Kawhi Leonard Is Back in Toronto, and the Raptors' Shooting Question Just Got Louder

Two preseason games against the same opponent, two days apart, told the entire Toronto Raptors story in miniature.

On October 13 at Scotiabank Arena, with the Knicks resting Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart, the Raptors won 148-98. Two nights later at Madison Square Garden, with New York's starters actually playing, Toronto lost 122-120 — despite rolling out what looks like its real closing group: Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Scottie Barnes, Kawhi Leonard and Jakob Poeltl.

That 50-point blowout was fun. The two-point loss was the informative one.

The trade is finally real, and so is the fit question

Leonard is officially a Raptor, roughly three months after the deal was agreed in June and held up while the league investigated the Clippers. He surrendered more than $7 million to leave the country, per Yahoo Sports, and made his preseason debut against New York on October 13. The immediate takeaway from the beat writers covering the team: he played mostly off the ball, and that role felt a little off for a player who, at 27.9 points per game on 50.5 percent shooting and 38.7 percent from three last season in LA, is the most accomplished shot-creator on the roster.

There's a defensible logic to it. Leonard's three-point volume was exactly what Toronto's spacing has lacked, and using him as a floor-spacer while Barnes and Barrett attack is one way to unclog a half-court offense that got cramped last year. But there's a cost: a player who played 65 games a season ago and whose value is highest with the ball in his hands is being asked to function as a release valve.

The number that matters is 35.4

Last season's Raptors were genuinely entertaining — a top-five defense per Collin Murray-Boyles' own framing, seventh in the league in defensive rating at 113.1, and devastating in transition. What they weren't was a half-court team, because they couldn't shoot. Toronto finished the year at 35.4 percent from three, well behind New York's 37.6, and ranked 14th in offensive rating (115.6) despite a 46-36 record and a fifth seed.

That's the lens through which everything this week should be read. Barnes shot 30.4 percent from deep last season. Barrett shot 33.9 percent on a 57-game sample. Quickley's 37.4 percent is the closest thing to reliable spacing among the returning core. Adding Leonard helps — but one 38.7 percent shooter doesn't fix a roster-wide problem, and the preseason finale showed the difference between carving up a reserves unit and grinding against a real defense.

The Barnes question is back

The other thread from the Knicks finale was familiar: Scottie Barnes' wavering aggressiveness. It's the same critique that followed him through last season, when he averaged 18.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists while shooting 50.7 percent from the floor. The Raptors don't need him to be Leonard. They need him to be decisive, because the entire offensive architecture — Barnes and Barrett collapsing defenses, Leonard and Quickley spotting up — only works if somebody is actually putting pressure on the rim.

There's real reason for optimism underneath all this. Toronto's point differential (plus-2.8) and net rating (plus-2.5, 10th in the league) were solid, and the roster got meaningfully deeper, with Trayce Jackson-Davis forcing his way into the frontcourt conversation and Collin Murray-Boyles already drawing top-tier defensive attention in year two. The basement is higher than it's been in years.

But the ceiling hinges on a question the front office hasn't answered yet: does this team have enough shooting to contend? The market's 46.5 win total suggests a small step forward, not a leap. The preseason gave Toronto a 50-point high and a two-point reality check. The regular season, starting October 21 against Chicago, will decide which one was closer to the truth.