3 things the Toronto Raptors must do to get farther next year

1. Get along

You don’t even have to know basketball to see that the vibes were in the gutter at the end of last season. Nick Nurse was talking about leaving (potentially quitting?) the team mid-season, young players weren’t buying into his system, and veterans all seemed to be warring over shots and responsibility.

Ujiri took aim at this in his media availability following the Jakob Poeltl trade and his end-of-season press conference, calling out his own team for being “selfish” and imploring them to play like a team. That is much easier said than done, and any irreparable damage might leave Toronto in a difficult place.

The Toronto Raptors need good vibes next season.

The right coach could be the best way to fix everything. Ujiri will need to find the best balance between a hardline sergeant who can organize his troops when battle warrants it and a master psychologist who can talk through issues and motivate his players through positivity. Such a candidate might be a unicorn, however.

Even Nurse fans can admit that he and the roster were totally disconnected at the end of the year, resulting in some slow, ugly, inconsistent basketball in the last few months. Knowing how competitive Ujiri is and how badly he wants to win, he likely won’t tolerate another season of that.