The Toronto Raptors are going to spend another season trying to hold onto the middle of the Eastern Conference with pieces from their championship core from five years ago.
With a messy future in line at Toronto, new head coach Darko Rajakovic didn’t like journalists questioning if he needed to adjust his rotation to improve the team. He dismissed rotations as the option, using a Stephen Curry example while doing the same.
“We talk about it like ‘What? Why? How? Who?’ Those are the questions and how that affects everybody else. Sure, we can mix up our rotations during the game. It’s not like we have Stephen Curry sitting on the bench and I am gonna put him in there or I’m not keeping him on the court. We’re trying to get chemistry, we’re seeing some improvements… It’s not about lineups.”
“It’s not like we have Steph Curry sitting on the bench.”
Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic on if it’s time to mix up the rotations 👀
(via @StarSports)https://t.co/ZywNzuTCIp
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 24, 2023
Having an option like Curry on your team does make a coach’s job much easier. Curry’s Warriors are 15-14 on the season, a low mark for the four-time champions. But without Curry, the team would likely be sitting in the Draft lottery. He’s averaging 28.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 4.4 assists, leading the franchise to hang onto their dynastic success from years past.
The Raptors may have beaten Curry’s Warriors for the 2019 title, but the franchise isn’t the same. They had years of continuity before their title win, something they hoped to continue in their post-title era. They’ve maintained pieces like Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby, but have seen their values ebb away over the last few seasons. They lost Fred VanVleet for nothing in the 2023 offseason and stand to lose both Siakam and Anunoby similarly this summer.
Is It Time For A Rebuild In Toronto?
Fans have been clamoring for the Raptors to be their rebuild since the season they drafted Scottie Barnes as a future franchise cornerstone. But after becoming the sixth seed in the 2022 playoffs, the Raptors aimed to continue a push for contention with their core last season, which resulted in a playoff exit. This season, they’re 11-18 and sitting as the 12th seed in the East. The formula to success needs to be altered ASAP.
Masai Ujiri has been hesitant in moving his players away, turning down massive offers in past seasons that he’s unlikely to get for them now. Both Anunoby and Siakam will be headed to free agency this season, with the Raptors hoping that their ability to overpay keeps their stars in town. Ujiri has called them selfish before, so this may be a way both parties use to end the last remnants of the 2019 title roster.
Rajakovic is a young coach who could sculpt a team to his liking, playing an experimental offense that could succeed with the right pieces. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have those pieces right now. Scottie Barnes will lead the way for a rebuild, but Ujiri needs to realize that trading his stars away to recoup assets is the way to go.
He’s lost most of his leverage by not trading them in the past two seasons and will hope for a separate win-now move from a team in February to maximize what he can get. Otherwise, we likely may be in for more years of mediocrity with players aging and Ujiri refusing to engage in the trade market.
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