It’s easy to bet on continuity, to assume that building habits for extended periods of time allow those habits to become stronger. It’s partially for that reason why coaches like Jerry Sloan and Gregg Popovich own such respected legacies. The more players know each other, as well as their roles and expectations, the better they should play. Both the Toronto Raptors and Orlando Magic hoped entering the 2019-20 season that stability and internal improvement would allow their teams to remain power brokers in a shifting Eastern Conference.
Both of those teams have been proven right, in a sense, although it was Toronto’s bet that paid off the most on Monday night. The Raptors won 104-95 in a slog of a game defined in part by great defense and in part by poor offense.
Continuity has been important to the Raptors. Orlando, at least before the loss on Monday, has found it not as much to their liking.
“[Continuity] hasn’t helped us at all,” said Steve Clifford before the game. “We are 29th in offence so it hasn’t really helped us at all. It’s a different team and we have added two guys who are playing big roles, but I think as much as anything, not being healthy in the pre-season. Again, these guys are really good players. We could come out here tonight and play good and take off as could they. Things change very quickly in this league. Our guys are working, we had a good shoot-around. It’s not attitude, it’s not work, but we haven’t jumped off the way we would have liked to.”
The Magic perhaps lead the league in similarity between this year’s and last year’s rosters. They start the same five players as they did in 2018-19. The biggest change is the addition of Markelle Fultz, who has thrived thus far in Orlando in a way he never was able to in Philadelphia. With a strong game against Toronto, he’s now played three good games to start the season. Following a nightmare tenure in Philadelphia, the stability in Orlando has been a boon to Fultz.
“When I first got traded, knowing most of them before I got here, that made it easy,” said Fultz. “The person that I am, and the player that I am, I feel like the way I play, it’s easy to fall in with these guys.”
Al-Farouq Aminu is another addition for Orlando, and he bolsters their roster of long, defense-first players. Though it’s great that Fultz is finally playing well, and he has offered Orlando an element previously not available to the team, Orlando is betting mostly on internal development this year; Fultz and Aminu are not going to dramatically change a team’s fortunes.
Even though it seems counter-intuitive, Toronto has also bet on stability to an incredible extent. Yes, the Raptors lost two important rotation figures in Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green. But Toronto’s top seven players so far this season were all on the roster last year. All seven won a championship together, and all but OG Anunoby played important rotation minutes in the playoffs. Newcomers like Rondae Hollis-Jefferson have not yet found spots in the rotation, and he was even supplanted against Orlando by another Toronto returner, Chris Boucher.
Stability, then, and internal improvement were Toronto’s north stars entering the season, just like Orlando. If the team was going to remain dominant, players already on the roster would need to add new elements to their game, or at least thrive within new roles. They have not disappointed. Pascal Siakam, especially, has stepped into a starring role this season. It is upon the enormity of his development that the Raptors will live or die this season.
The rival franchises’ wager was on display throughout Toronto’s win, as Jonathan Isaac and Siakam personified those gambles. While Isaac was incredible defensively against Siakam in the playoffs, Siakam still managed to score 22.6 points on 53.3 percent shooting in the series. His jumper was shaky at times in the playoffs for Toronto, but it was a mid-range jumper that helped Toronto put Orlando to bed on Monday night, as Siakam stuck a pull-up with a few minutes left to put Toronto ahead by six. At times, Siakam struggled to score against Isaac’s length, but he still finished with 24 points on 16 shots. Siakam’s passing, though sometimes strong last year, has grown greatly since then, and he zipped the ball around to his teammates to create plenty of advantages.
“We’re working on it like crazy,” said Nurse after the game of Siakam’s passing. “He’s going to get doubled, he’s going to see lots of bodies. I thought he did a good job tonight of getting it out of there for the most part. He could have had a couple more, he probably could have passed out there for kickouts but better, improving.”
Siakam isn’t the only Raptor to have made improvements. OG Anunoby drilled triples and hammered dunks, as his offense was frequently sparked by his unbelievable defense. He finished with five steals and two blocks, and he’s thus far outpaced even the rosiest projections. Fred VanVleet shot poorly, but he ended poor Fultz’s ankles with a step-back triple. It’s too early in the season to say anything definitive, but Toronto’s young vets seemed to have improved as a unit.
For the other side, Isaac has also taken steps forward this year. Isaac, whose presence on the floor evaporated Orlando’s chance of scoring in last year’s first-round playoff series between the two teams, finished with five made triples. His game seems to have taken leaps, especially offensively. Isaac finished with 24 points and was Orlando’s best player on both ends. If Orlando is going to take a leap, Isaac could well be Orlando’s base model of Siakam, as his ability to step into a larger role on offense would boost Orlando’s theoretical ceiling.
It’s fitting that continuity and development were the Raptors’ keys to victory on throwback night in honour of the franchise’s 25th anniversary celebration. The Raptors paid homage to the old school on Monday night. They wore their classic white and purple-striped uniforms with a snarling cartoon raptor on the front. Their court was adorned with royal purple and silver raptor claw-prints traipsing diagonally across mid-court. Kyle Lowry called the decor “sexy,” while VanVleet and Siakam also heaped compliments on the imagery after the game. Throwback night was gorgeous, even if the basketball on display was not.
Continuity hasn’t always been a strength of the Raptors’ franchise. There were long years of upheaval. But with the new guard of Masai Ujiri and Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet, Nick Nurse and OG Anunoby, the Raptors have found consistency. There’s no better reason for celebration during the franchise’s quarter century marker.
