For the first time all year, I’m struggling to write this blog. Is it really toxic positivity if the team is on a 2-game win streak, just got its best player back, and is an unstoppable vibes train? I’m just feeling regular old, run-of-the-mill positive about the basketball team that’s fun and maybe less bad than we all thought.
Apart from winning a championship, this is about as good as it gets as a fan. These Raptors are where low expectations and high quality entertainment meet. Losses are part of the deal we all signed coming into the year; they’re lessons, and help juice the lotto odds, if that’s a thing you care about. Wins feel novel, hard-earned, like glimpses of better days ahead. When all your team’s results can be spun into silver linings, watching hoop is bliss.
Let me propose one guiding principle for the rest of the year: whatever happens from here on out, let yourself enjoy it. Don’t let the lust for a 14% chance at Cooper Flagg dampen the thrill of a young team getting better and parlaying it into wins in the here and now. There was a Raptors team not so long ago that looked built to tank before accidentally kick-starting the best era in franchise history. If you can’t hoot and holler through a run of winning by a team testing its bounds, what are you doing here?
And, if you’re one of those died in the wool win-enjoyers, staunchly opposed to the anti-competitive underbelly of trying to stink out loud, you’ve no need to sweat the Ls. Things will stay groovy as long as this team stays trying — which this crew sure seems wired to do. If this a true gutter year, rest easy knowing it’s probably the last one for a while.
The reality is, even with 12 losses banked, this team might just be too good to outright sink to the bottom without some careful engineering. Newfound functional depth has been the antibody warding off the injury bug. Now, with Scottie Barnes back and some other pals returning (hopefully) soon, you look around and see nine, ten, maybe eleven dudes worthy of regular rotation run, who’ll now get to occupy roles more suited to their talents.
Look at Davion Mitchell, for example. Miscast as the starting point guard with Barnes and Immanuel Quickley out, Darko Rajakovic moved him to the bench against the Wolves, rolling out the beefy starting five I pitched in yesterday’s newsletter. In a reserve (and closing) role as a ball-guarding hellion, Mitchell was only additive to the 110-105 win.
“I think he pretty much changed the game,” said Darko Rajakovic of Mitchell, who was +20 despite not hitting a single shot from the field — a death blow were he tasked with running the offense as a starter. “I think he got into Anthony Edwards really well, he was really physical against him, and he just takes a lot of pride when he’s guarding guys like that.”
Mitchell locking into a more skill-appropriate role repeated itself the roster over with Barnes’ return. RJ Barrett’s lanes opened, Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji’s contributions were complimentary, not necessity. Jakob Poeltl still needs to do a lot, but not everything.
You can feel this team finding its footing, this past week marking their most balanced yet.
Before last Friday’s narrow NBA Cup loss to Detroit, Darko Rajakovic talked about the progress he thought the team’s defense was making (they’re up to 24th on the year, 21st if you repress the memory of the opener vs. Cleveland like a good positivity fiend should). He struck a tone normally reserved for Masai Ujiri, issuer of this season’s rebuilding edict.
“Everything is a part of the process. You know, every game this season, we gotta take it one game at a time and really focus on that and really focus what we can learn and how we can get better. And if you continue doing that and improving, wins are coming. Wins are coming. The Toronto Raptors are going to win.”
Who is anyone to stop them if they’re gonna start doing that ahead of schedule?
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Today on the podcast I dig into the Raptors’ win over the Wolves in Scottie Barnes’ return! Enjoy the show, and have a great weekend.
