Raptors have rebuilt successfully before, but it won’t be quick
Things are dark right now for the Toronto Raptors, but the franchise has seen worse days and if the sun could rise again after those down periods, it can again in the coming years. But it’s going to take some strong work from the front office and a lot of luck.
There have been times like the present when being optimistic about the Raptors franchise was not for the faint of heart. We’ve seen 15 straight losses before. We’ve seen Raptors squads that can’t come close to playing competent defence, we’ve seen ones ravaged by injuries. But that doesn’t mean the current Raptors are in a good place. A bottom-five record is in play and it might not even earn the reward of a high draft pick, since the lottery could sink the Raptors to seven or lower, sending the selection to San Antonio.
And even if lottery luck goes Toronto’s way, it could be an Andrea Bargnani draft situation all over again, with a top three pick arriving in a draft considered one of the worst in years. Kyle Lowry is of course long gone, as are Fred Vanvleet, Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby.
The vaunted developmental team has mostly faltered in recent years after a huge run that culminated in a championship, though Scottie Barnes has flashed all-nba potential at times.
Ticket prices are going up yet again, while fan interest seems to understandably be faltering. Vast swaths of empty seats have been the norm over the last month or two as the team has freefalled.
So, there’s plenty of work to be done to get the Raptors back on the right path, but at least the events following the worst period in franchise history show that as Kevin Garnett once said: “Anything is possible.”
By the end of the 1997-98 season the Raptors had lost original owner John Bitove, team boss Isiah Thomas and the first star/rookie of the year/face of the franchise Damon Stoudamire in quick succession. They’d also lost a stunning 66 games and were playing to less than 15,000 a night mostly at the cavernous Skydome. Things looked bleak, with most of the goodwill and initial buzz of Toronto’s expansion arrival wiped out. Plus, an NBA lockout was on the way, to make matters worse. Still, a sparkling new building was set to open whenever play resumed and the Raptors and the Maple Leafs joined forces under one ownership umbrella, giving the Raptors a lot more stability, corporate might and synergies.
New general manager Glen Grunwald made a series of strong moves that turned things around. Will Masai Ujiri, Bobby Webster and Co. be able to do the same in a far different NBA world?
If you look at the trade tree, Grunwald basically turned the Stoudamire departure into key pieces such as Kevin Willis, Alvin Williams, Antonio Davis and Morris Peterson, made the bold decision to move young Marcus Camby for veteran warrior and team leader Charles Oakley and was able to acquire a franchise player in Vince Carter. All in about two months following that low point. The Vinsanity era came next, the Air Canada Centre was packed every night and Toronto was finally on its way. It remains the greatest 180 in Raptors history.
Things likely won’t swing as quickly this time around.
Toronto was also pretty low when Carter was given away for nothing and Rafael Araujo, Charlie Villanueva and Joey Graham became three massive draft misses in a row for the franchise. But Bryan Colangelo got them back on track for a time. By 2010-11 though, memories of 1997-98 came flooding back. That team dropped 13 straight, won only 22 games and missed the playoffs for the third of what would be a five-year drought. The 201011 group was borderline unwatchable. It couldn’t defend at all, Bargnani was the leading scorer, Demar Derozan didn’t know how to shoot yet and Chris Bosh’s free agency flight to Miami the summer before was yet another painful rejection of Toronto by a star player.
Tickets were a bargain then because fan interest had cooled considerably. The ensuing turnaround, which begot the We The North era and eventually the championship, required Colangelo to make a wise trade for Lowry, for him to land Jonas Valanciunas with the pick acquired in the sign-and-trade of Bosh to he Heat, for Dwane Casey to be a wise choice to rebuild the program and later for Ujiri to arrive and produce lightning in a bottle with his dismissal of Rudy Gay to Sacramento. Then he robbed the New York Knicks, sending them Bargnani for the pick that turned into Jakob Poeltl (eventually a big part of the Kawhi Leonard trade) and then Ujiri robbed the Milwaukee Bucks, sending them Greivis Vasquez for what would become Anunoby and Norman Powell. Of course, making either of those moves today would be extremely unlikely because managers seem to be a lot smarter now. Fleecings aren’t all that common.
This one is going to take longer. Pack your patience.