Oren Weisfeld
Last season, the Toronto Raptors had the best record against the Western Conference, going 22-8 (73.3 winning percentage) against the loaded West. The Milwaukee Bucks (20-10), Philadelphia 76ers (20-10), Golden State Warriors (35-17), and the Denver Nuggets (34-18) also had great results against the West in the regular season and went on to have success…
The Toronto Raptors will play host to the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday evening, hoping to keep their perfect home record alive against an injured Pistons squad that is without Reggie Jackson and Blake Griffin. It won’t be easy, though, as former Raptors coach Dwane Casey is a perfect 3-0 against the Raptors since joining the…
It seems like every Raptors column I write these days begins with Masai Ujiri. I feel bad, honestly, because it’s the players that spend countless hours training to play basketball at a high level and sacrifice their bodies doing so, not the executive walking around on his Blackberry. But it’s also not a coincidence that…
On Monday morning, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski announced — somewhat unexpectedly — that Kyle Lowry and the Toronto Raptors have agreed to a 1-year, $31 million contract extension that will keep the 5-time All-Star in Toronto through the 2020-21 season. The extension makes some sense, given that the Raptors want to remain competitive while also rewarding…
Normal Powell is entering his fifth season in the NBA in 2019-20, which is longer than most second-round picks survive in the league. We all know how much circumstance plays a role in player development in the NBA. On one hand, Powell has benefitted from being drafted by a top-tier organization known for its strong…
Fresh off their first championship in franchise history, the Toronto Raptors find themselves in an interesting position heading into the 2019-20 campaign. Their best player, Kawhi Leonard, is gone, and with his departure comes more questions than answers heading into next season. It also means a number of young players are preparing themselves to step…
The Toronto Raptors announced some additions and changes to their coaching staff today, promoting Brittni Donaldson and Jon Goodwillie to Head Coach Nick Nurse’s bench. The two of them will join Adrian Griffin, Sergio Scariolo, Nate Bjorkgren, Patrick Mutombo, and Jim Sann as assistant coaches. The Raptors also announced they have promoted John Corbacio to…
Danny Green was arguably the most consistent Raptor throughout the 2018-19 regular season, helping the team achieve a 58-24 record and the 2nd seed in the Eastern Conference. Despite being considered a “throw-in” in the Kawhi Leonard-DeMar DeRozan trade by some pundits, it became clear very quickly that Green would be more than that for…
The Toronto Raptors exist in a unique NBA market. They are the only NBA team outside of the United States, giving them the support of an entire country and the slogan “We The North” (despite being further south than Portland and Minnesota). They are outsiders that for the majority of their existence have been considered…
Last summer, after the Toronto Raptors traded two of the team’s weaker defenders in DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl for two All-Defensive Team players in Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, it was clear that the Raptors had a newfound identity: Defense. For a franchise that has been around since 1995, the Raptors on-court identity was…
When Nick Nurse was hired to replace Dwane Casey as head coach of the Toronto Raptors in the summer of 2018, he was regarded as an innovative, unorthodox, creative, and ultimately experiential coach who wasn’t afraid to try new things. He said as much during his introductory press conference: “We’ve got to be innovative. We’ve…
Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry underwent a procedure to repair a tendon injury in his left thumb, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Lowry injured his thumb in game 7 of the conference semifinals between the Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers, appearing to jam it against the floor after taking contact from James Ennis III. Lowry,…