There are times where even a fan is susceptible to a bit of existentialism. Particularly so, when winning is some distant, opaque future.
The happiest of fans are there for the fun of it. Good on ’em. Kudos to the bliss. Misanthropes find other things, or more of the same, to complain about [looks at comments section]. For the rest of us, without a clear path forward – like the gradual progression towards a Championship (2014-2019) or the noble task of defending it (2020-2022) – we’re lost.
What, if at all, do we celebrate?
It’s tough. Mainstream thought has warped this conversation. A bulky, inevitable binary of tanking versus contending. It leaves little room for nuance, but does beg the question: what else is there?
I supposed, and venture to guess, that most Raptor fans had lower than low expectations coming into this season. Between the dismantling of last era and the accumulation of building blocks for a new one, a pile of losses and empty platitudes of progress were forthcoming. Call me when it matters again.
So far, that’s proven kinda true. Injuries shelled the Raptors early on. A predictably pitiful record to start the season looked to be one long tumble towards basement dwelling irrelevance.
Yet, even then. Admirable loss or straight thumping, there was something about this team that was so darn entertaining. Uniquely so.
I say that because it’s not, exactly, nice basketball to watch. There’s little aesthetically pleasing about how the Raptors play. They’re middle of the pack in scoring and pace; they turn the ball over and foul a tonne; they shoot poorly, rely on lunch-pail buckets (offensive rebounding and turnovers [arguably fun!]), and lack traditional highflying rim rockers or silky smooth-like-chocolate-pudding jumpshooters to awe us all. There’s nothing mechanized in the Raptors’ wars of attrition.
And, yet, this team plays the most entertaining Raptors basketball, I’ve watched in years.
Feels illogical to say. It’s a “lesser” team with minuscule “playoff potential” compared to previous iterations. They’re objectively worse. Still, I am more enthralled, more excited, more hopeful than I’ve been in some long time.
I might be a victim of the moment. I did love those former Raptor teams too. And was terribly disappointed – and defensive – again and again by them.
It all feels different this time around.
Not expecting to win helps. Or, at least, with nothing to lose there’s little to be disappointed by. It’s more than the outcomes (though, of their 18 losses, ten of them were by seven points or less). It’s something in the fabric of this team. Their esprit de corps. Their joy.
Might be trite to say. Might be an overstatement. It’s there, nonetheless. You can feel it. You see it on the floor after defensive stops and stampeding fastbreaks and emphatic scores. You see it on the sidelines. You see it in glimpses at practice, hear it in the interviews, watch it on Open Gym. OFFFNIGHTTTT.
These guys seem to share a genuine love for one another. They’re bound by purpose. Winning will come. Growth, unity, process, resilience. It drives them forward. Even at their most rambunctious or when things falter, they hold together. Minutes can go by where the offence is out of sorts or defense is in tatters. You could pinpoint these moments when old Raptors teams would fold – despite the notorious “faux late-game comebacks”.
Not these guys. They’re malleable and eager. Course correcting – often thanks to an expedient timeout – back to their shared path: hard work.
How often have you seen a team savour full court presses so early in November? When’s the last time you saw so many sickos on one team fiend for chaos and others’ torment? Or, see a whole collection of players making extra passes, fighting for loose balls, or crashing the boards as though those are the stats worth counting? It’s not about the O’Brien, it’s about the “Win the Day” chain.
Opposing talent and size overwhelms them. As to be expected with so many injured and so much youth. Still, the fun, determination, yada yada, it’s paying dividends. They’re 4-6 in their last ten and 21st in total point differential (-30) even with that Oklahoma Thunder City ass kicking.
The vibes aren’t forced. They catalyze one another. As though they’re many bodies of a single competitive entity. Masai, effectively, said so on Thursday when talking with Matt Devlin and Alvin Williams.
“For us, when we look at these players, you look at character, you look at the work they’ve done in college or where they’ve played. They showed that they wanted to be better, that they wanted to continue to grow…
[talking about the offseason]…you build chemistry, you build trust in each other when times are rough…you still believe in each other and respect each other and want to work with each other…”
There’s much to infer here. Obviously, what Masai is saying is true for any recruitment process. The emphasis on character, though, is really an expression about the type of characters. And, how they interact together on a team.
