Leonard, changes have Raptors looking like East beast

Nick Nurse has silenced any doubters early in his short tenure as head coach of the Toronto Raptors. He’s using what Dwane Casey built and taking it to the next level. He’s modernized this team and made key changes to the rotations that have the Raps firing on all cylinders.

Pascal Siakam is developing into a prototypical new-age power forward. He’s athletic, can defend, and gets up and down the floor with ease. His progress this season is already paying off, being named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week.

With Kyle Lowry looking rejuvenated and leading the league in assists, while Kawhi Leonard is back to his usual stellar self. Not to mention this team is extremely deep. There isn’t much they can’t do right now.

These things have the Raptors rolling and they have them currently sitting atop ESPN's power rankings and don’t look to be slowing down any time soon.

They suffered an out of the ordinary, at home loss to the Pelicans last night, but other than that they have been nearly flawless. With their only other loss coming at the hands of a white-hot Milwaukee Bucks team where some notable star players were missing.

Nurse seems to have taken this team to the next level and that is no small feat seeing as how the Raptors held the top spot in the Eastern Conference just last year. It may be early this season, but they're currently holding that spot this year as well.

In the past, Raptors teams have underperformed in the playoffs. Either that or they just were unlucky in the fact that they were always destined to run into LeBron James at the end of the year. However, James is gone now, and the Eastern Conference is officially open for the taking.

We’re about an eighth of the way through the season at this point, and it looks like the Raptors see that their window is open again, and they are going for it.

Anything can happen, but right now it looks like the Raptors are poised to make some serious noise come playoff time.