Legendary Canadian basketball player Steve Nash is feeling bullish on the Toronto Raptors this season.

The Hall of Famer from Victoria said that the addition of Kawhi Leonard, a two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, to the Raptors’ roster will take Toronto to a new level.

In particular, Nash likes that the oft-injured Leonard played in 65 games for the Los Angeles Clippers last season.

“He’s a player that last year was about as healthy as he’s been for a number of years. He played at an All-NBA level,” said Nash in a recent interview with The Canadian Press. “He’s incredibly efficient. He can play with the ball and be the focal point. He can play off the ball, for example, when Scottie Barnes is doing what he does.

“He’s a two-way player. He gives them perimeter size, strength, rebounding defence, along with the scoring and that focal point gives them a closer.”

Nash knows of what he speaks.

The 52-year-old is a two-time NBA MVP and an eight-time all-star with the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers. He was named to the Order of Canada in 2008 and inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018.

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Nash said that Leonard, Barnes, RJ Barrett and the rest of the Raptors’ rotation should be one of the best units in the NBA this season, provided two things happen.

“No. 1 thing is health, and the second thing is jelling, finding a style of play that suits them,” said Nash. “I do think they have great functionality here, that they can play fast as they have at times, but they can also slow it down and be successful with Kawhi out there, creating space for others or with the ball or creating space for others without the ball.

“An exciting time for the Raptors, but lots of work to do to see this group kind of matriculate together.”

Other pundits generally agreed with Nash’s assessment of the Raptors.

Zach Lowe, a longtime NBA reporter who has a podcast with the Ringer network, put Toronto 11th in his pre-season rankings.

“The Raptors should be very good but a little grimy — even with Leonard’s shooting touch unclogging what had been a pretty jumbled half-court offence,” wrote Lowe in his Substack newsletter on Monday. “Leonard is still one of the league’s marvels, with that old-school, leaning midranger, set up with a bevy of fundamentally sound shoulder shimmies and head fakes.”

ESPN had Toronto 12th in its pre-season power rankings, with a 75.6 per cent chance of making the playoffs.

“The Raptors had an elite defence last season — a No. 5 defensive rating of 113.0 — and that was before they acquired Leonard, one of the league’s best-ever defensive players, this off-season,” wrote Baxter Holmes, ESPN’s senior NBA writer based in Los Angeles, on Monday. “If everyone stays healthy, the Raptors should be able to stifle teams, and the one-two punch of Scottie Barnes and Leonard will pose a lot of problems for opposing frontcourts.”

Nash was concerned with the stiff competition in the Atlantic Division after the New York Knicks won the NBA championship in June and the Philadelphia 76ers added Jayson Tatum in an off-season trade with the Boston Celtics and signed all-time great LeBron James as a free agent.

“I think you’ve still got to start with the Knicks, and that they’ve just proven it. They’ve taken their team all the way through the East and West. They won the in-season tournament as well, so they’re a gritty, competitive closing team,” said Nash. “Philly, obviously, is a completely new entity that could be incredibly elite, but as a floor is going to be tough.

“The Eastern Conference in general, and the Atlantic in particular, will be very, very competitive. In our league it really comes down to playoffs. Who puts themselves in a position to be playing their best basketball, to be healthy?”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2026.