Raptors shell-shocked from ouster
Swept out of the playoffs yet again by Cleveland, what comes next?
Kyle Lowry called it a wasted season. DeMar DeRozan said it was the low point of his NBA career.
The Toronto Raptors headed into an off-season of uncertainty Tuesday after suffering another embarrassing playoff sweep at the hands of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But this elimination felt far worse than the previous years. And it may have cost coach Dwane Casey his job.
“It’s just a terrible feeling of when reality hits you that tomorrow you won’t be preparing for work,” DeRozan said. “My nine years being in the league, this is probably the toughest, most frustrating, difficult, lowest feeling I’ve had.”
Hopes had been sky-high after the Raptors roared to a franchisebest 59 wins to clinch the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, and Casey’s ability to both revamp the team’s offensive style and develop his bench made the 61-year-old a front-runner for the NBA coach of the year.
James and the Cavs slashed through all of Toronto’s regularseason work in seven quick days, leaving the Raptors still shellshocked the morning after their humiliating 128-93 blowout loss in Game 4 of their second-round series.
“It does feel a lot different because we feel we could possibly make the NBA Finals, that was our goal,” Lowry said. “For me it was championship or bust, that’s what I feel, that’s what I always feel, so a wasted year for me.”
Neither Casey nor team president Masai Ujiri spoke to the media on Tuesday. The team said they would be available at a later date.
Casey is the most successful coach in franchise history and the Raptors’ record has improved in all but one of his seven seasons at the helm. But there’s been a palpable feeling that change is afoot since the Raptors fell to 0-2 in the Cavs series.
While DeRozan had trouble pinpointing where it all unravelled against Cleveland, suggesting it’s unfortunate the Raptors met the Cavs so early in two consecutive seasons, Lowry said the biggest thing missing was “physical toughness.”
“I think we just let them be too comfortable,” he said.
Lowry and DeRozan, who between them will make more than US$57 million next season, both said they still believe the team has the right pieces in place. Lowry pointed to the young players such as rookie OG Anunoby, who was one of the few bright spots in the Cavs series, plus Jakob Poeltl, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet, and Pascal Siakam.
“Our young guys will continue to get better,” he said.