The NBA & Jurassic Park have something in common right now — the Raptors are here in numbers and they’re ready to feast.
Can we talk about what the hell the Raptors are doing to start this season? I mean, I guess no one is stopping us so really there’s no reason not to, but did anyone expect them to come out of the gate this hard & fast(pause) to start the year? After their win tonight against my hometown Wizards and some Twitter talk, I had to start diving into what they’ve done thus far in a season where they were projected to place 5th in their division and finish the season with 35 wins.
Following tonight’s win, they’re 6–3 and tied for the most games played in the league. Yes, it’s only 9 games, but they’re on pace for 54 wins right now. Not even in the same realm as Vegas’ predicted 35.5, and completely on brand for a team that has beaten the Vegas predictions seemingly every year for the better part of a decade. Were we really so quick to believe that a team that has been, for all intents and purposes, a 50 win team for 7 of the past 10 seasons was just going to crumble? And we went and made that assumption off of one incredibly down year that had them playing in an entirely different location for the entire season.
In 9 games thus far, they’ve been blown out only once(in the first game of the season to the Wizards) and have beaten opponents by 9 or more points in 4 of their 6 wins. In that time, wins have come against:
- Wizards(11/3/21)
- Knicks(11/1/21)
- Pacers(10/30/21 & 10/27/21)
- Magic(10/29/21)
- Celtics(10/22/21)
Give that list a quick glance. There are multiple current high seeded teams(Knicks, Wizards) and teams that were projected to be good to great this year in the Celtics. Hell, even the Pacers at 3–6 are a good win when you consider that they’ve lost to a murderer’s row to start the season(Heat, Bucks, Wiz, Nets, Raptors 2x). In that time, they’re barely top 20 in points with 104.9 PPG, but they’re one of the best defensive teams in the league, allowing only 100.2 PPG and currently ranked 3rd in the league at forced turnovers with 18.2 per game. If grind it out basketball is back(and based on the decreased foul calling this year, there’s definitely an argument to be made that it is), the Raptors are one of the rosters taking the most advantage of it.
One of the big factors in this early season hot start for the Raptors has to be the consistency in players from last year to this year.
This is what the primary guys they’ve brought back are averaging:
OG: 20.3/5.6/2.8
FVV: 17/5.5/7.4
GTJ: 15.1/3.3/1.3
Boucher: 5.6/4 with a block & a steal per game
Birch: 6.3/5.8/1.4
The best part? Those 5 players combined are only averaging 7.4 turnovers per game. Before I say this next thing, let me be clear: I know the point I’m about to make is a ridiculous comparison in many ways. But the Lakers are averaging 9.1 turnovers per game between just two players, in LeBron & Westbrook. Again, I know the comparison is a ridiculous one in many ways…but it’s also just testament to the type of basketball the Raps are playing right now. They’re protecting the ball and they’re getting it done by committee instead of counting on just one player to get hot every night.
And, of course, outside of the guys they’ve brought back who have contributed meaningful minutes, they have the current frontrunner for Rookie of the Year in Scottie Barnes playing starter minutes(35 MPG) and averaging 18/9/2 at barely 20 years old. The Raptors scouting & drafting really doesn’t get the shine that it should, considering it’s netted them Siakam, OG, FVV, and Barnes, among others, mostly in years where they haven’t had particularly high picks — Barnes is the first top 10 pick they’ve had since Poetl in 2016, who was famously thrown into the trade for Kawhi Leonard that brought the Raptor’s their first NBA title. These are guys who would start on almost any team in the league, and the Raptors have drafted(or developed in the G League after going un-drafted, in FVV’s case) all of them in the past 5 years while winning 50+ games in 4 of those 5 years. That’s borderline unheard of.
I’m not saying the Raps are going to win a title this year. I’m not even guaranteeing their playoff spot yet in an Eastern Conference that is proving early to be the bloodbath that many thought it would be, although I’m significantly higher on this idea than I was two weeks ago. But I am gonna say this: This Raptors team is real and they’re worth getting hyped up about if you’re a fan of good basketball. They’re going to beat some very good teams and they’re going to be absolute pests defensively while doing it. And if Siakam comes back and is his 2019/2020 self, y’all better look out: they just might fuck around and beat your favorite team in the playoffs.
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