When it comes to title defenses, it would be hard to find a stranger one than the Toronto Raptors are experiencing this season.
It started in the summer, when Kawhi Leonard became the first MVP of the Finals to immediately abandon his team for another. It continued through the fall and into winter, with the Raptors racking up wins despite injuries that plagued their roster. They won seven in a row around Thanksgiving, five in a row over Christmas, and then 15 in a row a few weeks later.
Spring seemed like it would bring more of the same. On March 9, the Raptors dropped the Utah Jazz. The victory was his fourth straight and broke his record to 46-18, second only to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference standings.
“We were starting to prepare for the playoffs,” says starting shooting guard Fred VanVleet.
Two days later, the NBA suspended its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, he set the Raptors on track to reach a record they surely would rather not have: by the time the 2019-2020 playoffs are scheduled to begin on August 17, 431 days will have elapsed since the night they were crowned the 2018-19 champions. It will be another 44 days before the NBA Finals begin on September 30. No NBA champion has been forced to defend a single title for so long.
“It certainly has been weird,” says Raptors head coach Nick Nurse.
30 teams, 30 days: The most important story of every NBA team before the return of the league.
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That the Raptors have a legitimate chance to repeat as champions is one of the best and most unlikely stories in the league. Most teams step back after losing their best player. The Raptors have gone the other way, tapping a combination of depth, intelligence, guts, and wit to win 71.9 percent of their games, a rebound from the 70.7 mark last season.
They’re no better without Leonard, and the hole created by his absence will probably be more noticeable when the playoff time comes, but they could be more fun. And in a foreign format where chaos could reign, it’s not hard to imagine a result where the Raptors end up on top and become the most unlikely replay champions in NBA history.
“I wouldn’t put anything beyond them,” says an explorer from the Eastern Conference.
Mary Altaffer / Associated Press
How have they resisted the loss of Leonard? It begins with its incredible depth. At the top of the list are All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry, whose brilliance at the point is still underrated, and great All-Star player Pascal Siakam, who is online to receive the Most Improved Player votes. after winning the award last season, something weird. Con. Beyond that, there’s also VanVleet, a takedown shooter, and an elite defender. And there is Marc Gasol, a genius passer and one of the NBA’s most stretched-out great men. OG Anunoby has become one of the leading defenders of the league wing. Norman Powell (16.4 points per game, 39.8 percent from deep) is one of the best player development stories in the league. And the bench, with Serge Ibaka putting on his best season in years and revelations like forward wing Terence Davis and big man Chris Bocher, is loaded.
“You have to give him Masai [Ujiri] and credit to his front desk staff, “says one NBA executive, referring to the Raptors president of basketball operations.” No one saw this coming. “
The nurse has also earned a large chunk of credit, using a defensive playbook that seems to draw equally from Gregg Popovich and the father strutting on the sideline of his home Y. Cycle between styles and schemes in a way that the NBA has rarely seen. Sometimes they catch pick-and-rolls. Sometimes they fall off them. Sometimes they play zone (only the Miami Heat uses a zone defense more often, according to Synergy Sports). Sometimes they cover opposite stars through a box and one or a triangle and two. Everything works Tthe Raptors boast about the league second best defensive rating.
“They play like 20 different defenses,” says an assistant NBA coach. “It makes it much more difficult to plan.”
At the root of all this is the Raptors’ length, aggression, and cohesion. They flood ball handlers, deny entry passes and fill the floor with waves of flying hands and arms, and they do it all while helping and recovering like they’re on a rope. Only one team has forced a higher rate of turnovers this season. Another revealing and fun statistic, illustrating how long they last and how baffling their style is for opponents – the Raptors have blocked more triples than any team in the league.
All of those ravages help the Raptors cover their biggest deficiency. Their transition crime is statistically the best in the NBA, but they rank 14th in midfield crime, according to Glass cleaning. The slow attack in the middle of the court is cause for concern, especially in the playoffs, when games slow down and opposing defenses are blocked. “Much of his success came from his ability to get out of the transition,” says a scout from the Eastern Conference.
Jesse D. Garrabrant / Contributor / Getty Images
The Raptors can lean on Siakam at the decisive moment, and he says he is ready to carry the load. “I’ve been receiving attention almost the entire season,” he says. The playoffs [are] more specific in terms of preparation, and the teams will be ready for different things, so I’m definitely working on those things and making sure I’m ready to adapt in any situation. “
But Nurse also insists that the Raptors’ confidence in depth and diversity can be leveraged as an advantage, even at the end of games. They have enough weapons to make opponents sweat and, due to the layoff, they will enter the postseason with healthier bodies than they have had throughout the year. “It’s going to be a little weird at first having everyone at the same time,” says Ibaka.
The question is whether an egalitarian approach can be successful in the playoffs,
“I think it makes us dangerous,” says the nurse. “You can get into the action of two men from Kyle-Pascal, Fred-Pascal. Kyle-Marc, Fred-Marc, Pascal-Marc, Fred-Serge, there are so many different little things, and I like to tackle it on the way.”
It’s the shape of the Raptors, and it’s what makes this team worth celebrating. Everything about them, from their playing style to the depth of their roster, is different. With Ibaka, Gasol and VanVleet slated to become free agents in October, this could be the group’s last position. What better way to end a career that defied so many expectations than with another Finals appearance?
“I really like our chances,” says VanVleet.
Yaron Weitzman covers the NBA for Bleacher Report and is the author of Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the boldest process in the history of professional sports. Follow Yaron on Twitter: @YaronWeitzman.
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