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If it makes you feel better, take solace that Toronto’s 9-14 record to start this NBA season is not the worst in the franchise’s 29-year history. Not even close.
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Sure, this group can’t shoot or defend and doesn’t have any depth, but the first two editions of the Raptors went 7-16 to start and the third a ghastly 2-21 on the way to the worst campaign in Toronto history. The 2005-06 and 2012-13 teams started 4-19, but this year’s start is the worst for a Raptors team in a decade.
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The bad news: Of the 11 Raptors team to start 9-14 or worse over the first 23 games of a season, only two — the 2005-06 and 2013-14 teams — managed to rally and make the playoffs. Both went on big runs and ended up favourites against the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets, but fell in six, and seven games, respectively. Both those teams reignited the fanbase and set the franchise up for some success, but it’s hard to see these Raptors following suit. Even with the NBA’s play-in system, which got Toronto an extra game — it should have been more — in 2022-23, nobody expect them to rally and become a favourite come April.
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Losing four straight and six of seven has dropped Toronto to 11th in the Eastern Conference, and only a game out of 13th. Toronto is just 5-13 against East opponents. The awful Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards will occupy the cellar, but nothing else is a given in the conference. The disappointing team just in front of the Raptors — the Atlanta Hawks, a half game up — come to town for a rare doubleheader, with games on Wednesday and Friday. Those games will represent a chance for Toronto to turn things around and to change the mood around the team. Jakob Poeltl recently said that while things don’t feel awful, they certainly don’t seem great either. Pascal Siakam promised Tuesday that the Raptors will keep fighting. “You’ve gotta fight,” Siakam told reporters after practice. “There’s going to be times where it’s hard out there and you feel like you’re getting knocked down every time you’re going out there. It feels like a boxing match, where you’re getting knocked down and you can’t see nothing,” Siakam said.
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“Looking for your mouthpiece, trying to find anything. You’re on the floor, the ref is counting, blood coming out your mouth.”
Siakam painted quite a picture, recalling former teammate DeMar DeRozan, who was the Raptors king of analogies, along with Charles Oakley. But even he knows it’s one thing to talk about what needs to be done, another to do it.
“At the end of the day we can talk about Xs and Os and this and that,” Siakam told reporters. “We’ve just got to be able to buckle up and go out and do it. We have no choice. This is what it is and we have to figure it out.”
But is this a puzzle that can be solved? All evidence suggests not, unless management finally decides to alter the roster significantly. Yes, many Raptors are shooting near career worst levels both from outside and the free throw line, but even if this isn’t the worst three-point shooting team in the NBA, where they currently sit, it’s got to be close. Atlanta shoots 84% from the line, two other teams 85% or better. The Raptors shoot 73.5%, which is also nowhere close to the top teams. The Raptors don’t have much room to operate both because there is too much roster duplication and limitations and because opponents simply don’t respect their abilities to put the ball in the basket. Only five teams shoot worse on wide open shots, per nba.com and when opponents due tend to close in, the Raptors don’t hit those attempts either (only five teams shoot worse when defenders are within 2-4 feet).
All in all, this has not been the start to the Darko Rajakovic/post Fred VanVleet Eras that anyone hoped for.
But once again, it could be worse. Maybe that’s going to have to do for now.
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