Raptors’ play-in loss has a small silver lining that will help the franchise

The Raptors choked away a 15-point lead to a mediocre Chicago Bulls team led offensively by Zach LaVine and defensively by Diar DeRozan. It was an embarrassing loss, but fans should look at this loss with some objectivity.

This was a bizarre Raptors season nearly across the board. Scottie Barnes took a leap that the stats don’t show, Pascal Siakam’s scoring didn’t help the team win more than they did previously, and OG Anunoby was playing peekaboo with the trade rumors all year.

That’s why this play-in stink-bomb is really a blessing in disguise, and it goes beyond the odds at a higher draft pick. Do a couple of extra percentage points in the lottery feel nice? Of course. Still, unless the Raptors land a top-two pick (still very unlikely), the chasm between No. 3 and No. 12 isn’t as big as it has been in recent years. Fans should be distraught.

Instead, this loss will ultimately shape the direction of the team for the future.  It will shape the summer in ways that will help Raptors basketball get back to competing for Finals games instead of play-in games.

The Toronto Raptors must change things up.

Imagine if, for a moment, the team had won that game. Perhaps the Raptors would defeat the Heat, perhaps not. Either way, they would enter the playoffs facing Boston or Milwaukee teams which Toronto has no chance of defeating.

The trouble is the manner in which the Raptors would go down against those top-tier teams in the East. Remember, despite the flaws, the Raptors are a scrappy team. They are aggressive and defensive-minded, and a group that forces everyone from around the league to play hard against them.

The Raptors would have gone down to the Bucks or Celtics, but gone down scrapping and clawing. This alone could have convinced the front office and fans alike that the Raptors core, as currently constructed, has long-term legs. It doesn’t. It will never win big this way. This core has been together since 2020 and hasn’t won a round.

Losing like this; bottoming out after trying their hardest to make the playoffs, will force the front office to face the music and recognize that significant changes must be made.

What is the status of Pascal Siakam?

In Wednesday’s play-in game, Pascal Siakam put up a 32-9-6 statline, but missed the game-tying free throws.  It was a great game, but wasn’t great enough. That’s where we’re at with Siakam right now.

He took another leap this year, becoming a truly spectacular iso-scorer, but in the process developed bad habits around dominating the ball and was subsequently unable to expend as much energy on the defensive end.

What’s more, Scottie Barnes thrived in this most recent play-in game. Don’t look at the season stat line for evidence of Barnes’ development; watch the games. If you have, then you’ll see how he’s become more effective in creating his own shot and remains the most gifted passer on the team.

Let’s be clear, the fact that both Barnes’ and Siakam’s natural positions are power forward has nothing to do with the need to choose between them. It’s that both occupy the same space and want the ball in the same places. They overlap too much for one not to sacrifice for the other, and thus far, it’s been Scottie deferring to Siakam.

Make no mistake, Siakam is currently the superior player to Barnes, but in the long term, the front office must do everything they can to empower their Rookie of the Year. Barnes is arguably the most naturally talented player on the team, and there’s only so long the front office can ask him to slot in as a glorified role player.

Nobody is denying how painful this loss was. It was a stinging end to a bruising season, but as it so often is, the bottom line is to trust in Masai Ujiri. He has pulled the franchise out from bleaker times than this before.