Junk food rules. Salty snacks, sweet treats, zero-nutrition fast food calorie bombs — I don’t discriminate. Give me all the trash. This is what exercise is for.
And yet, I know it’s terrible for me. I’d probably feel better and live longer if I trimmed my Crunchwrap Supreme consumption by 70-80%. And sometimes I find that self control, usually at a low point when my blood feels like nacho cheese sauce, and I’ll go on a health kick for a bit. But that’s no fun, and so my worst instincts once again start to take hold.
I’m feeling this push and pull between what’s joyful and what’s healthy with the Toronto Raptors right about now, too. I’m not a fool. I know it’s better for the longer-term outcomes of the Scottie Barnes era if the team stays on its plotted course for the bottom of the standings and adds a high pick to what they’ve already got going on. When your record is what the Raptors’ is, it’s probably wise to just own it.
And up until this past week, I had completely accepted and gotten on board with this being the Raptors’ last dip in the lottery before things start getting serious next year.
Winning is a helluva drug, though. Watching the Raptors do so after losing as much as they did for the first 3 months is like downing a Costco-sized bag of chips at the end of a juice cleanse. Oh, the chemical synapses.
Now let’s be clear: I don’t think what the Raptors are doing over the last couple weeks is especially sustainable, at least not once the inevitable happens and Toronto deals most or all of the bench veterans who have in large part inspired the team’s recent surge. Bruce Brown, Chris Boucher and maybe Davion Mitchell and/or Kelly Olynyk getting shipped off will make it a whole lot harder for Toronto to win at this kind of clip, even if Scottie Barnes keeps on leaping.
But I can’t sit here and full-throatedly claim that I won’t be kinda stoked if, somehow, the wins keep on coming post-deadline, because if they do, it probably means something’s going extremely right with Barnes.
In this hypothetical probably not happening world where Barnes starts carrying a rotation half full of rookies to victories and pushes the Raptors, currently 5.5 games back, towards a play-in spot, it means The Thing is happening with the guy the Raptors have invested their future in. It means he’s translating his super interesting package of mid-range shot-making, play-making and genuinely All-World quality defense into winning basketball, even within a less-than-ideal context. As undeniably helpful as a more or less guaranteed Top-5 pick might be, halting the Barnes train rolling at full chug with a made up injury or other chicanery would be the “eating boiled broccoli” of in-season decisions. Good, smart, heart-healthy, and lame as shit.
We’ve seen the Raptors make back-half climbs up the standings before, of varying persuasions. There’s no doubt, the 2022-23 team’s Jakob Poeltl-fueled run to the play-in was as empty calories as it gets. It was a team near the end of its rope gorging itself on one last feast that only expedited its death.
This year’s team going on a similar, even more dramatic run, would be way more of the 2013-14 millieu — a young, hungry team that clicked, laying a foundation upon which to build for many years. Except in this instance, Barnes’ individual upside is beyond anyone on that incredibly fun team. Were he to carry Toronto to a blistering record down the stretch, it’s your indulgent restaurant-grade meal — loaded with butter and fat and bad stuff, but still rich in nutritional value, even if it’ll leave you a little more lethargic the next day than you’d like.
We’re a ways from this becoming a genuine discussion — the likes of which is sure to rip the fan base apart at the seams. Toronto needs to keep winning, trade its vets, and then keep on winning without them, which their 13-32 record suggests probably ain’t happening. But presented the choice between health food and tasty junk, I know which way I’m leaning, cholesterol levels be damned.
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Today on the podcast Vivek Jacob and I talked about the Raptors’ 2-0 run through Atlanta, Scottie Barnes’ defensive impact, and a very topical Would You Rather scenario. Enjoy the show!
