Team From the North Could Crash Eastern Conference Party

Breaking news: the Toronto Raptors have, in fact, NOT seceded from the NBA.

With the lack of attention being paid their way, it may seem they’ve gone away or entered the witness protection program. It’s almost xenophobic how this team from a foreign country is getting so little mention in the Eastern Conference race.

The Raptors were the fifth seed in the East last year, getting banged up early in a first round series against Philadelphia and falling in six games. They were certainly in the mix with the better teams — enough to warrant a close inspection as the 2022-23 regular season approaches.

But point guard/spiritual leader Fred VanVleet isn’t bothered by the fact he and his mates apparently aren’t among the popular kids at school this year.

“No, it’s good,” he told Heavy Sports. “It’s a good thing. Stay under the radar. We know what we have.

“We were a team that finished fifth last year, and I think the general opinion is that everybody went and got better. But I would like to think we got better, too, so we’ll just come to work and keep growing and getting better. We have some championship experience on this team, so you understand that all of it is just noise — especially early on. It’s just noise.”

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‘I Think We Can Play With Any of Those Teams’

Last year’s East order — Miami, Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia — is looking well, with Brooklyn and Cleveland early line favorites to perhaps crash the top half of the seeding.

Toronto coach Nick Nurse gets it.

“Listen, you’re going to talk about the teams above us for sure,” he told Heavy. “We finished fifth last year and people put us fifth or sixth this year. The teams above us didn’t get any worse. They didn’t lose any players, right? Cleveland had a big trade for a star player (Donovan Mitchell), so that probably bumps them up in people’s eyes. Rightly so. You’ve got to go on the court and prove that we’re worthy.

“I mean, I think we can play with any of those teams. And even in the regular season last year, we went 2-2 with Boston, 2-2 with Miami, 3-0 against Milwaukee, 3-1 against Philly. That’s the four teams above us and that’s a well over .500 record against those teams. But I think we’ve got to take care of a little more business. We probably gave some games away that we could have won — not against those teams; I’m just saying against some teams maybe we should beat.”

VanVleet looked at the numerical perspective.

“I think we finished with 48 (wins), and the first seed (Miami) was like 53,” he said. “I mean, we were four or five games back from 1, and we dropped a couple of games we probably should have had and we had a lot of injuries. So we know how capable we are.

“But I think this team has deeper aspirations than being the talk of the preseason.”

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Raptors Need Health, Improvement

As far as how the Raptors can get into the conversation and contend in the conference, Nurse said, “It’s probably two things. One — and a lot of teams can say this — we’ve got to stay a lot healthier than we did a year ago. Like, we weren’t going to beat Philly in that series when we lost three guys in our top six on the first night. And then we almost got back control of that thing anyway, but we just weren’t going to do it when we were only playing about seven and a half guys. So we need to stay a lot healthier. The depth needs to come through, and then some guys need to step forward. Pascal (Siakam) has got to play better. You know, even though he was All-NBA (3rd team), he’s got to keep playing better, and the rest of those guys need to improve a little bit.”

According to VanVleet, Toronto needs to be better when the game changes in the playoffs and becomes more possession-for-possession in crunch time. The regular season track meet dissolves toward a halfcourt execution challenge.

“Just style of play. We play a lot of free-flowing offense, but at some point in the playoffs your halfcourt offense has got to be better,” VanVleet said. “We’ve got to find a way to clean up the defensive glass a little bit. Those are two areas that probably hurt us. But, again, we didn’t have our full team for a lot of the year. Now everybody’s back and better and stronger and healthier, so I like our group.”

Even if the prognosticators are paying the Raptors little mind.

 

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