Now isn’t the time to panic.
This weekend a couple of writers and outlets who cover the team were quick to demand changes or cast doom and gloom over the team.
They all missed the point and came across as short-sighted.
Sure, going 4-8 over the past stretch of games isn’t flashy or sexy, but it’s also a period of games where DeMar DeRozan was missing for most of those games and the team went through a brutal six-game road trip against some of the top teams in the NBA.
Towards the end of this stretch they finally had DeRozan back, but he is shaking off rust and the team is still adjusting to having him back on the court.
It also wasn’t the time to get too excited when the team ripped out of the gates to a 22-6 start to the season. That lofty start was in large part due to Toronto playing a lot of home games (17 of those games were at home) and against weaker competition (eight of those win were against teams that currently have winning records).
Even when Toronto was at the top of the Eastern Conference, head coach Dwane Casey was quick to remind the media that he had concerns with the team and there were a lot of issues he was hoping to fix.
The reality is the Raptors will win the Atlantic Division with ease this season and once again earn home court advantage in at least the first round of the playoffs. If they can win a playoff series this season that counts as progress and it would make the season be viewed as a success.
Plus, the Raptors are still ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers and tied with the Chicago Bulls in the standings. If you had asked any fan back in October if they would be content with that come mid-January they would have been elated.
A strong start to the season shouldn’t have raised expectations beyond winning a playoff series just like a rough patch in the middle of the season shouldn’t extinguish the excitement that has been building over the past 12 months over the team.
All that’s needed is a quick dose of reality and the realization that Masai Ujiri is building this team for long-term success, not just a quick fix or a run at the Eastern Conference crown in a rare season where a trip to the NBA Finals is genuinely up for grabs.
This summer Ujiri will be loaded with a bunch of cap room if he relinquishes the cap holds on Amir Johnson and Lou Williams. Despite both players playing prominent roles with the team this season, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ujiri rolls the dice and do that so that he can flirt with prominent free agents this summer.
But this summer isn’t what Ujiri’s end game is. This summer is like a high school freshman or sophomore learning how to flirt with the gorgeous girls in class. They more than likely will strike out, but it’s that experience of being shot down that will pay dividends when they are a senior or in college.
Cathal Kelly wrote a great article last week explaining how Ujiri and the rest of his front office staff have the entire NBA mapped out.
According to Kelly, “a large, colour-coded board that acts as a map of the NBA. It’s updated daily by interns – every guy on every team, where he stands on the depth chart, where he is in his current deal.”
Fans caught a glimpse of this epic chart and Ujiri’s war room on a recent edition of Open Gym.
Would Marc Gasol look great as a Toronto Raptor next season? You betcha’! But, the reality is Toronto will likely swing and miss when it comes to recruiting him this summer. That doesn’t mean the experience of recruiting a premium free agent like Gasol will be for naught. Instead, the chance to woo and try to lure Gasol will pay off in the summer of 2016 when Kevin Durant and a handful of other prominent players will be free agents.
Toronto is slowly building cap flexibility for that time and if they can continue to build each season they will be a very tempting location for free agents to consider in the summer of 2016. This means the team just needs to get better each season without making any rash decisions when it comes to free agency of trades.
Sure, Toronto should flirt with Gasol this summer. But not signing him won’t break the hearts of Toronto’s front office. Gasol is just be a pawn in a much larger game.
Losing in the second round of the playoffs this season might sting for the players and fans, but the reality is it would represent it would equal the farthest a Toronto team had advanced in the playoffs. That would then place this years team in the discussion as one of the best teams – if not the best – in the history of this franchise.
Toronto needs to keep making baby steps leading up to the summer of 2016. It’s not like they need to make one big dinosaur-esque leap all in one season or summer.
Ujiri sees the big picture and the franchise is better off for his vision and patience.
