Toronto Raptors Deserve A Puncher’s Chance

The Toronto Raptors are reaching for greatness this season, greatness that extends beyond the 2015-16 All-Star Game.

The Toronto Raptors are a tortured franchise, they’ve paid their dues, and it’s time for some real results. The Raptors sit at a crossroads, to their left a dark and winding road that leads back to NBA purgatory, to their right heights never reached by the franchise before. This is not the first time the Raptors have been in this position, in fact, they’ve been here twice before.

The Raptors and their fan base can’t deal with a third disastrous reset, they can no longer show immense promise only to crumble far short of the finish line.

The Raptors won 48 games in 2013-14, at the time a franchise best. The Raptors won 49 games in 2014-15, setting a new franchise record. This year the Raptors could surpass that, they are on pace to win 50 or more games, currently atop the Atlantic Division at 26-15. In the end, all of those regular season wins mean squat if the Raptors don’t at least advance in the playoffs.

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Gut check time. The Raptors are not going to win a championship, most people know it; it’d take some insanely fortunate twists of fate to even make it out of the East. The Cleveland Cavaliers are that good, they didn’t show it Monday night when they collapsed against the Golden State Warriors in disastrous fashion, but they are.

Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are both having career year and though it may not be enough to win the Raptors a championship,  it should be enough to take the Raptors farther than they’ve ever gone. The Raptors need to set coordinates for the Eastern Conference Finals, this time not getting stranded along the way.

The Toronto Raptors should be excruciatingly disappointed with anything other than a trip to the conference finals.

Vince Carter, or Air Canada as some fondly remember him, took the Raptors to within one shot of the conference finals and they haven’t sniffed the second round since. Chris Bosh, while terrific during his Toronto tenure, never escaped the first round. The DeRozan and Lowry duo, despite improving the record each and every year, sit in the same boat as Bosh.

It’s time, the Raptors need to take a step forward.

There’s this false notion that if you don’t win a championship it was a failed season; that is incorrect. Reaching higher than you’ve reached ever before is an accomplishment in its own right. The Raptors have a chance to do just that. You also get the “puncher’s chance” narrative.

The Raptors shouldn’t beat the Cavaliers, but if you’re riding some momentum and you’ve come that far who knows? A puncher’s chance is something to get legitimately excited about. But a one-and-done playoff appearance doesn’t count.

Losing in the first round of the playoffs is like sitting courtside at a NBA game; it’s thrilling and you’re on the cusp of the action, but you’re never truly involved.

The Raptors deserve a legitimate puncher’s chance.

"They want DeRozan and the rest of this Raptors team thinking, “We came so close, we’re a real contender.” That’s a thought or a feeling that I don’t think any Raptors player or fan has yet to ever experience in the franchise’s 21 seasons."

Let’s say the Raptors fall short, they make the playoffs and are once again eliminated in the first round. That’d be three straight years of winning an awful lot of regular season games to accomplish zilch when it’s all said and done. DeRozan would then face free agency with a crushed soul, frustration in his heart, and three years of “we weren’t even close” on his mind.

Has DeRozan given any real indication that he’s leaving, or thinking about leaving? No. But do the Raptors want him headed into free agency with that state of mind? Hell no, they don’t. They want DeRozan and the rest of this Raptors team thinking, “we came so close, we’re a real contender.” That’s a thought or a feeling that I don’t think any Raptors player or fan has yet to ever experience in the franchise’s 21 seasons.

Keep in mind, it has been rumored the Los Angeles Lakers will take a swing at DeRozan this offseason, and DeRozan is a California native who played his college ball at USC. The Raptors already watched Carter and Bosh walk out that door, they don’t want to say goodbye to a third homegrown superstar.

Don’t get me wrong, the Raptors have always been an exciting team. Early on they had some of the league’s best uniforms and their fan base is constantly growing. There are a lot of positives, but the Raptors have set the bar high this year.

Three straight playoff trips on the horizon, a possible franchise-best win total three straight seasons, and on top of it all they get to host the All-Star Game!

So how do you ride that wave? How do you take all these small accomplishments and cement them into something meaningful? You do that by rising above the rest in the playoffs, cementing yourself as an Eastern Conference power.

Since the 1995-96 season (the season the Toronto Raptors were hatched), all but four teams have made the conference finals at least once. The only four not to do so? The Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets, the New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans, the Toronto Raptors and the Washington Bullets/Wizards. This is not a club the Raptors want to be a part of any longer.

This isn’t a pipe dream, the Raptors are good enough to achieve their goals this season. Lowry is a borderline MVP candidate, DeRozan has come a very long way in terms of understanding who he is as a player and what he can and cannot do. But even more important to the Raptors growth was the strong offseason orchestrated by general manager Masai Ujiri.

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The Raptors historically are a team known for losing key free agents, not acquiring them, but this offseason was different. Ujiri collected a group of under-appreciated and unsung heroes. Luis Scola joined the Raptors coming off a sensational international campaign during the FIBA Americas.

Cory Joseph, an Ontario native and former champion, has excelled off the bench as the Raptors’ third guard. Bismack Biyombo, a former top-seven pick, has been everything the Raptors hoped for and more as a rim protector and shot blocker.

Finally, the acquisition of DeMarre Carroll, who was the Atlanta Hawks’ glue guy last year, cemented the Raptors’ starting lineup and moved the often inconsistent Terrence Ross to the bench.

Health and luck are always factors come the postseason but the Raptors have never had a better opportunity to make a real run. They are second in the conference, the Wizards have fallen off the map, the Pacers have leveled out, the Bulls and Heat both have major issues to address before they can be considered contenders.

Aside from the Cavaliers there isn’t one team that presents a clear mismatch to the Raptors out East.

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If not now, when? The Raptors–presuming they don’t ease up–should head into the the playoffs as the East’s second seed. The mentality right now in “The 6” should be, “Why not us?”