger players continue to grow. Well, suddenly, 50 wins doesn\u2019t seem crazy. Toronto hasn\u2019t reached the 50-win mark since 2019, the season after the franchise won its first championship. And yes, Leonard was the best player on that team, too.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard not to get excited about what the defence could look like. The Raptors finished fifth in the NBA in defensive rating<\/a> last season at 113.25. Since 1981, 28 of the 46 NBA champions have finished in the top five in defensive rating. And the defence should be a fair amount better this upcoming season.<\/p>\n Toronto already has a great defensive foundation with Scottie Barnes, Jamal Shead, Collin Murray-Boyles and Ja\u2019Kobe Walter. Now throw in one of the best defenders ever, in Leonard and rookie Allen Graves, who had a phenomenal Summer League<\/a>, and things get even better. \u00a0That\u2019s a group that can make teams work for every possession and wreak havoc on that end of the floor. With the number of turnovers this group will force, Toronto will make a living in transition. Leonard will help far more both in forcing transition attempts and in converting them than Brandon Ingram did last season. He\u2019s a fantastic defensive rebounder, too, which is another area in which the Raptors could use the boost.<\/p>\n The East is going to be a grind. There are plenty of teams that believe they belong in the playoff picture, but Toronto has something a lot of those teams don\u2019t: a young core that has already had a taste of playoff basketball and a former Finals MVP coming through the door.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen how quickly things can change. Detroit went from the sixth seed in 2025 to the No. 1 seed in 2026. The Raptors don\u2019t need to make that exact jump, but there\u2019s no reason they can\u2019t move up the standings.<\/p>\n The ultimate good-case scenario, of course, would end with another banner hanging over the court of Scotiabank Arena. However, a more realistic goal would look like 50-plus wins and a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.<\/p>\n