What should Toronto do?
The Toronto Raptors lost Game 4 in what was a blowout for the Cavs and lost the series for the third straight year against LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers. This is the second year in a row that the Raptors have been embarassed by Cleveland with LeBron hitting contested buzzer-beaters this year and last year spinning the ball in the corner while Ibaka is trying to contest his shot. The Raptors are such an interesting case, it is a team that is hugely successful during the regulation which plays the right way and has a very deep side. The Raptors’ ball movement and prioritisation of the easy shot has mean that the Raptors have seemingly found another gear and it seemed that this would finally be their year. However, mentally the Raptors collapsed again, Derozan starting to play in iso situations instead of moving the ball around and exposing all of the Cleveland’s defensive weaknesses. He had to be benched in order to for the Raptors to stick with their style of play.
I never truly believed that the Raptors were truly afraid of LeBron James, I believed that this team is strong enough mentally to compete in the play-offs against LeBron James, it just seemed to be a play-style issue. Last year, the Raptors emphasises an iso-ball style which dictated that the team give the ball to Lowry or Derozan and then get out of the away. For a poor defensive team like Cleveland, this scenario is much easier to defend as there are less things to think about on the defensive end. That type of style was never going to work with a team who could dissect you with a spread pick and roll while playing competent defence. This year, it truly seems that the common allegations thrown at the Raptors is true.
As soon as the Cavs took Game 1, there was a sense that the Raptors lost some of their spirit that they had shown during their first-round victory over the Washington Wizards. There was a slight drop in efficiency for their two stars, Kyle Lowry and DeMar Derozan but that is to be expected in a play-off scenario for two players who handle the ball so much. Most NBA players with the exception of LeBron, KD and Steph experience a slight decline in efficiency and therefore the numbers did not throw up any alarming statistics. However, for Toronto it seems like a mental issue, DeMar and Kyle may not believe in their mind that the series is lost before it has began but subconsciously once Toronto loses the first few games, it is almost as if the series over.
If Game 1 dampened the Raptors spirit, Game 2 took a hammer to the Raptors’ confidence. The Raptors played fairly well, Fred VanVleet and Kyle Lowry continued to push hard but finally LeBron’s partner in crime showed up, Kevin Love finally found form by dominating the wings switched onto him in the post and grabbing rebounds like a hungry man attacks the buffet. While Love was firing, LeBron was dropping into fadeaway jumpers, each shot just cranked up the degree of difficulty each time down the floor. LeBron seemed to be toying with the stellar Raptors’ defense before crushing their hopes like a malevolent giant. With each shot, the Raptors’ heads were visibly dropping and the series was over. It did not matter that the deficit was just 2–0 and that the Raptors were a top-five offence and defence who generally had decent road form, it was acknowledged that the Raptors were doomed.
From that point, the series has felt elementary, LeBron stole a win and the soul of the Raptors during a very tight Game 3 that was at The Q before blowing out the Raptors by over twenty points in Game 4. The Cavs ascendancy and seemingly invincbility was only magnified, the worst shooting percentage from a Cavaliers’ starter was 61% courtesy of Kevin Love. JR Smith, a notable streaky shooter and Kyle Korver both had perfect games from the field in which they chipped double-digit scoring games. The Cavs supporting cast finally coming on song has meant that LeBron has managed to rest slightly and continue to play himself into his highest form.
In terms of the Raptors, there was also some interesting talking points that came out of the last two games of the series, the first aspect was that Dwane Casey was out-coached in a playoff setting by Tyronn Lue. Coach Lue realised that he had the more versatile big man in the form of Kevin Love and took advantage of this situation by feeding the ball into the post and letting Love score over small defenders such as CJ Miles. It felt that Casey was a little bit slow to put a bigger body on Love in order to stop K-Love from scoring in the post, he was fully committed to the switching style of defence that the Raptors play. Moreover, it would have also been interesting to see the Raptors to experiment with a Siakam/Anunoby combination at the forward position with Jakob Poetl playing the centre position alongside Lowry/Derozan in the back-court. It would have meant that the Raptors would have had a young, hungry unit on the court who would harry the Cavaliers and force the team into mistakes. The Anunoby/Siakam duo should have been tested against LeBron as both players are athletic, tall and rangy, they would have been able to deflect the ball and grind LeBron down physically. It would have been a similar tactic to what the Pacers did using Thad Young and Bojan Bogdanovic but it would have been slightly more effective as both guys are better-built than the Pacer forwards.
The other interesting talking point was that DeMar Derozan was benched for the end of Game 3 and Game 4, it seemed that Dwane Casey did not trust Derozan during the last stretch of the game. This is partly due to the fact that Derozan reverted to type by taking contested highly inefficient long twos and could not seem to buy a bucket during the last two games of the series. It could be argued that this symbolises that Casey does not trust Derozan during moments of the highest importance and therefore can’t play Derozan when it matters. This call by Dwane Casey does ask a very important question, should the Raptors blow it up?
The case for blowing up is clear, the Raptors as presently constructed cannot win a championship and therefore should trade its main assets and build around young players, preferably blue-chip prospects like Philly has done with ‘The Process’. This would involve trading both Lowry and Derozan which may be difficult as both players have large contracts and to achieve valuable assets, the Raptors would have to take on bad contracts such as Luol Deng which could seriously affect the rebuilding and title-contention window. More importantly, it is difficult to get value for high-level NBA players, it is clear that Derozan is a top-fifteen player in the league and the last time a player like that was traded, the Kings received pennies on a dollar in the form of Buddy Hield and a first round pick. Lowry may be much easier but who wants a 32-year old point guard who is likely to regress hard over the next few years. The other alternative is to double-down and continue to try to win with this same squad. The Raptors could trade Ibaka and a young player such as Delon Wright in order to acquire a lottery pick in the current draft or another player who could help the cause. Another move that the Raptors could do would be to acquire more shooters such as JJ Redick who would space the floor and provide another twelve to fourteen points as a sixth man.
The Raptors are at a cross-roads, they could stay with this current roster and attempt to continue growing this squad so that one day it can beat a LeBron James team. Or the alternative would be to blow everything up and set the title contention timeline back ten years where LeBron would have hopefully retired. Whatever it is, the Raptors have to think carefully about the future.
