When Kawhi Leonard left the Toronto Raptors for the Los Angeles Clippers last offseason, the prevailing thought around the NBA was that Marc Gasol and Co. wouldn't be an elite squad anymore.

Fast forward to today and the Raptors are in the second round of the 2020 playoffs, tied with the Boston Celtics at 2-2 after falling down 0-2. Toronto secured the second-best record in the Eastern Conference during the 2019-20 regular season, proving all the critics who said they weren't going to be great without Leonard wrong.

So, how exactly did Toronto succeed without a two-time Finals MVP? Gasol talked to Tim Bontemps of ESPN about it.

“The strength of the team, the beauty of basketball, [is that] this is not tennis,” the Raptors center said.

“We're not talking about Rafa Nadal or [Novak] Djokovic or Roger Federer — or [Canadian Milos] Raonic. We're talking about basketball. It's a team sport. It's how well you work as a team. It's a team effort. It always will be. Doesn't matter how much we try to singularize the game.”

Sure enough, Kyle Lowry stepping up as a veteran leader and Pascal Siakam emerging as a true star helped the Raptors overachieve. However, Toronto's depth is another reason why the team is so stout.

Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby and Norman Powell all play their roles to a T and head coach Nick Nurse is always putting his players in positions to be successful. That's why he was voted as the 2020 Coach of the Year.