Raps in peace: Toronto is out, but its future has never been brighter
The Raptors will try to build on their best season ever
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5 min read
TORONTO -- After the Toronto Raptors' greatest season in franchise history ended, they listened to their leaders in the locker room. General manager Masai Ujiri and coach Dwane Casey addressed the team, of course, and DeMar DeRozan had a message, too. The 26-year-old guard is the longest-tenured Raptor, the only one who endured a 22-60 season with Andrea Bargnani leading the team in scoring. More than anybody else on the roster, he knew what it meant for Toronto to get all the way to the Eastern Conference finals and take two games from the Cleveland Cavaliers.
DeRozan told his teammates on Friday that the year was incredible. The Raptors won 56 games in the regular season, shattering the old franchise record of 49 wins. They got out of the first round for the first time since 2001 and out of the second round for the first time ever. It looked like they might wilt under postseason pressure, but they pushed through.
"It was tough," DeRozan said. "Just putting everything in perspective and understanding we worked hard as hell to get to this point. We went through it all. You don't expect it to end, but when reality hit, it hit hard. Because you sacrifice so much to do what you love to do."
When DeRozan and Kyle Lowry checked out of Game 6, the scoreboard read 109-85 with 2:38 on the clock. The Air Canada Centre crowd chanted, "Let's go Raptors," and the two All-Star guards congratulated the Cavs before going back to the bench. Fans inside and outside the arena stood and screamed until after the final buzzer. Then the team had a few minutes to itself.
"[DeRozan] said he didn't think it was going to be this emotional," Toronto guard Norman Powell said. "But it just shows you the commitment that we put into this, how special it is to break records, set marks for us and just to continue to fight, continue to climb. We can do something special next year and [DeRozan said] keep that in mind when we go into the offseason."
All year, the Raptors soared past external expectations, eventually reaching their peak in Games 3 and 4 against the Cavaliers. DeRozan said it "sucks" to know they'll have to start all over again, having been knocked down by Cleveland. Next time, the bar will be higher.
"It's just a bunch of mixed emotions," DeRozan said. "Eight, nine months of things that you look back on and you realize that you went through the trenches with all these guys. And now to be apart from it, you don't know who will be back or what changes, you know, all that comes into play."
DeRozan himself is an unrestricted free agent in July, and teams will try to pry him away. Knowing his history in Toronto, though, it is difficult to imagine him leaving.
In December 2013, Ujiri traded forward Rudy Gay, then the team's highest-paid player, to the Sacramento Kings for four reserves. The Raptors were 6-12, and there were rumors that this was the start of a total teardown. DeRozan didn't know what would happen next, and he did not like the uncertainty. The next day, when they returned from a road trip, DeRozan met with Ujiri. He said he had no interest in bottoming out again. DeRozan had experienced way too much losing already.
In the days that followed, Ujiri came so close to trading Lowry to the New York Knicks that the point guard packed his bags. The Knicks backed out of the deal, though, and Toronto stumbled into a winning formula. Rather than breaking up the core, Ujiri made DeRozan and Lowry the faces of the franchise. This February, they both represented the host city at the first All-Star Game outside of the United States.
"I was five years in and I didn't want to have to go through another three or four years of having to rebuild and not knowing if I'd ever get the opportunity to play in the postseason," DeRozan said. "And we stuck it through. We made it to the playoffs that year, and it's been history ever since."
Two-and-a-half years ago, DeRozan saw the team buckle down, avoid excuses and prove people wrong. There have been bumps in the road since then, including a four-game sweep at the hands of the Washington Wizards last season, but DeRozan always pictured Toronto growing from those experiences and advancing this far.
DeRozan is all about resilience these days. Last year, he read The Undefeated Mind, a book by Alex Lickerman about building strength through adversity that is grounded in Nichiren Buddhism. When the Raptors' star backcourt was mired in a playoff shooting slump, DeRozan told Lowry about what he'd learned from it: They had to be comfortable being uncomfortable. The conference finals loss hurt, DeRozan said, but he is already looking forward to trying to get back there.
"What those two guys have done for this franchise and this city and this fanbase, nothing short of amazing," Cleveland superstar LeBron James said after beating Toronto 113-87. "Being two All-Stars, carrying those guys through a first-round seven-game series, a second-round seven-game series and then a conference finals Game 6 in their home building, they were spectacular. They were great. These fans here, I know they know what they have, and they sure appreciate talent like DeMar and Kyle."
No Raptors will be ashamed of losing to James and the Cavs, even if they are not satisfied with the result. "We're a step ahead in the process," Casey said, adding that the next step -- good to great -- is the toughest. Internal improvement is essential, and Toronto must make some more moves.
Fortunately, the front office has a track record for finding the players the Raptors need. Last summer, after the Wizards debacle, Ujiri added DeMarre Carroll, Bismack Biyombo and Cory Joseph to address their defensive failings. He also selected promising guards Delon Wright and Powell, an absolute steal, in the draft. Toronto is not only a balanced and dangerous team, but a relatively young one. Thanks to Ujiri's first move on the job, trading Bargnani to the Knicks in July 2013, the Raptors have the No. 9 pick in this year's draft, too.
This summer will present challenges. DeRozan will command a maximum contract and Biyombo, a playoff hero and a soon-to-be unrestricted free agent, has raised his value immensely. Without a salary-clearing trade, it will be impossible to keep both. The coaching staff could also have significant changeover, as Casey's three top assistants have been linked to other jobs.
Compared to other offseasons, though, Toronto is in a peaceful place. The team has never been better and, since Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady were teammates, its future has never been brighter. When Ujiri meets with free agents, he will have an extremely compelling story to sell.
"We set records," DeRozan said. "We did something the franchise ain't never did. We gave this country something they haven't seen. So it's amazing. We're representing a whole country. We got to the Eastern Conference finals. We had All-Star here, we had two All-Stars to represent. We did so much to be proud of."
