The Raptors have every right to celebrate their first-ever appearance in the National Basketball Association Finals today. No matter what happens in Game One and through the rest of the championship series, they will have already succeeded in proving to all and sundry their arrival as a real force. Even as they contended in previous playoffs, their seeming competitiveness was always deemed fool’s gold given their failure to emerge as the East’s standard bearers when the battlesmoke cleared. This season, they’ve managed to go over the hump, beneficiaries as much of boldness as of no small measure of good fortune.
Indeed, the Raptors greased the wheels of progress by pulling the trigger on an extremely risky plan that had them scuttling a culture already predicated on winning, but which seemed to reach its ceiling. They traded away erstwhile foundation DeMar DeRozan in favor of still-possible-rental but no doubt transcendent Kawhi Leonard. At the same time, they handed newly minted Coach of the Year Dwane Casey the pink slip and, instead of a latching on to a big name, promoted assistant Nick Nurse to the hot seat. No doubt, they were emboldened by the departure of longtime foil LeBron James to the West.
The Raptors saw an opportunity, and they pounced. They doubled down on their gamble by placing Leonard on a “load management” program that had him missing 22 regular-season matches. They sacrificed the chance to claim the top seed in the East, but, in the process, ensured his fitness and preserved him for the tougher battles ahead. And they can’t be any happier with the returns: He has emerged as the postseason’s best player by far, carrying them on his shoulders with masterful performance after masterful performance.
And so, today, the Raptors will trek to the Scotiabank Arena as slight favorites to prevail over the Warriors in the opener. They’ll be brimming with confidence, empowered by their spectacular run and enriched by their experience. They’re so much better now than when they started the playoff last month. True, they still lean on Leonard in the crunch, and he has reveled in their reliance on him. That said, they’ve managed to back him up with their dramatically improved production in recent memory. All-Star Kyle Lowry has stepped up along with such notables as Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol, Fred VanVleet, and Norman Powell — and to the point of overcoming the inconsistent play of rotation regulars Danny Green and Serge Ibaka.
Granted, the Raptors are decided underdogs. They like their position, though, and just as when they went up against the Sixers, and then the Bucks, they’re keen on proving the folly of conventional wisdom. Meanwhile, they figure their fateful campaign will convince Leonard to stay on as their acknowledged leader for the medium term. They want him to see how much they believe in him, and figure that he, in turn, will go all in, too.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994.
