My guess is that by the time Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment honcho Tim Leiweke finally leaves Toronto — talk about the long goodbye — about 20 percent of his pronouncements will have actually come true.
I don’t think we can say yet that we’re seeing the materialization of his suggestion the Raptors would some day eclipse the Maple Leafs in the city’s sports consciousness is about to materialize, but with all these hints of a new ice age of rebuilding hockey — fingers crossed that the people doing the rebuilding actually know how to pull it off — there are people in this city wondering whether those words might ring true sooner as opposed to later.
Most likely, it will be temporary; from my point of view, this city’s addiction to the Leafs can only be controlled, not cured. But let’s be honest, the Raptors head into the eight-day NBA all-star break everything the Maple Leafs are not, and that’s a feeling that seems to be roping in the casual as well as engaged sports fan.
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Twice in recent weeks the wheels appeared to be in danger of coming off. Most recently last week, when after back-to-back home-court losses to the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets, they rallied from a 20-point first-quarter deficit for a 123-107 win over the Los Angeles Clippers — who had won 83 consecutive games in which they’d led by 20 points or more.
The Raptors followed that up with a professional win over the San Antonio Spurs, before beating the Washington Wizards on Wednesday. Prior to that, the Raptors tumbled through a 3-7 run before a 93-86 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Jan. 23 set them on course for a six-game winning streak.
Yet here we are. The Raptors have 36 wins, seven more than they’ve had at the all-star break at any other point in franchise history. They’ve given fans plenty to cheer about, a few things to worry about, and at least five things to think about over the break:
THE STARTING LINEUP
Head coach Dwane Casey mentioned after the stirring come-from-behind win over the Clippers that he was still searching for a group that could, in his words, “put the pedal to the metal” at the start of a game.
At the break, it seems apparent the best group to do that is Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas, Amir Johnson and James Johnson. Patrick Patterson’s re-emerging three-point capabilities as well as his length should open the possibility of him joining the starting five, since it’s the one aspect of Terence Ross’s game that is noticeably absent when he’s not in the lineup. Health is always a concern with Amir Johnson; Patterson could be due more starting time.
Casey used Greivis Vasquez alongside Lowry to give his all-star point guard a little time off the ball — Lowry dislocated his right ring finger last month during a game in Memphis — and while it’s an interesting in-game look that might come in handy at points during the playoffs, there were times where it seemed the Raptors got in their own way with the pair on the court.
THE TRADE DEADLINE
The Raptors return to action next Friday, 24 hours after the expiration of the NBA trade deadline. Johnson’s renaissance has solved one of the real glaring shortcomings of the team coming out of training camp — the perceived absence of a lock-down, wing defender — and indeed it’s entirely appropriate now to wonder whether the Raptors would have beaten the Brooklyn Nets in the playoffs last season had they had this version of Johnson in their lineup.
Amir Johnson’s expiring contract would in any other season make him a trade candidate and the aforementioned Ross has one more year remaining on his rookie contract ($3,553,917 in 2015-2016) without taking the kind of step forward expected. Landry Fields, Lou Williams, Chuck Hayes and Tyler Hansbrough do not have deals for next year but of that group general manager Masai Ujiri would likely only move Fields, without expecting much in return.
Ideally, a playoff-tested big would be a nice pickup and the Raptors might put their first-round pick in play for the right commodity. But considering how this team plays when it’s at its best, Ujiri would seem to be best served by standing pat and making a call on Ross in the off-season.
THE BENCH
The Raptors have had just one game this season where they did not have at least one double-digit scorer off the bench; that was in Sunday’s win over the Spurs, won largely because the Raptors starters out-played the Spurs starters (in fact, the Spurs starters shot just .286 from the field, the fifth-lowest in any game started by Tim Duncan during his 18-year career.)
The Raptors bench is averaging 39.9 points per game (sixth in the NBA) and is fifth in efficiency and Williams, the biggest steal of Ujiri’s tenure as GM, is once again making a case for Sixth Man of the Year honours and gives Casey a player capable of creating his own shot who has also shown he can handle responsible defensive minutes.
THE BIG LITHUANIAN
James Johnson’s quest for starting status gradually became a hobby-horse for many of Casey’s more vocal and subtle critics, but for much of the first half the focal point was Casey’s use of Valanciunas, the 22-year-old work-in-progress centre.
Casey spent much of the first half being reluctant to use Valanciunas late in games even when he wasn’t in foul trouble, largely because he felt the big man was a defensive liability late in close games whenever play became frenetic. Casey freely admitted that he was OK allowing opposing coaches to force his hand with matchups, even though conventional wisdom is that Valanciunas needs to be steeled for the half-court hurly-burly of post-season basketball.
Valanciunas’ offence isn’t questioned — he’s seventh in field goal percentage — but he has also had spurts recently where he has been a much more pronounced presence at the rim. A bonus come playoff time? He’s a big man who can shoot free-throws.
THE FUTURE, A.K.A. CAN THEY WIN A PLAYOFF ROUND?
More than anything, this is what Toronto — never mind just Raptors fans — crave. A reason to tear it up in the spring, with hope that the Toronto Blue Jays give the city something to latch on to through the summer.
Ujiri has played this right from the start of the season, saying that all he wanted to see was progress, and suggesting that there were ways of measuring progress beyond a playoff win. He’s right, of course; the sports world is full of teams that make a surprise playoff appearance and then take a step back before achieving full bloom. And while the Eastern Conference isn’t exactly a juggernaut, there are matchup minefields for the Raptors — specifically, the Cleveland Cavaliers (now that they’ve found their sea-legs) and the Chicago Bulls. But the Charlotte Hornets can be a trip-wire, too. So can the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Raptors will play nine of 11 on the road out of the break, so they’ll have to hit the ground running. The good news is that Casey’s been here before, even if many of his players haven’t. More good news can be found in the fact that in recent games Casey seems to have found a few combinations that create issues for really good teams.
But the best news, of course, is they have something to play for — something upon which a sports fan can hang their hat in the dregs of what sometimes seems a never-ending sports winter. The Raptors are the warmth in our sports fans hearts; the only heat provided by the Leafs comes from the candles we’re lighting for them.