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Raptors Dream Big, but NBA Reality Says Toronto’s Title Hopes May Be a Fantasy
- Updated: January 3, 2017
One-and-a-half players away.
That’s how one NBA insider with a thorough understanding of the Toronto Raptors put it.
Not just one player away.
And that mystical half player is what has placed the Raptors in a truly devilish quandary as they straddle the blurry line between good team and who-knows-what-more-they-could-become.
It also makes for a fascinating study of what it’s like to be considered a contender in an era when the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors are such heavy favorites to meet in a third consecutive NBA Finals.
The hope is real. The contending isn’t.
It’s too bad, because the Raptors make for a lovable underdog.
They’ve got two self-made stars in Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, guys who work for everything they have and whose drive is evident in the Raptors’ 23-10 record, especially in the plus-145 scoring differential Toronto has accumulated in the fourth quarter this season thanks to the 13.6 points the two have combined to score in the quarter.
The two stars also love each other, which is the surest sign to believe in a team’s chemistry. After Lowry eclipsed the team’s single-game scoring mark this season—40 points, posted by DeRozan twice—with 41 points on an amazing 12-of-16 shooting from the field Sunday, DeRozan, with Lowry getting dressed right next to him, dryly offered about his teammate: “Maybe four or five shots he should’ve made.
“Could’ve had more,” DeRozan kidded. “He missed a couple easy ones.”
They even do their pregame workouts on the court at the same time, which almost never happens for the stars of a team, sharing the same spots on the floor when they could, or maybe should, spread out. Lowry wears his ear-cupping headphones and DeRozan’s head is shrouded in his hoodie, but somehow they still look like they’re working together.
It’s the same thing even when they’re not on the court together. On Sunday, when DeRozan responded to a flagrant foul from Los Angeles Lakers forward Thomas Robinson by coming right back into traffic to draw more contact, it was Lowry who prowled the sideline in front of the bench in proud support.
There’s no doubting how much they do for this team—and what the other guys don’t. Lowry has played 346 more minutes and DeRozan 287 more minutes than the next-most-used player. And when that No. 3 guy is Patrick Patterson, you know you don’t have anything close to a Big Three like Golden State or Cleveland.
So unless the Raptors add a guy good enough to slot in as an imposing No. …
