Toronto Raptors: Stock Take, including Pascal Siakam’s dominance

Week one of the season has come and gone and the Toronto Raptors are 4-1. Whose stock rose throughout the week and whose fell?

The NBA season comes at you fast. From June until October the slow anticipation begins to build and fans begin to dream of glory. And then out of nowhere, it all begins and, before you know it, you’re either ruing your teams start to the season or you sit comfortably, knowing that your team might just be quite good. For the Toronto Raptors fans, this week proved that this team has steps to take, but shows potential.

That means we’re here to dissect it, and with a new name too. Welcome to Stock Take (patent pending.) The premise remains the same, just now with a sexy full-time name. So watch it, drink it in, and enjoy the experience.

Last week saw us only dive into one game, the season opener against the New Orleans Pelicans, where the Raptors walked away with the victory. This week, however, gave us a full slate of games, starting with a defeat to the new, and potentially improved, Boston Celtics. It wasn’t an ideal start to the week at all, the Raptors gave up 21 offensive rebounds while turning the ball over 23 times.

Hate it or hate it, that is not a recipe for success and the Celtics deserved the victory. Providing some sort of respite the following night would be key for the Toronto Raptors, and the Chicago Bulls would likely prove to be a fiery opponent. Except, they actually weren’t. The Raptors ran out comfortable winners in a 24-point blowout victory.

During the broadcast, Matt Devlin pointed out a fascinating record: the Toronto Raptors hadn’t been below a .500 winning record since January 7, 2014. Almost six years of sustained success which resulted in a long-awaited NBA title last season.

The stat from Devlin was a nod to the Raptors’ ability to remain consistent and successful for this long, something that takes a lot of doing in the NBA – especially considering the nature of teams and their look towards short-term success. The Raptors – led by Masai Ujiri – have managed to build a winning culture while also developing their youth, something that most NBA teams struggle with.

If you enjoyed that stat, then you most likely enjoyed the rest of the week for the Raptors, which included an ugly win against the Orlando Magic and a comfortable win against the Detroit Pistons to leave the Raptors looking pretty at the end of the first week of the season.

As always, there were highs and there were lows. Thankfully, it was mostly highs this week. Mostly.