One year removed from their first-ever NBA championship and without a true superstar, the Toronto Raptors are still among the elite. They are now positioned as the NBA’s new model of consistency.
Eight months removed winning the Larry O’Brien trophy in the Bay Area – for the first time in team history, no less – the Toronto Raptors made a little more history this past Thursday against the Golden State Warriors. Sure, the scene of the crime was different, now at the brand new Chase Center instead of the – now-defunct – Oracle Arena, but the result was as familiar as it could be.
The Toronto Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors 121-113 to become only the second team in the NBA so far this season, after the Milwaukee Bucks, to clinch a spot in the playoffs. The celebrations weren’t a replica of eight months ago. No-one rushed on to the court in a frenzy of joy and Kyle Lowry didn’t hoist a basketball 30-feet into the air, it was business as usual for the Toronto Raptors.
For the past seven years, the Toronto Raptors have built themselves from the ground up. They have navigated through the highs and the lows of a team building an identity – a team with an actual plan in place. The NBA has a host of front offices that scream about a long-term plan, but, since Masai Ujiri walked in the door as the new general manager of the Raptors in May of 2013, the Toronto Raptors have been on the up.
Ujiri has slowly but surely built a culture of winning in Toronto, and assuming that the San Antonio Spurs miss the playoffs, along with the Golden State Warriors, then the Raptors will have the second-longest active playoff streak in the NBA at seven seasons, one season shy of the Houston Rockets.
While their streak doesn’t come close to the San Antonio Spurs current streak of 22 seasons – the longest in NBA history – they should now be viewed as the NBA’s new model of consistency, a team that has managed to carry on winning despite the changes to the roster, the coaching changes, and the biggest obstacle in all of the NBA – time.
Having such a sustained period of success is so difficult in such a competitive league, but the Raptors have been among those teams that have found the formula. Even when the chips were down and the Raptors struggled to translate their regular-season success into postseason accolades, they were still managing to win 50-plus games and still develop a young core that would one day catapult themselves into the games biggest moments.
That ability to develop young and intriguing talent while managing to build a winning culture is really what has made the Raptors the envy of a lot of the league. Last season they had Kawhi Leonard – a true superstar of the league – and went on to win 58 games in the regular season and their first-ever NBA title.
When Leonard left to join the LA Clippers in free agency, many assumed the Raptors would crumble; that their roster wasn’t good enough to even make the playoffs.
How wrong they were.
The likes of Pascal Siakam, Norman Powell, and Fred VanVleet have stepped up another level from where they were last season, and the Raptors have simultaneously been able to develop the likes of Terence Davis and Chris Boucher in the process.
Now, they have the second-best record in the East and are on their way to homecourt advantage until the Eastern Conference Finals once again. They have a coach unlike any other in the NBA. Nick Nurse can adjust on the fly and devise a gameplan while finding the right scenario for any player.
They have an underappreciated leader in Kyle Lowry, too. But most of all, they have a roster full of players who want to win. They have a taste for it now and they’ll keep on winning as long as the culture remains the same.
Their current playoff streak might not be the longest in the NBA, but it’s led them to an NBA title and seven years of development and stability. Besides the Golden State Warriors, who has had a better seven-year stretch in the NBA than the Toronto Raptors?
The answer is no one. With the San Antonio Spurs under pressure and the Warriors fielding a team of G-League candidates, the Toronto Raptors take over as the NBA’s new model of consistency. Long may it continue.