Chaos with Cavs good for Raptors
It’s been most of three months since the Raptors were swept into oblivion by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. And if that defeat still resonates in its one-sidedness — if it exposed the Raptors as residing in an NBA no-man’s land between true contender and tank-ready rebuilder — maybe its sting has been softened by time.
Time, and the twists and turns of this wild NBA summer.
Sure, Toronto’s dismal post-season was disheartening, but its outlook has been brightened, at least slightly, by an offseason that’s been equally intriguing.
If basketball’s playoffs seemed preordained, its remarkable July has been refreshingly unpredictable. Even with the NFL season about six weeks in the offing, basketball talk has overtaken football chatter as the go-to sports-talk topic on plenty of U.S. outlets.
Never mind that it’s only been six weeks since the Golden State Warriors asserted their incredible dominance with a five-game walkover of the Cavs in the NBA final.
Even the presence of an untouchable super team hasn’t taken away from the off-court drama.
And the thing is, a lot of the off-court drama has broken in Toronto’s favour.
It’s not just the continuing dysfunction in New York, where Phil Jackson finally exited after his miscast run as Knicks president, and where the pall of hopelessness — not to mention the cluelessness of owner James Dolan — kept Raptors president Masai Ujiri from seeing the job, for all its Big Apple charms and huge-money prospects, from being a real possibility.
And it’s not simply the hollowing out of the Eastern Conference, where a healthy chunk of teams have assessed their situation and decided that now’s the time for a gutting. In the past month or so, Indiana’s Paul George has been traded to Oklahoma City, Chicago’s Jimmy Butler has been shipped to Minnesota and Atlanta’s Paul Millsap signed as a free agent in Denver — three all-stars from the already-inferior East headed to the West.
It’s also the recent report from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst that Kyrie Irving, Cleveland’s ball-on-a-string, rise-to-themoment point guard, has spent part of his off-season asking to be traded out from under James’ massive shadow.
Depending on the explanation to which you subscribe, Irving is either (a) tired of playing alongside James and wants to reside in a place where he’s more of a focal point (an odd outlook considering James is among the most willing passers in the pantheon of all-time greats, and that Irving led the Cavaliers in shot attempts last season); or (b) seeing into a future in which James, who can be a free agent next summer, looks to have plenty of motivation to depart Cleveland after next season.
If (b) looks more likely, it’s hard to blame Irving for not wanting to be the last all-star standing on a soon-to-be-irrelevant team.
Either way, all of that is good for the Raptors. Chaos in Cleveland is good for the Raptors.
And sure enough, there’s been plenty more on offer, including the bizarre departure of Cavs GM David Griffin, who’d done a great job that apparently wasn’t valued by owner Dan Gilbert. While James sent out a social-media message on Tuesday that appeared to refute an ESPN report that claimed James was upset enough with Irving’s trade request to want to “beat (Irving’s) ass” — a post that included the hashtag #NotFactsPeople — team harmony doesn’t appear imminent. Add the Irving storyline to the idea that all-star forward Kevin Love was reportedly a linchpin in a proposed but nixed trade that would have brought George to Cleveland and it’s not hard to imagine how next season will test the limits of James’ genius as a team leader.
Which is not to say the Raptors — whose key off-season moves, save for the acquisition of three-point-shooting specialist C.J. Miles, have been mostly status-quo transactions — are suddenly the favourites to rule the East. Even if their conference is the equivalent of the league’s second division, the list of emerging teams isn’t insignificant. Philadelphia is an emerging power, but the Sixers’ window to contend probably won’t open for a couple of years. Milwaukee is scary, as the Raptors found out in a first-round series that went six games. Washington remains a threat.
And Boston is certainly better with the addition of free-agent prize Gordon Hayward. But let’s not forget that, for all the criticism of Raptors coaching staff after Toronto was dismantled by the Cavs in the second round, LeBron and company unleashed a beatdown on the Celt- ics that was, in some ways, even more resounding. The idea that the Celtics are a distinguishable cut above the Raptors, or that Boston coach Brad Stevens is some kind of strategic savant . . . Boston’s 46point loss in Game 2 suggested otherwise.
All of that is to say that Ujiri’s three-year commitment to Kyle Lowry has looked more and more wise with the passing of time. Not that it’d be a shock if James, after an off-season of drama, finds a way to make his team ridiculously formidable, no matter who’s on it. Then again, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine a less-impressive scenario. If James is playing with one foot out the door, if Irving begins the season with both feet somewhere else — or, at least, wishing it’d be so — then there’s at least a chance the Cavs won’t be crowned Eastern Conference champions before the season even begins.
In a league that’s lately been short on unpredictability, that amounts to something approaching bankable optimism in Raptorland.