With just over a month’s worth of regular season games in the books, the Toronto Raptors are closer to becoming the team many expected them to be in 2016-2017.
That said, the question remains: is that good enough?
The Raptors’ recent struggles have done little to assuage the fears that the core of the franchise is not strong enough to hang with either the Cleveland Cavaliers or the titans of the Western Conference for longer than a game or two.
After starting the year 7-and-2 — mostly on the strength of a Michael Jordan-esque scoring run from DeMar DeRozan — Toronto has gone 2-and-4 since then. Three of those four losses came against the level of competition the Raptors must measure themselves against: the Cavs, Warriors and Clippers. The fourth came in controversial fashion to the Sacramento Kings, a clearly inferior team that the Raps nevertheless have already lost to twice this season.
Fortunately, before too much doubt could creep in, the Raptors put together perhaps their most complete performance of the season in a win over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
Easily the most encouraging thing to come out of that victory was a return to defensive form, forcing 26 turnovers while holding the high-scoring Rockets to 102 points.
Toronto had allowed an average of 114.3 points over their previous six games, which isn’t exactly a recipe for winning basketball.
It’s clear the Raptors miss the shot-blocking and rim protection of center Bismack Biyombo, who signed a lucrative free agent contract with the Orlando Magic in the offseason.
Filling Biz’s shoes on D has proven to be no easy task, especially when the responsibility has largely fallen on the shoulders of unproven youngsters like Lucas Nogueira, Jakob Poeltl and Pascal Siakam. Starting center Jonas Valanciunas has certainly done his part offensively so far, but his questionable defensive skills haven’t improved considerably as of yet.
And a spotty defense isn’t the only cause for concern for the Raps.
Going into Friday’s contest, no one in the NBA has logged more minutes per game than Kyle Lowry. The 30-year-old point guard is clearly the engine that drives the Raptors’ offence forward, but if that engine runs out of gas — as it did at times the past couple of years — it could spell trouble as the playoffs draw closer.
With DeRozan locked up through 2020-21 and the remaining core Raptors mostly under contract for the next couple of years at least (Lowry has a player option for 2017-2018), this is the Toronto squad that is tasked with making the leap to elite status in the NBA.
Without better results against the league’s other top teams, combined with a sustained effort on defence, however, the Raptors may fall short yet again of that goal.
Chris Suppa is a freelance writer and photographer based in Toronto. Follow him at @Suppa55 for somewhat-coherent ramblings about the Blue Jays and on Instagram at @chrissuppaphotography.
