Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog
I’m a Toronto Raptors Fan. I’ve been a fan since day 1. Before the Raptors came to Toronto, I was, and remain, a big fan of the game of basketball.
But, if I’m being honest, ever since the Tampa Tank 2020-21, the Toronto Raptors have been hard to watch.
Their brand of basketball, along with the teams they’ve assembled haven’t been easy on the eyes. Most of the players on their rosters since that time aren’t here anymore. Whether that was by design (trade, lost to free agency), or more so because the players they’ve brought in just aren’t good enough to play in the NBA in a meaningful way. The has been no roster continuity.
The roster turnover from the past 4 years has been huge in a bad way. There have been a lot of players they’ve brought in who simply aren’t in the NBA anymore. That should tell you something about the talent they’ve attracted and invested in. It’s been poor.
Yet, the organization has been charging a premium price to the fan base. When the organization charges a premium price, you would expect have a premium product delivered in return. Unfortunately, this has not been the case in recent years. It’s no coincidence I feel this way. The largest loss measured by point differential in Raptors History took place just last season in a 133-85 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. That’s a 48 point margin of defeat.
If you dive deeper into those all time loss stats, 5 of top 11 (45%) of the Raptors worst losses when looking at point differential have come since 2021-2022! This means that since the 2021-2022 season, Raptor fans have seen 45% of the worst games by point differential played in Raptor history! That’s astounding! This is a disproportionately high number of bad games over such a short period of time.
It can be argued that these blowout losses have come in the modern era of the NBA where three point shooting magnifies the score line in favour of the team which is jacking up and connecting on more three point shots.
But, at the same time, if you look at the opposite stat, biggest win margins in Raptor history, only 2 games are on that list since the 2021-2022 season.
Which leads me to believe that the eye test of the Raptors being an unwatchable team is supported by the stats.
The upcoming 2024-25 season has not even started yet, and the Raptors are already suffering. It was announced last week, before the season is scheduled to start that Bruce Brown will undergo knee surgery which will keep him out of the lineup for an extended period of time. If the Raptors are going to “win“, or have any shot at being moderately competitive, an experienced veteran like Bruce Brown would be very helpful. But he’s gone even before opening tip off. And he might not be an attractive trade target coming off this injury which further decreases his value to the club.
So; what’s there to look forward to?
This franchise has gone all in on Scottie Barnes. They cleared the player pool of past talent so that he can flourish. The entire team is based on him performing at an All-NBA level. If he doesn’t perform, the team will fail in epic fashion.
What happens if Scottie isn’t an All-NBA level talent? What happens if he turns out to be just a good player? What happens if he doesn’t answer the call or rise to the occasion?
I think Scottie Barnes is a good player. I don’t think he’s a franchise player at this point of his career. He might get there in a few years. Or he might not. This doesn’t mean that he won’t put up big numbers this season. I fully expect him to do so on the basis that the offense will be designed entirely around him. Keep in mind that somebody, even on a bad team, has to put up numbers (see former Raptor Mike James)and I expect Scottie to do so. But, I don’t expect those big numbers to translate to winning. In fact, given “*statflation” in the NBA, I expect Scottie to put up a season high for triple doubles in a Raptor season. But, I think those numbers will be hollow and not translate to on court success.
This season will be another hard one for the Raptors and for the fans. A lot of losses and lessons from a team which doesn’t have the talent or experience to compete.
The head office knows this. And it’s for this reason that the Raptors are making a big deal about their 30th anniversary season with new jerseys, new court graphics, a premature Vince Carter retirement ceremony and all sorts of other celebrations. The festivities have nothing to do with the on court product. They serve as distractions from the games themselves which will be necessary in a bad season.
What’s even more troubling is that there aren’t any real blue chip prospects in the Raptor’s development pipeline who we can expect to produce in the upcoming years. The young talent on this team is simply not as deep as compared to other teams which have not made the playoffs in recent years. Without grasping for straws, are you excited about any player’s development for the upcoming season? Other than Gradey Dick, are any of those young players you’re thinking about going to be in the NBA in the next 5 years? Are they going to make a meaningful impact on winning in a playoff game? Are they going to make an All-Star team? Likely not.
The very best case scenario this season is for the Raptors to qualify for the play-in game and perhaps winning that, and then losing in the first round of the playoffs to a far superior opponent. This would be a total success for the Raptors this season.
The more realistic scenario is failing to make the play-in, and getting a lottery pick somewhere from 5-10 depending on how the lottery balls bounce. We will see a lot of young players get minutes. Yet few of those players who we will audition for the Raptors will be in the NBA in the 2025-26 season (just as we saw with the crop of young players we saw in 2023/2024). The real story of the season will be the good vibes from the 30th anniversary of the team and all of the distractions which will come with it. That should be enough to get the average fan through the season in order to numb the effect from the mediocrity I expect to see on the court.
* “Statflation” refers to the term in pro sports where stats are inflated by the league (whether by rule design or not) in order to draw more attention to the player, the game and the league across all media platforms translating to economic gains for all parties involved.
