The Raptors won the championship in 2019. Is Leonard a single-core team leader? You will understand after reading the data of your teammates!

Looking at the long river of NBA history, there are only a handful of times that have led a single core team to win the championship. Except for Olajuwon in 1994, Duncan in 2003 and King No. 11, the other superstars had at least 1-2 All-star helpers when they won the championship, even Qiao Kozhan was no exception. In 2019, under the leadership of Leonard, the Raptors defeated the Warriors 4-2 and won the first championship trophy in team history. After winning the championship, the outside world praised Leonard's ability to lead the team, and some even thought that he led the team to win the championship with a single core. However, is this really the case? Let’s take a look at the data of the core members of the Raptors in the finals.

Leonard

6 Finals, Leonard averaged 28.5 points, 9.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, plus 2 steals and 1.2 blocks, and shot a shooting percentage of 43.4%. Judging from the data, Leonard is undoubtedly the core of the Raptors' offense and defense. He has performed key scoring and defense many times in the game, especially his stable performance at critical moments, helping the Raptors pass the championship all the way in the East and finally win the championship. Therefore, it is also undisputed that he won the FMVP.

Lowry

As the Raptors' point guard, Lowry also performed very well in the finals, averaging 16.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 7.2 assists in six games, and shooting percentage of 42.5%. In the crucial sixth game, Lowry scored 26 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists, becoming an important contributor to the team's victory. It is worth mentioning that year Lowry was also selected into the All-Star lineup. Siakam, in the third grade, was the Raptors' No. 2 scorer, averaged 19.8 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game, and shot a 50.5% shooting percentage. In the opening game of the finals, Siakam scored 32 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, helping the Raptors win the first goal, laying the foundation for the team to win the championship. In this round of the series, Siakam not only relieved Leonard's scoring pressure, but also provided important support to the team on the defensive end.

VanVleet

Before the finals that year, VanVleet played in a total of 18 playoff games, of which 14 games were not scored in double-digit games, and 12 games were less than 5 points. However, VanVleet became a completely different person in the finals, averaging 14 points and 2.7 rebounds per game, shooting percentage of 44.4%, and averaging 2.7 three-pointers per game. Because of this, he also won the nickname "Van Jordan".

In addition, Xiao Jia averaged 12.0 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, with a shooting percentage of 44.7%; Ibaka averaged 11.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game, with a shooting percentage of 56.0%; Green averaged 7.3 points, 3.5 rebounds per game, with a shooting percentage of 39.0%.

It can be seen that in addition to Leonard, the Raptors have 5 core players averaging double-digit points per game, and Siakam, VanVleet and Lowry have even performed higher than the regular season.

To sum up, while Leonard played a crucial role in the 2019 Raptors' championship, it is obviously not fair to attribute this championship to him alone. Players such as Lowry, Siakam, Jr., Van Vleet and Ibaka have all made great contributions to the team's championship, and their outstanding performance has laid a solid foundation for the Raptors' road to winning the championship. In other words, the Raptors' championship in 2019 is not a single core, but a result of teamwork.