Heyyyyyy, what’s goin’ on! And welcome to the daily Locked On Raptors newsletter. I’m your out-of-retirement blogsman Sean Woodley and I’m super thankful you’ve become an early subscriber.
Please, tell a friend to subscribe, and then tell some more friends. I’m thrilled to be back writing about the Raptors on top of bringing you the podcast each day. And the more support we can get, the better.
Now, we’ve got a word count limit to navigate, so let’s jump into some quick reflections on the preseason with the real stuff just a couple days out.
I swore I wouldn’t do this, but...
I’ve been preseason-pilled by the Raptors... sort of. Now look, I’m not under and illusions that this team will be capital-G Good. Coming into the preseason, my hope, though not my expectation, was that this would be at least be a Fun Bad squad, and not the joyless almost-basketball team we had to sit through last season thanks to pre-trade awkwardness, roster upheaval and injury.
I come out of these five faux games convinced they’ve got a way better shot to be Fun Bad than not. And I’ve opened myself up to thinking there’s a 20-25% chance this team becomes a surprise riser. There’s always a team or two that defies preseason prognostications, and one built around a bunch of early-to-mid-twenty-somethings exploring their limits feels like a decent bet to be one of those teams.
Especially when one of those youths is Scottie Barnes, who looks extremely ready to be The Dude, all preseason caveats applied. A Scottie Barnes playing with the downhill force and verve and joy we saw for extended stretches in the preseason is a Scottie Barnes who can absolutely make the leap from All-Star to super-max worthy All-NBA contender, especially within the context of a starting five that looks like a gorgeous offensive fit once RJ Barrett returns. Guys that good drag teams to wins.
What keeps teams from winning, even with a lights out group of starters, is a porous bench. And I saw just enough from Ochai Agbaji, who couldn’t miss a two to save his life, Chris Boucher, energetic as ever, and the punchy Davion Mitchell-Jamal Shead-Jonathan Mogbo trio to imagine the faint outline of a workable bench once Kelly Olynyk, Bruce Brown and Ja’Kobe Walter return from injury. I’d bet against the bench being a strength, but can it avoid being a catastrophic liability this crew’s been projected to be? I feel better about that now than I did on media day, especially considering this team looks like it might adopt a bit of an annoying try-hard ethos, which is always good for papering over skill deficits.
Odds are, Toronto’s careening towards another lottery pick by February, and probably happy about it. But a strong preseason has cracked the door a smidge for something much more fun.
Enjoy today’s podcast, see ya tomorrow.
