Taking a look at how each Toronto Raptor performed in the 2017-18 season. It’s time to spill the beans on the good, the bad, and the downright ugly contained in this past season…
This season if nothing else served as a lesson to the Toronto Raptors – dominating in the regular season means nothing. Harsh? Perhaps a little, but it’s hard to argue the contrary at this point.
59 wins, another franchise record and one more than the inevitable champion Golden State Warriors, Toronto was the only team in the regular season to finish with both a top-5 offense and defense. They also held the league’s best home record. And to see how far it’s gotten them..
They fired their coach, Dwane Casey, a betting favourite for Coach of the Year. Brad Stevens has been great all season, and especially in these playoffs. But let’s not forget, technically the criteria is only the regular season – and we all know that’s Toronto’s time!
Despite going down in flames attempting to invade King’s Landing, there is long list of positives that can be taken away from this season. The majority of players showed growth; and for a team that had struggled offensively in past playoffs, Toronto’s modernized approach actually held up in this postseason – it was their defense that failed to show up, producing a rating of 121.5, against the clearly defendable (as shown by Boston) Cleveland Cavaliers.
All that said, this off-season figures to be a critical one for the organization on a collective level. Players, coaches, and executives across the board must get better. Firing a potential coach of the year winner was the right move and that reality is very indicative of the unique position this franchise finds itself in. But make no mistake, this roster has a plethora of talent on it.
But before we go forward, we need to go back and take inventory of how each player performed this season, starting with Malachi Richardson.