It's late January now, with fans strapped into NBA action for well over three months of the 2024-25 regular season.
But there are still some ways to go before the year is all said and done, and for the Toronto Raptors, who have the unfortunate distinction of being one of the worst teams in the NBA, perhaps a silver lining—yet still a curse—has become apparent.
According to Tankathon.com, the site compiles a list of the NBA's remaining schedule strength for all 30 teams in the league, with the Toronto Raptors on pace to battle the easiest stretch of opponents in their final 40 games of the year.
Raptors have the easiest schedule left in the entire NBA
Now, for the emotionally tapped-out Raptors fan who may not enjoy losing hoops, to hear they have the easiest schedule left is a good thing... right?
Well, yes and no.
As we've gone over before in other pieces, the Raptors have battled a myriad of hardships left, right, and center this season. Injuries, roster quirks, chemistry issues, and so on and so forth; they've all contributed to the Raptors' current record of 10 wins and 32 losses.
But now, with a new year dawning, it looks like Toronto has risen from being in the trenches. Early on in the season, the Raptors were exemplary of that fighting spirit mentality, then it completely faltered, and now it's somewhat back again. Don't get it twisted; the Raptors will likely still experience losing ways, as it'd be extremely difficult to even make the play-in, but they're getting back into the swing of things quite nicely.
With that in mind, what does this easy schedule mean for the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes?
The Raptors' losing buddies out west, the Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans, have the 1st and 2nd ranked toughest schedule strength, as they will see a ton of the NBA's best on the horizon as the season closes out.
Cooper Flagg might be poised to join a Western Conference lottery team
Knowing these two Western Conference teams will likely see a grim rest of the 2024-25 season compared to Toronto, it all but suggests that their losing ways will help the Flagg tank.
Sure, it's easy to just look at a schedule and see the Nuggets, Celtics, Cavs, or Thunder up next, and say, "Yeah, go ahead and draw up that L."
But you might want to hold your horses there. It doesn't always mean these weaker squads can't get the job done. The Raptors just beat the Celtics not that long ago. And then, they could lose to, say, the Blazers or Hornets the next night. The same could go for these other tanking squads.
Toronto can't really help that they're playing much better now and health is now in their favor. To simply pull the plug on this promising play is just a morale killer, all around. No one is trying to see outright, egregious tanking, that's just not the vibes. But ethical tanking? It's the icing on an otherwise bland cake.
Maybe Cooper Flagg doesn't come to Toronto. That would definitely be a bummer, but the Raptors will just have to roll with the punches. Anyhoo, the Raptors have shown in years past that sometimes they hit on the draft sleepers and not the consensus top prospects, and the 2025 class is chalk full of quality prospects regardless.
It's all up to what decisions and cards get drawn up in their favor moving forward. There's still the trade deadline coming up, and the Raptors are expected to address the status of their veteran candidates, so who knows what effect that will have?
No one can be a definitive fortune teller, but just looking at this fact might have the crew clamoring for Toronto to "Capture the Flagg" a little more on edge than they had hoped.