Raptors likely spectators at trade deadline

While Ujiri wound up keeping Ibaka around, Tucker was a mere rental and the additions didn’t get the Raptors that next step they were looking to achieve.

Ujiri prefers to do his adding in the off-season, which ensures a training camp to get the player assimilated to his new environment.

Then there’s the argument for not messing with a good thing for fear of losing what they have.

No one — not Ujiri, not head coach Dwane Casey — can know how this team will conduct itself come playoff time. They have changed their approach this season and appear to be a strong offensive team because of it, but that is only regular-season tested.

The changes — more ball movement, less reliance on the two big dogs in DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry and a bigger emphasis on three-point shooting being the biggest ones — have all proven to be beneficial in the regular season environment.

But it’s not a success until it passes the playoff test.

Perhaps it was coincidence, perhaps not, but two days before the trade deadline, Casey was still hammering home the need to have three-point makers in his lineup. He has the takers but as a team, the Raptors are shooting just 35 per cent from behind the arc, which ranks 25th in the NBA.

Casey says he’s pleased with the number of treys his club is getting up.

He’d just like to see a few more go in.

But given what we know about Ujiri and his management team and their tendencies at this time of year, whatever three-point shooting improvement Casey gets is likely going to have to come internally. nationalpost.com