48 Minutes "Two-a-Days" Toronto Raptors and San Antonio Spurs

Now, the San Antonio Spurs finished with the fifth best overall record out east last year at 46-36 on the year.

They went on to lose a very tough first-round series against the Cavaliers in seven games.

And overall, last season was a huge success for Toronto, but it left them wanting more this offseason because this summer they showed a lot of aspiration making a trade for Kawhi Leonard.

Bruce, can you tell – can you claw once again – I'm blanking on my own jokes here.

Bruce, can the Claw once again help lead the Raptors on another championship run?

No, no.

But it is back to the future for Canada's NBA team as they welcome back Claude, who led them to the championship back in 2019 when he was 27 years old.

OK, now he's 35.

And while he was outstanding last season for the Clippers, averaging nearly 28 points and finishing seventh in the MVP balloting, His health has been an issue now for basically the last nine seasons, including that first season in Toronto, even though they did win.

He didn't play a ton of games.

In fact, he's never played as many as 70 games in any of those last nine seasons.

So was the 25-26 season his last hurrah with a big drop-off to follow? I hope not, but I do have my doubts.

I mean, last year's leading scorer, Brandon Ingram, and three-point shooter Grady Dick went to the Clippers in the Leonard deal, but there's still some solid talent on this team with Scotty Barnes, R.J. Barrett, Jakob Pertl, Emmanuel Quickly, and last year's top Raptors rookie, Colin Murray-Boyles, who was really impressive.

I totally underestimated the Raptors last season.

They won 46 games.

They were a solid road team who played excellent defense, although they definitely struggled on offense.

But if, and this is a big if, if Kawhi is still that guy, he's going to help them in both of those areas.

But look, let's face it.

The East is going to be really tough this year, and I can't imagine in my wildest dreams Toronto coming out of the East in the postseason.

Will be your thoughts? I think a little differently about Toronto.

I think that pieces are there for them to compete for a top four spot in the Eastern Conference.

As Bruce mentioned, that's a solid lineup right there.

That's quality players.

Now, there are all NBA players across the board, like maybe you have in Philadelphia or potentially in New York or something.

but they are really solid players, young players starting to come into their own.