United they stood, united they fell
Raptors had each other’s backs through thick and thin this past season
It is a giant step for a team to go from good to truly elite in the NBA, a fact the Toronto Raptors are painfully aware of after their first appearance in a conference final.
And when the discussion comes around with how to make that progression, it’s almost always about more speed, more shooting, more size, more skill.
Those are all important in a talentdriven league but, as the Raptors try to take that next and vital step, it’s as much about shoelaces and shirttails, togetherness and discipline as much as anything else. Coach Dwane Casey provided a glimpse behind the curtain into what made the Raptors so successful in the season that ended with Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final on Friday night.
He pointed to a need for structure that speaks to respect for the organization, teammates and the game, a willingness to embrace the unique nature of the game’s only non-USA franchise.
The rules are simple but speak volumes to the kind of respectful player the Raptors seek to employ. Shirttails in at practice. “You play with your shirttail in, you practice with your shirttail in,” Casey said.
Shoes tied and jerseys on for prepractice film sessions.
“You’re . . . showing film and a guy is putting his shoes on, tying his shoes, putting his jersey on? How can he be listening, paying attention to detail while he’s getting dressed?”
Be there for your teammates, always.
“(If ) a guy falls on the floor, you’ve gotta have at least two dudes to go over and try to help pick him up. That’s team, that’s caring about each other.” Know where you are. “It goes back to fit,” he said. “Not only as a player, but as a person. A guy who embraces the country of Canada, a guy who embraces the diversity of the city of Toronto. If you bring somebody in who doesn’t fit, it doesn’t work.”
And that’s where the Raptors are headed this summer as they try to
“We’re not missing much at all. We had to go through an experience like this to understand how hard it is to get to this point.” DEMAR DEROZAN
close the gap between themselves and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were just more prepared for and consistently better in the conference final that ended Friday at the Air Canada Centre.
There will be roster moves to be sure — Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri has to deal with pending free agents like DeMar DeRozan and Bismack Biyombo, and there will be other holes to fill.
A stud would be great, and the Raptors definitely need more consistent outside shooting, but when the playoffs roll around and the games get to a grind, maybe it is experience and familiarity that decides things. And maybe that discipline comes from shoelaces and shirttails.
“We’re not missing much at all,” DeMar DeRozan said Saturday. “We had to go through an experience like this to understand how hard it is to get to this point and what we need to do to be better, as individuals and as a team.
“That (Cleveland) team was disciplined. They executed. They did every single thing they needed to do to win the game. We had too many lapses. They took advantage of that. That’s where you have to grow as a team. And with that, adding a couple more pieces that would solidify that.”
What those pieces will be will come in the harsh reality of the salary cap and tax threshold and financial minutia in July. Ujiri has an idea of what he’d like to do — more shooting, more shooting, more shooting — and Casey knows where the game is headed.
“The playoffs were a great indicator of the way the game is going,” he said. “You’ve got shooting fives now, you’ve got fives that are stretching out to the three-point line, coming down in transition, not even going to the low post.”
But this unique group of Raptors, who relished in dealing with adversity by relying on the bonds created by Casey’s few but important rules, just gets ready to go regardless.
“We’ll make it work,” Kyle Lowry said. “Somehow, some way.”