Toronto Raptors: Top 5 most disappointing seasons in franchise history

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TORONTO, ON – JANUARY 26: DeMar DeRozan #10 of the Toronto Raptors (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images) /

No. 2: 2014-15

Coming off a record-setting 49-win season, the Raptors looked poised to be a title contender within the NBA Playoff race. With the emergence of star backcourt Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, along with a breakout season from Sixth Man of the Year in Lou Williams, the Raptors looked like a force to be reckoned with.

Going into the playoffs, the Raptors had earned the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference and were matched up with the streaky Washington Wizards, lead by their own star backcourt in John Wall and Bradley Beal.

When Paul Pierce claimed the Raptors did not ” have the ‘IT’ factor that makes you worried”. Masai Ujiri joined the legion of screaming fans at “Jurassic Park” to fire them up even further and to address Pierces remarks about his team.

Ujiri confidently stood in front of Raptors fans and similarly to the year before, Ujiri exclaimed “We don’t give a S**t about ‘IT'”. This caused an eruption of cheers and chants from Raptors fans (as well as a $35K fine for Ujiri), but this was short-lived, as once the game started, the Raptors would be hit with a reality check from the opening tip.

The Wizards stunned the Raptors.

The highly-favored Toronto team would go on to be swept by the Wizards, losing all four games by handily, including a 31-point blowout in game four to end the Raptors season. The Wizards’ domination over the Raptors was not only shocking, but humiliating, as they seemed to do everything in that series to prove Pierce right.

This series loss served as a learning moment for the Raptors, as several weaknesses within their game-plan were exposed and it became obvious that they needed to find their identity. In the 2016 offseason, the Raptors did some major soul searching and were able to fix the cracks in their team and come back even stronger the following season.

The 2015 playoffs served as a humbling experience for the Raptors as a whole and taught fans a valuable lesson about underestimating their opponents. This would be the city’s most disappointing playoff series loss, right?