A season that fans won’t miss
From scandals to losing streak, start of new era was far from smooth sailing
The true measure of the awfulness of the Raptors’ season is that an unprecedented lawsuit filed against the franchise and coach Darko Rajakovic by a rival team barely makes the list of the worst things to happen. But as game 82 arrives Sunday afternoon in Miami, here we are with one of the weirdest years finally ending. It’s been a long, strange trip. Some lowlights:
Espionage?
The Raptors were enveloped in drama even before the season began, sued by the New York Knicks for allegedly stealing proprietary information, a theft linked to a lowlevel video-room worker few had ever heard of. It’s still wending through the legal process (these are truly litigious times in which we live) after kicking off a season like no other. Maybe it was just the petulance of Knicks owner James Dolan — that seemed to be the impetus for the suit — but it put the Raptors in the spotlight for the wrong reasons right from the start. And if there was any use of topsecret information such as play calls, it was botched. Toronto will finish about 20 games behind the Knicks.
Turning point
If there was a single day that encapsulated the wretched season, it was Dec. 30. That Saturday dawned with news that the Raptors had traded OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa to New York for RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and a future second-round draft pick. It ended with the undermanned Raptors losing to the Detroit Pistons.
That wasn’t just any game. It was Detroit’s first victory after an NBArecord 28 consecutive losses. A new Raptors era began with an ignominious defeat.
Bad to worse
In the Raptors’ first 2,228 games over 28 seasons, they had lost by more than 40 points only four times — two in their historically bad 16-66 third season. Somehow, this team managed to lose three times by more than 40, including an all-time worst: a 46-point defeat this month against the Timberwolves in Minnesota. Some of that was the result of injuries and constant roster churn, but some of the responsibility also falls on the team’s inability to find capable players on two-way or 10-day deals at the end of the roster.
The middle finger
There were bad breaks, literally. Scottie Barnes, enjoying a re-emergence in his third NBA season, left the Raptors’ March 1 game against the Golden State Warriors with a broken middle finger on his left hand. Jakob Poeltl, who was central to Toronto’s rim protection and an instigator on offence, blew out a ligament in the little finger of his left hand in the very next game. Neither of them saw the court again. When they disappeared, so did Toronto’s chances.
Real losses
If there was one thing the season should teach us, it’s this: Sports can’t touch real life, nor should. The tragic deaths of Barrett’s brother, Quickley’s uncle and Golden State assistant coach Deki Milojevic, Rajakovic’s longtime friend, were reminders that sports are games and divorced from the real pain of loss. The deaths cast a pall on the franchise.
Lowest of lows
Whatever air was left in the season evaporated when the Raptors scuffled through a 16-game losing streak in March. But instead of at least giving fans a chance to experience record ineptitude, the Raptors upset the Milwaukee Bucks on the road and fell a game shy of equalling a franchise worst. They couldn’t even be good at being bad.
Err Porter
Jontay Porter seemed like an intriguing prospect when he was plucked out of the G League: good size, good shooting range, a young player who might have developed into something. Then he was caught up in a gambling scandal, with the NBA still investigating after irregularities in bets on his personal play emerged. It’s the first NBA scandal since the league opened its gates to gamblers. Porter faces a possible lifetime ban, and there’s no chance the Raptors will ever give him another shot. Even a promising pickup turned horribly bad.