TPF is back! The Raptors are 2-7, but who cares! On this day, our wildest hoop dreams are attainable.
This time around, scaling the Eastern Conference is in our sights. Have you taken a look at the East standings lately? It’s the unstoppable Cavs, the inevitable Celtics, and 13 teams worth of pee-eww, stinky-stinky.
These squads have problems, folks!
Indiana can’t defend and Tyrese Haliburton is searching far and wide for the TYRESE HALIBURTON(!?!?!) that broke our brains and defenses a year ago. Tied with them for 3rd at a nice round .500 are the Nets. Sean Marks, his hand hovering ever more twitchily above the eject button, won’t be having any of that into the new year.
The Hawks have a trio of wing freaks in Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson and Zaccharie Risacher living out the Anunoby-Siakam-Barnes fantasy, except they’re much worse (for now). The Knicks are thin and janky. As we all learned last year, there’s nothing like a good “will they won’t they” star player trade subplot to sewer a season; maybe Miami’s Jimmy Butler is this year’s Pascal Siakam?
Chicago’s in 8th despite being as bad at offense as the Raptors are at defense. Charlotte’s looked spunky and that’s definitely gonna hold up, no for sure. Orlando’s dealing with one of the biggest bummer injuries of the year; it’s not their fault, but without Paolo they’re worse at scoring than everyone, and by a lot. With Washington, all the fun doesn’t negate all the bad. And the Pistons are the Pistons until they show they’re not.
That’s without even mentioning the true disasters: the Sixers, who have an excuse, and the Bucks, who don’t.
Toronto obviously has its warts, and lots of ‘em. Plagued by injuries to stars and depth, and the definition of a movable object on defense, they don’t totally deserve to be 2-7, but this isn’t some 50-win freight train hiding in plain sight. Thing is, you probably don’t have to be to wind up near the top of this pile of soiled jeans teams.
Immanuel Quickley is due back any day now, bringing balms for two of the Raptors’ bugaboos: 3-point shooting, and ball security. A healthy IQ these last couple weeks probably tilts a couple of the Raps’ coin flip losses the other way. Scottie Barnes doesn’t need orbital bone surgery, which means his return is probably closer than it feels.
A lot was made before the season about the Raptors’ early-season tough mudder of a schedule. Not such a boogeyman when 87% of the conference you contest is bad, hurt or both. The Clippers, Lakers (28th in defense?!), Bucks, Pistons, Celtics and Pacers are on deck. A month ago that looked like a 1-5 slump. Now? Looks like a borderline heater to me.
Toronto’s 13th in offense with a skeleton crew; Scottie Barnes has played 4 games, Quickley 14 minutes. With their already elite rim pressure and a few more threes, there’s a Top-10 unit in the bones of the healthy Raptors. Being really good at one thing can drag you to the 40-something wins zone when everyone else is mid. A meager jump from 29th to, say, 21st in defense would help matters, too. Barnes will carry some weight in that effort.
A surprise playoff push would be one of them good problems. Sure, the idea of adding another potential Dude in the draft at the end of an entertaining losing year is nice. But if the group you have develops into something good enough to haul you into the Top-6 on its own merits, you don’t stand in the way of that, even if the conference is in a grim state. Getting good begets trades for Dudes who aren’t hypothetical.
Sitting just two games out of sixth with a lot more going right for them than a bunch of the teams they need to leap, maybe it’s not so crazy to envision late-April hoop in Toronto.
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Today on the podcast, Katie Heindl, your fearless Locked On national newsletter editor, stops by for her first Toxic Positivity Friday where we take stock a seemingly climbable Eastern Conference. Enjoy the show, and have a wonderful weekend.
