Second seed in the Eastern Conference and atop their Atlantic Division, the Toronto Raptors have been absolutely bulldozing through their opposition as of late, boasting a superb 9-1 record in their last 10 contests. The Raps have a win percentage of 66.7 percent, beating their opponents by an average point differential of +5.0, riding an ongoing five-game winning streak, and a 10-5 record overall in the East landscape. Toronto is also near the top of many NBA team advanced metrics like assists per game, field goal percentage, and fast break points per game (leading the league at 21.7).
Now, looking at things from a realistic perspective, have the Raptors faced the toughest competition in the NBA? Not at all. Although they have some decent wins — such as the recent victory over Philly, albeit an injury-riddled squad — the Cavaliers twice (with the same caveat), and their dominant win over Atlanta in the season opener.
However, the rest of Toronto's wins during this stretch have come against teams like Memphis, Charlotte, Indiana, and Brooklyn. To the casual NBA observer, those are relatively easy pickings for the Raptors to beat, so it’s not surprising to some that Toronto is stacking up wins in this case. Speaking on this point, ESPN's Brian Windhorst and the two Tims, Tim MacMahon and Tim Bontemps, discussed Toronto on The Hoop Collective show during a segment aptly titled: "Recipe For Raptors' Early Success: How Far Can Depth Carry You?" (YouTube link here).
Raptors' hot start still generating doubt amongst NBA discussion circles
Look, Toronto is never the mainstream media's darling to begin with, and I find that a lot of the times when the Raps are mentioned in this kind of setting, sometimes it can feel like backhanded praise. I get it though — an analyst’s job isn’t really to just whisper sweet nothing's in fans’ ears. That’s part of why I don’t consider myself an analyst per se, but I think this ESPN segment was about 50/50.
It praised the tangible metrics of Toronto’s success while still casting doubts on their ceiling as a whole. Windhorst made a solid point that Toronto hasn't faced the true "murderer’s row" of the Eastern Conference yet, and I totally agree. We still need to see how the Raps fare against teams like Detroit and New York, although I still feel like Toronto can match up quite well against those foes.
Bontemps chimed in with his take on the Raptors' run so far, comparing them to the Phoenix Suns as an East counterpart with more overall talent. He also said Toronto messed around a bit with Charlotte, and I completely agree that it probably shouldn't have been that close. I brought up that point in a post-game piece, referencing comments from Brandon Ingram. It ended up being a bit of an appetizer for what the Raptors could face in late-game situations during the playoffs.
While he noted that Toronto is on pace for a regular season filled with wins, he also pointed out that they are still projected to finish seventh in the East — behind Miami and Philadelphia. To give Windhorst some credit, he did reply, saying it's way too early to jump to conclusions based on projections. Bontemps responded that some of these hot or cold starts tend to come back to earth quickly, describing it as "fluky."
It was Bontemps himself who wrote back in August that he did not envision the Raptors even cracking the play-in, placing them as the 12th seed in the East with a mediocre record of 33-49. Well, Toronto appears to be on track to surpass that measly prediction, so this take is taking a U-turn of sorts. But at the end of the day, it’s just noise and not gospel. We’ll leave it to the underdog Raps to keep silencing the critics and prove that this is not just some fool’s gold.