The Toronto Raptors may be constructing their own prison.
Dan Favale of Bleacher Report recently predicted each fanbase's worst nightmare for this upcoming season, and his pick for the Raptors was particularly chilling.
He stated that the nightmare for the Raptors was difficult to pinpoint because the team has not committed to a course of action - and that indecision and lack of direction is the nightmare itself. Lacking a plan and the conviction to pursue it could lead not to increased flexibility in building out the team, but a lukewarm team that stays in NBA "purgatry" for years to come.
The comparison for Toronto? "Atlanta Hawks North."
The Raptors are building their own nightmare
The worst place you can be in the NBA is in the middle. That's a place you pass through on your way from bad to great, but living there represents the mundane, disappointing experience no fanbase wants to go through. Being stuck in the middle means mediocre draft picks without the star power to change your fate, but no hope of winning a playoff series and certainly not two or three to make a run.
The excitement, the joy, the hope is all snuffed away into melancholy consistency, spinning the proverbially tires in the muddy slop of the Play-In Tournament, unable to go higher and unwilling to drop lower.
That's essentially the future the Raptors are heading straight toward. In trading longtime franchise stalwarts OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam, the Raptors neither pushed solely for win-now moves, nor prioritized future draft picks and prospects in a complete teardown. They traded for good-not-great already-expensive young players, held onto some key veterans, and look poised to compete without hope of making it into the top of the East.
That's a fine place to be in for a season or even two, but the Raptors don't appear equipped to break free of this self-built prison. Their books are maxed out for years to come as they pay Jakob Poeltl, RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and Bruce Brown all north of $20 million this season, with Scottie Barnes' lucrative deal kicking in a year from now. They won't have the kind of draft pick necessary to truly alter their young core.
The answer to breaking free of this nightmare scenario of directionless mediocrity? Scottie Barnes.
Scottie Barnes is their only hope
If Scottie Barnes is a really good player, someone in All-Star consideration in most years, the Toronto Raptors are going nowhere. If he is Brandon Ingram, or Gordon Hayward, or Darius Garland, or even Pascal Siakam, the Raptors are stuck living the nightmare of being average.
If Scottie Barnes is a great player, a consistent All-Star challenging each year for All-NBA and occasionally getting MVP votes, the Raptors have a sliver of hope for changing their fate. Then the questions flow downstream, to whether RJ Barrett's leap was real, if Immanuel Quickley can become an offensive star, if Gradey Dick is capable of more. Perhaps with the right mix of growth across the roster they can become the ensemble cast to make an Eastern Conference Finals run.
If Toronto wants to truly break free of this nightmare scenario, however, and become the kind of team that routinely is making deep playoff runs and has a chance at a title, Scottie Barnes has to be an MVP candidate every season. He needs to be an All-Defense candidate and an All-NBA lock. He needs to be mentioned on Top 10 lists with regularity.
If he can reach that level, following the path of players before him like Giannis Antetokounmpo (high-end) and Jimmy Butler, then the Raptors have a chance. They have a shot to shake free of this nightmare of mediocrity and become a team that can accomplish something real.
It all depends on Scottie Barnes. Otherwise, the Raptors have painted themselves in a corner with no other way out. By not committing to a direction, the Raptors' front office may have doomed them to being stuck at the intersection, unable to move forward and become a team worth ro
The Nightmare: An undefined direction does not emphasize flexibility but instead renders them 'Atlanta Hawks North.'
Me: Scottie Barnes will decide whether this expensive team is stuck in mediocrity or whether they have a chance at building something more