3 New Year’s Resolutions for the Toronto Raptors in 2023
By Mike Luciano
The Toronto Raptors started 2022 in a fairly successful fashion, pushing their way to a 48-win season and the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference. Masai Ujiri hasn’t exactly been basking in the warm glow of success too often in the winter months, as the Raptors are falling out of the postseason picture due to their roster holes.
Despite the fact that this team is still mired in a significant slump that could keep weighing on them through the season, the franchise could look to turn over a new leaf in 2023. With the team returning to full health, the consistency that this team has lacked all season long could finally start to return.
2023 could be a year of new beginnings for the Raptors, as they will likely jettison some of their biggest names in order to revamp the roster and make their winning philosophy a bit more sustainable and easy to implement. That starts by committing to change next year.
The Raptors need to make these three New Year’s resolutions and stick to them if they want to break the current cycle of losing that they currently find themselves in. One or two more minor tweaks to how things run day-to-day could be the secret ingredient this team is missing.
3 Toronto Raptors New Year’s Resolutions
1. Shoot better
The Raptors ranked near the bottom of the league in basically every shooting and efficiency category last year, and they are once again mired in a deep offensive funk. This inability to be effective from 3-point range has made Toronto one of the worst half-court offenses in the game.
Gary Trent Jr. and Malachi Flynn have generally been solid from deep, with the former making over 43% of his 3-pointers since November 30. Those two, however, aren’t enough by themselves to ultimately get the Raptors’ offense turned around. Someone else needs to step up.
The Toronto Raptors must shoot better in 2023.
Nurse seems to believe that Toronto’s defense is suffering as a result of their poor offensive performance. That factoid, coupled with Nurse’s fragile rotation placing a significant minutes burden on his stars, is one of the main reasons Toronto is running out of steam.
If Fred VanVleet has overcome his “shooting tour dates” phase and OG Anunoby can return to the level of play we saw from him last year, the Raptors may actually have a chance at making a deep postseason run. Hopefully, the stench of 2022’s shooting woes can be washed off.