Ranking the top 10 players in Raptors vs. 76ers

There's a number of different directions to go with here and it's a testament to Toronto's depth.

Jonas Valanciunas, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Delon Wright... this roster is teeming with impact players. Truth be told, this list could extend out to 13 or 14 before another 76ers player would land on this list.

For the 10th spot here, I'll ride with Valanciunas who, except for select matchups, has moved to a reserve role this season. There are stretches in which he still carries Toronto offensively and at times, watching him cook against other second units is simply unfair.

MORE: Valanciunas to the bench has been Nick Nurse's best move this season

Against Philadelphia, Valanciunas is a critical piece not only in terms of slowing down Joel Embiid but also as someone who can put pressure on him at the other end and potentially get him into foul trouble. He's the type of player becoming rare in 2018 and is an even more prized commodity off the bench.

I feel bad for putting Serge Ibaka this low.

He's the team's second-leading scorer, has not missed a game and is in the midst of the best season of his career.

I'm just not certain Ibaka has had quite the impact of the players ahead of him on this list, some of whom he's put up bigger numbers than. 

That's not a knock on Siakam as much as it is an indication of just how much talent is on these two rosters.

The centre combination of Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas gives the Raptors a 1-2 punch in the middle that few teams can match, both in terms of sheer production and ability to play different styles.

It's incredible to think that in a trade which netted Kawhi Leonard, the Raptors also added Danny Green.

He hits timely clutch shots, plays lock-down defence on the perimeter and provides much-needed championship pedigree for a team looking to get to that next level.

With Green on the floor, the Raptors have simply been a different team. They've outscored opponents by 18.3 points per 100 possession with him on the floor and been outscored by 8.1 points per 100 possessions with him on the bench, a swing of a whopping 26.4 points which is easily the largest on the team.

How good has Green been at the two-spot? According to ESPN's Real Plus-Minus, the only shooting guard that's been better is Victor Oladipo, who made the All-NBA Third Team last season.

JJ Redick's value to the 76ers can't be understated.

Last season, the top six on the team in made 3s per game were Redick, Robert Covington, Dario Saric, Marco Belinelli, Jerryd Bayless and Ersan Ilyasova.

Redick is the only one still on the roster.

For an offence built around a dominant big man in Joel Embiid and with the well-documented shooting deficiencies of Ben Simmons, having Redick to space the floor is an absolute must in today's NBA.

In his 13th season, Redick is averaging a career-high 18.4 points per game and is a crunch-time staple. He ranks among the top 10 in the NBA in made shots in clutch time and the only player in the league to log more minutes in clutch situations is Embiid.

I'm fully on board the Pascal Siakam hype train.

MORE: Inside Siakam's breakout season

There's an argument to be made that Siakam should be ahead of Ben Simmons and if the Raptors continue to separate themselves from the pack, Siakam warrants serious consideration for an All-Star invitation. And if the Raptors have a sizeable lead in the East and only one team gets three All-Stars, I fully believe it should be Siakam in lieu of Simmons.

That said, there's no denying that as valuable as Siakam has been to Toronto's success on both ends, he does not shoulder close to the responsibility that Simmons does for Philadelphia. 

He's amazing at filling in the gaps, running the floor, locking down everyone and facilitating offence in a pinch. Yet I don't think he's quite as critical to Toronto's success as Simmons is to the 76ers.

Even with the arrival of Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons is still playing just as large of a role.

His touches per game since Butler's debut stands at 83.4, just a tick below the 83.9 he rang up prior to his arrival.

For all the talk of his reluctance to shoot, Simmons is still finding ways to impact the game in a variety of ways. His numbers across the board are essentially the same as they were last season en route to winning Rookie of the Year.

And while the gaudy assist and rebounding numbers will usually get more attention, he's also an all-league calibre defender that currently ranks second among all point guards in Defensive Plus-Minus behind only Marcus Smart.

He's among the very best in the NBA in the open floor and despite the gaping hole in his offensive game that can become a problem in the half court and late in the shot clock, Simmons has the ability to get to his spots and take advantage of mismatches like few others.

In his 13th season, Kyle Lowry is flashing a floor game that's simply on a different level than what he's shown previously.

Though his scoring is down, Lowry is still leading the league in assists at over 10 per game which is somewhat stunning given that his career-high entering the season was 7.4 back in 2013-14.

At times over the last few season, you could almost physically touch the on-floor tension between Lowry and DeMar DeRozan as they sometimes took turns as the team's No. 1 option, seemingly unsure of a true pecking order. 

With Kawhi Leonard on board and playing at an MVP level, there's a clear 1-2 hierarchy and Lowry has settled into his role as a second banana perfectly. He looks to be fully embracing everything on the floor even if at times things don't seem fully fine.

MORE: Kyle Lowry opens up about DeMar DeRozan trade

You can make a case that Lowry has been the NBA's best pure point guard thus far as he ranks fifth in the league in Real Plus-Minus.

When Jimmy Butler arrived in Philadelphia, he was on paper the perfect antidote for a team that at the time ranked among the bottom five in the NBA in 4th-quarter offensive rating after finishing dead last in that same category a season ago.

Although it hasn't even been a month, that theory looks to be spot on as he's hit two game-winners and has seemingly galvanized the entire team — the 76ers have won eight of nine since losing to Orlando in Butler's debut.

It's still early but thus far, Butler has fit in nicely playing off of Embiid while picking and choosing his spots. Since that debut in Orlando, Butler is averaging 13.4 field goal attempts per game which is not only over five fewer than Embiid, but actually tied with Redick.

You have to think that eventually Butler will assert himself more offensively but in the meantime, he deserves credit for feeling out his new team and learning to play to the strengths of the rest of the roster.

Let's be clear: When push comes to shove, Kawhi Leonard is the best player in the Eastern Conference and the star most capable of going toe-to-toe with the best the west has to offer.

You saw it in the tight win over the Golden State Warriors when Leonard delivered 37 points and 8 rebounds to help offset the 51 poured in by Kevin Durant.

MORE: Takeaways from the Raptors' win over Golden State

If I had to predict an MVP winner, I'm also still taking Leonard who is having every bit as good of a season as when he finished in the top 3 in voting in San Antonio for a team that might run away with the best record in the NBA.

And yet ... he's missed five games and has yet to play in both games of a back-to-back, including two missed matchups against LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo. It's certainly wise for Toronto to keep Leonard healthy over the regular season grind and bring him along at a pace that maximizes his readiness for a playoff run as that is what matters the most.

But in doing so, it's also OK to dock him at this moment a quarter of the way through the season, especially when comparing to a player that has played in every game while dropping Shaq-like numbers.

Kawhi Leonard is awesome. And if he wouldn't have missed as much time as he has, he'd be atop this list.

To say that Joel Embiid carried significant injury concern heading into the season would be an understatement.

When evaluating the NBA's top talent, there's perhaps no player who receives an asterisk quite like Embiid. "If fully healthy"... fair or not, that's just part of who he is right now.

So how has Embiid responded? By averaging over 34 minutes per night while appearing in every single game for the 76ers.

He's averaging over 27 points, 13 rebounds and 2 blocks per game, something that's only been done by Shaquille O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bob McAdoo, all three of which won an MVP at some point in their careers.

In a league trending small, Embiid stands larger than life, dump trucking opposing bigs with reckless abandon on a scale that nobody else in today's NBA can match. The matchup with the Raptors is an especially intriguing one as they have both Ibaka and Valanciunas to throw at him, not to mention Greg Monroe. 

If the 76ers can keep the Raptors close in the standings, Embiid is a legitimate MVP threat this season.