Bad as they are, Raptors too good for their own good, writes Bruce Arthur,
There’s no time to waste to go all-in on tanking
I remember sitting courtside in those seats that sunk below the court at Gund Arena, almost like boxing seats at ringside, and watching Darius Miles, a third-year, sixfoot-nine kid out of high school who couldn’t dribble, move the ball up the court.
I remember Smush Parker, whom Kobe Bryant later called the worst teammate of his career, and the great doughy expanse of DeSagana Diop, ambling. I remember Michael (Yogi) Stewart, too. I mean, really.
It was clear the Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t want to win.
It was the final game of the 200203 season, and they had fired their coach, and they had 16 wins already. That was enough.
The Toronto Raptors didn’t want to win either, though, so they played seven guys, four of whom combined to play another 142 games in the NBA. This crooked masterpiece painted, they lost and got the fourth pick in the draft, and Cleveland, despite it all, won the lottery to pick first. They took a local kid. The Toronto Raptors are in a tough spot these days. They won Saturday night against a depleted Chicago team, and that makes three wins out of four, and it is time to start feeling anxious. The Raptors are 9-13 now, with Charlotte on deck. There are seven teams with fewer wins and the competition is fierce. Every game counts, even this early in the season.
And the Raptors are screwing it up by not screwing it up.
Freed of having to watch Rudy Gay play like he was the focal point of a poorly controlled video game, Toronto is sharing the ball, making some shots, winning a few games. It’s a problem.
Because this team needs to get busy losing, or get busy dying.
Yes, it is perverse that sports has incentivized failure in this way, but them’s the breaks. In the NBA the superstars, if given the choice, usually gravitate to the glamour franchises.
Raptors management is said to believe that yes, tanking is the way to proceed, breaking a long string of team history in which they accidentally lost games. Failure is success. War is peace. Ignorance is strength.
This draft class isn’t 2003 reborn, but Thornhill, Ont.’s Andrew Wiggins has flashed reality-bending athleticism at Kansas, and Duke’s Jabari Parker is a polished gem, and Kansas big man Joel Embiid has only been playing basketball for three years, and could be great.
There’s Oklahoma State shooting guard Marcus Smart and Kentucky power forward Julius Randle. There’s an Australian kid. There are players. Get in the top five, and you’ll get one.
Since the Raptors have no surefire planks to a truly bright future — Jonas Valanciunas was supposed to be that guy, but his progress has stalled, at least for now — the smart play is to lose, a lot.
With the worst record in the league, you will pick in the top four. Second-worst, top five. Third-worst, about a 95 per cent chance of being in the top five. Fourth-worst, about an 83 per cent chance. After that you’re edging towards the 50-50 range. The math is pretty clear.
So there is no time to waste. Point guard Kyle Lowry would already be gone to the Knicks if someone hadn’t explained the value of firstround picks to New York owner James Dolan at some point last week.
Lowry will be the next sail that is thrown overboard.
But that process can’t be rushed, because the trade needs to be the right trade, and in the meantime, Lowry is good. Not good enough to carry you anywhere great, but ...
A playoff berth should never be scoffed at in Toronto.
The Raptors have made the playoffs five times in 18 years.
Playing four games against the Miami Heat would be like winning an all-expense paid trip to be an extra in another Ocean’s Elev- en movie, or thereabouts. Playing four games against the Indiana Pacers would be like winning an allexpense paid trip to be an extra in, say, something based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy.
But neither option leads to a starring role, or anything close to it.
Also, win too many games too fast and the other extreme — tanking, the smart play — becomes harder and harder without putting horse tranquillizer in the Gatorade. (Note: Do not put horse tranquillizer in the Gatorade. It’s probably illegal.)
The race to be bad in the NBA is so tight that every precious loss matters — every blown opportunity counts. Remember when the Raptors blew a 27-point lead in the second half in Golden State? That game should be framed. Ideally, what you would want is Lowry playing fewer minutes and then getting the damage deposit back on his condo, and power forward Amir Johnson playing fewer minutes, and defensive schemes that are loopy. (Box-and-one! Full-court press! Flash mob!)
Ideally the lineups don’t match and the schemes fall apart and you try to run a pile of possessions through Valanciunas, just for the hell of it. Ideally Terrence Ross shoots threes from the middle and left wing (3-for-19 this season), rather than the right wing (8-for-19 this season). And if that switches to last season’s numbers, which were basically the opposite, flip the plays back. Be subtle. Put a banana in the tailpipe, and a fish in the air conditioner. Find a way.
The problem is the coach, Dwane Casey, is trying to win, even if sometimes he makes you scratch your head doing it.
The problem is that so many other teams are loosening the bolts on the chassis, or outright cutting the brakes, or wiring the ignition to 100 pounds of TNT.
It’s not over yet, no sir. They’re only three wins ahead of the second-worst teams in the league. Long way to go.
And if they focus and work hard and pull together as a team and an organization, as soon as they can, there’s still time to totally blow this thing.