By Joseph Cairoli
After a promising start the Toronto Raptors have begun something of a free fall, losing nine of their last twelve games. The half-court offence has been poor, their efficiency has tanked, their defensive rating ranks 24th in the NBA. Is it too early to ring the alarms? Well that depends on what your expectations where for the team coming into the year.
The Raptors finished the season last year at 27-45, ranking 23rd of 30 in the overall standings. The poor performance last season was written off due to the team playing the entire season on the road in Florida, the injury problems and Covid complications. But it seems that on social media Raptors fans are not as willing to make excuses for this years squad.
So what is wrong? For one injuries. O.G. Anunoby, Gary Trent, Khem Birch and Goran Dragic are all currently out for various reasons. Most teams will find it difficult to succeed without two of their starters, but this problem is accentuated when those teams are rebuilding without a lot of proven depth that can step up. Young players like Scottie Barnes, Prince Achiuwa, Yuta Watanabe have shown promise, but they are still young and very raw. The lack of veterans really shows in the mental lapses and the lack of efficiency. The starters are being forced to play too many minutes and the bench can’t hold up when the starters take their rest. There’s just not enough juice on the team right now.
So what is the solution? It’s hard to tell, and again, it all depends on the perceived goals for this season. If the goal this season was to just deal with the growing pains of a rebuild while developing their young players, all the Raptors really can do is wait this out. The reality is they don’t have a lot of transaction options that make sense right now. What they could really use is a centre to help out Prince Achiuwa. Chris Boucher has been awful this season. Nick Nurse hasn’t held back with the criticism and has promptly removed him from the rotation. Nurse would rather the Raptors play with only one real centre than put Boucher on the floor. Centre was a sore spot last season with Aron Baynes barely looking like an NBA calibre centre as well. It might be time for Masai Ujiri to look at a more permanent upgrade, if anything just to relieve Prince Achiuwa who needs much more time learning how to operate on offence. Goran Dragic is the piece everyone expects to be moved by the end of the year. He doesn’t fit this current Raptors team’s timeline, but a lot of the other potential trade pieces right now are expected to have roles in this rebuild, and Dragic on his own may not be enough to bring back anything that can really turn the tide.
As painful as it is, the Raptors will probably just have to weather the storm for now. With them losing Kyle Lowry this offseason expectations should have been at a minimum, and making drastic changes now might only make things worse. As players heal up, the on court product will begin to look better, and the team should improve as the season goes on, while the young players continue to grow. It’s still early, the playoffs are still in the realm of possibility, but it’s time to temper expectations for now.
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