Former Toronto Raptors having big impact on NBA playoffs so far

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The Raptors might have missed the playoffs again, but several former Toronto players have their fingerprints all over the post-season proceedings so far.

Few would dispute that Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard has been one of the five best performers so far.

The oft-injured superstar has averaged 26.5 points on 57% shooting and 1.8 steals (which happens to be his ridiculous career playoff average per game) in the instant-classic series between the Clippers and Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets.

Teammate and fellow ex-Raptor Norman Powell has been steady too, averaging 16.8 points and shooting 42% from three in the first four games.

Meanwhile, Indiana is on the verge of eliminating Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks largely thanks to the play of Pascal Siakam, Toronto’s second-leading scorer when Leonard led the team to a championship.

Siakam is playing some of the best basketball of his career for the run-and-gun Pacers, averaging a team-best 22.3 points on 58% shooting (including an unlikely 8-for-16 on three-pointers and 11-for-13 at the free throw line), 6.5 rebounds, along with solid defence.

Siakam’s old pal Gary Trent Jr. got Milwaukee its lone win nearly single-handily the other day, scoring 37 points, including nine three-pointers, after notching a combined 18 over the first two games (he followed up with only six on Sunday though).

Elsewhere, Cleveland has toyed with Miami so far, but Siakam’s Pacers look like they might be able to give a Round 2 test to a team that his been the NBA’s best for large stretches of the season.

Only a couple of Heat players have shown much against Cleveland’s fearsome defence — the team’s top scorers are Tyler Herro, which isn’t a surprise, and point guard Davion Mitchell, who rarely did anything offensively in his short time as a Raptor.

Mitchell has averaged 17.3 points, 6.7 assists and shot a shocking 68.8% in the series before Monday’s game. It’s perfect timing for a soon-to-be free agent who was deemed expendable in Toronto by the rise of rookie Jamal Shead.

The New York-Detroit old-school slugfest has been right up OG Anunoby’s alley so far. Anunoby leads all players in minutes (and is third in the playoffs overall), and has provided rugged defence, averaging three steals per game.

Pistons superstar Cade Cunningham leads all in turnovers and Anunoby is one of the chief reasons why.

Anunoby will need to find his three-point form, though, if the Knicks want to hang with the three-point firing machines that are the Boston Celtics in the next round.

In the meantime, like with Mitchell in Miami, former Raptors point guard Dennis Schroder has provided his team a spark. Schroder was strong in Game 2 and 3, scoring 20 and 18 points in games the Pistons could have won.

The series has been razor tight and had Schroder not been uncharacteristically quiet in Sunday’s one-point loss (zero three-point attempts, only six points in 27 minutes), he could have made the difference.

Cory Joseph has been the only ex-Raptor of note in Celtics-Magic. The veteran from Pickering, Ont., has been forced to start due to a run of injuries at point guard and has fared well thanks to great shooting and only two turnovers vs. 12 assists, but ideally the offensively challenged team would have more of high-octane option playing off its leaders Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner.

Still, Joseph’s ability to step up at this point in his career should be commended. He’s always been a consummate professional.

The man who once hastened Joseph’s exit from the Raptors with his strong play, Fred VanVleet, has had a brutal series for the Houston Rockets, yet the team has a decent shot at knocking out Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors — providing Jimmy Butler is either hobbled or out of the lineup entirely due to his injury.

VanVleet’s ghastly numbers include 27% field-goal shooting and only six trips to the free-throw line in three games.

VanVleet is a proven playoff performer though, capable of suddenly getting red hot even if he has just been ice cold. That’s what happened when he was a liability against Philadelphia in Round 2 in 2019 before becoming crucial in the Eastern Conference final comeback against Milwaukee and then good enough to get a Finals MVP vote for his work against Curry and the Warriors.

VanVleet is having a tougher time against Curry so far at both ends of the floor, but that could change at any moment.

@WolstatSun