Predicting the NBA Eastern Conference standings: Toronto Raptors
CEILING: Top-6 seed, first round exit
FLOOR: Top-5 pick
No team was a greater victim of “COVID weirdness” than Toronto last season. With the DNA of an extremely good basketball team, the Raptors relocated to Tampa Bay for the season and fell head-over-heels out of contention. Despite Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, and a universally respected head coach in Nick Nurse, the Raptors just couldn’t find a way to win games consistently.
On that note, it’s easy to project a return to form. The team is back in Canada, Siakam should improve over what we saw last season, and Scottie Barnes was the No. 4 pick for a reason (if not a great reason). The flip side to that, of course, is that Kyle Lowry is gone, and the team — excuses aside — wasn’t even in the play-in tournament last season. We could be approaching a rebuild.
Pascal Siakam has been involved in trade rumors all summer, and while none have come to fruition yet, any rebuild would start with his departure. Siakam is the team’s best player, and at his peak, arguably one of the 30 best players in basketball. If he’s removed for young players and picks, then it signals a clear desire to rebuild.
Lowry’s departure does hurt a lot. He was the heart and soul of Toronto for almost a decade. Now he’s in Miami, and the Raptors will field a much younger roster coming off a great deal of adversity last season. The Raptors can make the playoffs — and probably want to — but I’m not sure some massive renaissance campaign is a lock.