In 2001–02 some publications tabbed the Toronto Raptors as the favourite to emerge from the Eastern Conference and play in the NBA Finals.
A year later Vince Carter, Antonio Davis and the rest were on a team that won 24 games. The fall from the peak of Vinsanity was fast and hard.
In 2007–08 the Raptors looked like a good bet to improve on the 47 wins they earned the season before in what seemed like such a promising portent for Bryan Colangelo’s reign as general manager.
They had a young star in Chris Bosh, point depth in the tandem of T.J. Ford and Jose Calderon and the still developing Andrea Bargnani.
A year later the Raptors were a 33-win team and at the beginning of a five-year playoff drought.
That’s the thing about beginnings—the endings aren’t guaranteed.
On Wednesday night the Raptors embarked on one of the most highly anticipated beginnings in franchise history with a professional 109–102 thumping of the Atlanta Hawks, one of the long list of improved teams in the deeper-than-most-think Eastern Conference. There were 19,800 fans at Air Canada Centre convinced that only good things await—and not just for the 2014–15 season.
The Raptors have been to the playoffs. They’ve had good years. But they’ve never had something that lasts. That builds.
The chance is before them again. Not only are they a young, intact team with all their key pieces under contract, they are coming along at a time when Canadian basketball is on the rise. Even as it appears that patriarch Steve Nash’s career is coming to an end, Andrew Wiggins’s is just beginning. There are 12 other Canadians on NBA rosters, more than any other country outside of the United States.
The Raptors’ rise is both cause and effect. All that’s needed is for the franchise in the middle of the movement to, you know, win something. Anything. A playoff round for just the second time in their 20-year history would be a great start.
Toronto head coach Dwane Casey knows it. He’s as high on his team as anyone. But he knows that these stories don’t get told linearly. There are bumps.
“There’s such a good feeling around the city [but] people love seeing people fall of a cliff a little bit. How we handle that is going to tag our season,” he said. “That’s when we’ll test our chemistry, test our roles. When we fall down, how do we get back up?
“I’ve seen it so many times, in so many places. If there are expectations and you don’t meet them, everybody’s all, ‘What’s going on?’”
You knew opening night of the season in Toronto was going to be special. There is always hope to start any season, but the Raptors’ optimism is based on continuity, youth, health and chemistry—those things can take a team a long way in the NBA.
Barely five months removed from watching DeMar DeRozan lie down beside Kyle Lowry to console the Toronto point guard after his ill-fated attempt to win their playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets in Game 7, it felt less like the beginning of a new season than the continuation of a party no one wanted to end.
And in many impressive ways, the Raptors picked up where they left off.
Within the first four minutes of the game all five of the Raptors’ starters—Toronto being one of just two Eastern Conference teams to return their starting five from a year ago—had scored. With 15 minutes played Casey had found at least five minutes of floor time for what looks like a 10-man deep rotation. By game’s end Casey had found at least 14 minutes for all of them while limiting workhorses Lowry and DeRozan to 34 and 35 minutes, respectively.
It wasn’t perfect. Early on the Hawks were able to swing the ball inside and out, and connected on 46.7 percent of their shots in the first half on their way to 50 percent for the game.
More concerning was that the Raptors allowed them to find three-point marksman Kyle Korver too often and too easily as he knocked down four of his five triples in the first half, and—just to get Casey’s blood pressure up—another triple to start the second half. Korver is a ninja when it comes to finding open space, but letting him get open enough to shoot 7-of-10 for 20 points is a failure, although Casey was willing to give his defenders a pass on the night.
But the positive signs were there.
The Raptors had held a good chunk of the play in the first half when the Hawks staged a mini-rally and cut the Raptors’ lead to 51–50. A Casey timeout sent the message and Toronto surged into halftime on a 10–1 run.
Are the Raptors going to be able to build on their 48-win season and avoid the slippage other incarnations of the franchise have?
Internal growth, particularly with 23-year-old Terrence Ross and 22-year-old Jonas Valanciunas, will be key.
The early returns were positive. Not only was Ross reliably knocking down threes, he chipped in with a couple of steals and patiently found Amir Johnson in the post on occasion. The brittle flower that wilted in the playoffs last season seems poised to put that behind him.
Valanciunas played as the Raptors want to him to play. He challenged Atlanta at the rim defensively. He scrapped for offensive rebounds and he earned his 17 points the hard way, making it to the foul line 10 times, converting nine, while grabbing eight rebounds.
Even with Lowry and DeRozan combining to shoot an uncharacteristic 7-of-27 (though DeRozan did have a career-high 11 rebounds; Lowry 10 assists), the game was almost easy, at least until the Hawks cut a 16-point Raptors lead with six minutes left to four with just over a minute play. But Lowry bulled his way to the foul line to knock down a pair with 47 seconds left; DeRozan grabbed his own rebound on the second of two missed free throws with 32 seconds left and knocked down the next two when he was fouled to provide the cushion needed, and the win.
One game is not a season, but it’s a start.
For 20 years basketball and the Raptors have been grinding to earn their place at the table in a marketplace where hockey seems to get the first, second and third helpings. So many times before they had a chance to fill themselves, to settle in for a while. Each time before it’s all gone clattering to the floor, leaving a mess.
On opening night the table was set: on a chilly night in October Maple Leaf Square was full. The “We the North” T-shirts were everywhere. With sellout crowds at exhibition games in Montreal and Vancouver, you can make the argument a nation was watching.
“This is what we’ve been building towards, trying to get basketball in that light, so to speak, in the country of Canada and the city of Toronto,” Casey said. “Vince Carter started it and this is another shot in the arm for young people in the country.
“Are we going to go 82-0? Are we going to stub our toe? Getting through those tough times is going to determine what we are.”
One game down, 81 to go. The Raptors started 1-0. Where this ends, no one knows, but feel free to dream.