Previous Raptors iterations had character too. Pascal Siakam, Freddy VanVleet, O.G. Anunoby, Norman Powell, those guys were top. How it all meshed, and, particularly, how it meshed when someone like Scottie Barnes rolled in or when losing amped up or the ball got sticky or when Free Agency was on the horizon, made things tricky.
Masai goes on.
“Alvin, you know, culture in the NBA, the spirit of the players and how they communicate to each other and how they play with each other, and how you like each other. They are always around each other. So, it’s something that you really have to pay attention to and that’s character, right? Credit to our scouts…”
Scottie’s boisterous, unrelenting, and shameless. He might even be…a bit…grating (if you can get under the skin of Thaddeus Young, you can irritate anyone).
That’s not always the easiest to be around. Now that he’s the central character, it’s more straight forward: find the best complement of players to plug alongside him. And that, they’ve done…so far.
The yelling and roaring and hooting and hollering is all part of it now. No more silent pride, swagger is turnt up to 11. The intensity Scottie brings as he picks up full court or closes out is analogous to RJ’s flexes, Davion’s menacing smiles, IQ’s skips, Hulk Bruno’s bellows, Garrett Temple’s rickety dives to the floor. Everyone – except for sweet, meek Gradey Dick – melds together like the distant roar of approaching explosions.
How it all comes together is, ultimately, alchemic. Something sports executives – and, really, leaders of any group of people – eternally study. Certainly, having a good cast of likeminded players is an excellent starting place. Having the right leader is just as essential.
It is Darko Rajaković who has tempered the zeal of this team. He has harnessed what all of these players bring and deployed it within a controlled system. It’s a rare accomplishment by any coach in the NBA, let alone a new one. He’s convinced everyone – win or lose – this is best for them and the team. And everyone’s bought in.
How could they not? The system is egalitarian. Play well, you play. Fuck up, you’ll have ample opportunity to prove yourself again. There is no guillotine hanging shakily above their minutes. It’s no coincidence that when called upon, players have stepped up. Nor, that, virtually, every single Raptor is playing the best basketball of their careers.
Darko is genuine, forthcoming, deliberate, and kind. He has tactfully commanded the difficult balance of discipline and flexibility. Just ask Ochai Agbaji after a no-show versus the Pistons; then ask him again two days later against the Pelicans.
Darko does not presume hierarchy. Nor does he establish it simply with counting stats. Hustle, execution, efficacy can be measured other ways. That builds an environment of healthy competition throughout the whole of the roster – one, undoubtedly, welcomed by this bunch.
Masai said as much,
“We have to work hard. We have to build that culture. I think Darko has done an incredible job. Everybody has really contributed…when these guys know what’s ahead and how they should develop and how they should continue to work hard and the time they have on the floor to play hard.”
Alvin Williams notes,
“The one thing I’ve noticed he’s [Darko] a teacher…I see how he interacts with the players, I see how the players are responding.”
And, Masai concurs,
“We knew he was a teacher, he really focused on development. This is what he liked to do and this is what he’s really good at…He narrows in, he’s really focused on how these guys get better. He’s relentless…That’s the stage we’re in as a team. We see the importance at this stage. We’re still growing, still learning, but where these guys are, what they’re trying to do, working hard and giving it their all on the court.”
Where this team can go will, of course, depend on a multitude of factors. But as Matt Devlin mentioned later in the broadcast, it was not that long ago the Oklahoma City Thunder, who crunched Toronto on Thursday, was bottom of the league too. They had a budding superstar and really nothing else for certain.
It helped drafting guys like Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, but the same sort of cultural fermentation occurred there too. They love playing together. They love holding each other up and celebrating each other. Check any one of their many group sesh post-game interviews. The grind and the minutia of getting better together pushed them to where they are today. Mark Daigneault, OKC’s head coach, is a big believer in sharing minutes up-and-down the roster too, by the way.
The Toronto Raptors can look on and see similar in themselves. That the hard work can be fun. That the joy for each other and the game can boost them up the standings.
There’s a foundation of talent on this team. A fantastically diverse one. Who and in what form this Toronto Raptors core will become remains an unknown. All that matters, at the moment, is that this team is dedicated to having fun while finding out.
And, that, dear fans, is well worth celebrating.
