The longer you think about what Scottie Barnes, Pascal Siakam, and the Toronto Raptors are trying to do in the 2023-24 NBA season, the more you will hurt your head while still coming nowhere near close to an answer. Their duel against Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers only crystallized this notion.
The Raptors started the game off in a 26-11 hole, which marked the eighth time in the last ten games they had trailed by that margin at one point. Somehow, Toronto managed to come back and take a lead into halftime thanks to a 41-point second quarter that defied all logic.
Not only did the Raptors give the lead back to Indiana in a 36-point third quarter, but they managed to barely escape with a 132-131 victory. The end of this game turned the crazy scales up to maximum once again, as Gary Trent Jr. missed two free throws up by one before Buddy Hield's shot rimmed out.
This game should serve as a turning point for this fanbase. Nothing the Raptors do will make sense logically, so lean in and embrace the chaos. A spirited, back-and-forth battle on the road 24 hours after looking legally dead in Orlando? Why not? Anything is possible with this team.
Pascal Siakam and the Toronto Raptors are the most chaotic team in the NBA.
This looniness starts from the top down. Does Masai Ujiri want to start an earnest rebuild with a new coach and young player who needs support, or are they trying to go for the postseason yet again? We're still no closer to an actual answer after 15 games.
The chaos has even infected Darko Rajakovic. What is his identity as a coach? Is his team a pace-and-space attack? Will they have a methodical, slower approach? Are they defense-first or offense-first? From game to game, even quarter to quarter, the answer to that question changes.
The players on the court continue to be as uneven as possible. Siakam himself has looked like a totally different player after an early-season malaise, while bench players will look like Magic Johnson one night and Smush Parker the next. There's no telling if the offense will be free-flowing or stuck in the mud.
The Raptors have some ugly blowouts to teams like Magic and 76ers on the ledger while falling against the Trail Blazers and barely beating the lowly Wizards at home. At the same time, they have beaten contenders like the Bucks, Timberwolves, and Mavericks. As long as Ujiri doesn't make any trades, the NBA's ultimate experiment in entropy will march on.