Raptors championship prospects not easy to envision

The Raptors, and most of the NBA, don’t look ready to contend for a trophy against the likes of the Warriors and Cavaliers. What to do?

The victory of the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Championship final managed to be both dramatic and entirely predictable. In a sense we watched a perfect production of Hamlet. We knew the Danish prince wasn’t going to last through to curtain, yet his demise was still surprising and thrilling to see.

For fans of the Toronto Raptors, the entire final series was also profoundly depressing. Our guys ground out another excellent regular season, their fourth in a row, survived a sloppy (to put it kindly) first-round matchup with Milwaukee – then got curb-stomped by the Cleveland Cavaliers. They, in turn, couldn’t adequately defend GSW’s magnificent offensive weapons, and only managed one lonely victory.

December 28, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant (35) shoots the basketball against Toronto Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas (17) during the third quarter at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports /

More of the same next year

The last three NBA Finals have been between Cleveland and Golden State. The supposedly clever people in Las Vegas think it’s going to happen again, and I can’t muster much of a counter-argument.

So here we are, hoping our franchise’s President, Masai Ujiri, can find the right words to induce our best free agents to return, but to what end? [20-second timeout: Of course, those right words also have to convince the moneymen at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE, the Raptors’ owner) to pay the luxury tax. There’s no math which returns Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker to Toronto without a hefty cheque to the NBA office.]

LeBron James has played in the last six NBA finals, which hasn’t been done since Bill Russell was breaking opponents’ hearts with the Celtics a half-century ago.

Blow it up? Oh dear

I’ll get to the point – should Lowry sign elsewhere, all is not lost for the Raptors. My reasoning for changing my mind looks this way: the gap between our current roster and the finalists’ is so vast, it’s like we’re playing different games. If the only solution is to wait out the inevitable decline in the games of Curry, Durant, LeBron (although that guy looks like he could play till he’s 40) et al, then bringing back Lowry may actually be counter-productive. Instead, let’s find a develop a younger, cheaper point guard.

I’m not sold on this notion. But racking my brains to figure out how to deliver a championship in the next 3 years (i.e., how long Lowry is likely to remain a top-rank guard) isn’t providing me anything save a headache.

Please, Rapture Nation, weigh in with your thoughts. Talk me off the ledge. Is our team on a plateau? Is it truly time to get get radical? Comments needed.

More from Raptors Rapture

Home/Raptors News