Morning Coffee - Jan. 17, 2025
Winning always matters | Facilitating a Jimmy Butler trader | Looking for 3 in a row against Bucks
Competitive Raptors are back at it - Raptors in 7
No, this was not a series clinching game. Heck, it was a long way from a Play-In Tournament clincher. That Scottie Barnes roar at the end of the Celtics game was an exclamation of relief and release of frustration for a team sitting at 9-31 coming in.
Toronto hadn’t won two in a row since Dec. 1st and 3rd against Miami and Indiana, respectively. Back then, 7-15 didn’t look too shabby. They lost 11 straight after that and 16 of 17, a win over Brooklyn serving as brief exhale. Barnes hadn’t experienced beating Boston since March 28, 2022 when Pascal Siakam dropped 40 in an overtime win.
He hadn’t experienced beating a Celtics team featuring Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown since Oct. 22, 2021. That game, you may remember, was probably the first game that got Raptors fans enamoured with Barnes as he put on a brilliant road performance in just his second game with 25 points and 13 rebounds.
Lastly, in the two prior matchups this season, there was a double-overtime buzzer-beating game-winner by Jayson Tatum in Boston and a 54-point drubbing on New Year’s Eve. Those would have stung in very different ways even though Barnes didn’t play in the first one.
So, when this roar came out, some may look at the Raptors’ record on the season and find it amusing but this is the fight you want to see from your leader. This is the pride you want to see especially when on your home floor. And yes, him losing the ball out of bounds as he got caught up in the moment and let it all out was objectively hilarious.
Tough times are a major test of who you really are and Barnes has had to learn the hard way the last couple seasons. This team had to earn its way to a win against Golden State and then repeated the trick against Boston. Good for Barnes, good for the Raptors.
Raptors Insider: Toronto is trying to get in on the Jimmy Butler trade sweepstakes - Toronto Star
It’s not that they want Butler: His skill set, age, $52-million (U.S.) player option for next season, and longer-term financial desires make him about ill-suited to join this roster. But general manager Bobby Webster and president Masai Ujiri are trying to be facilitators — and benefactors — in what ultimately happens with Butler, the disgruntled Heat wing who has asked for a trade.
How? In the increasingly difficult landscape of NBA trading, the Raptors have the range of expiring contracts that could allow them to be a third or even fourth participant in a trade.
Bruce Brown ($23 million), Chris Boucher (about $10 million) and Davion Mitchell ($6.4 million) all have deals that end in the summer, valued parts of putting together the jigsaw puzzle of a big splash NBA trade.
It is convoluted to make trades, big ones or even small ones, because of the financial realities in the NBA. Aprons and de facto hard caps limit the highest-spending teams, often requiring them to get another club to take on salary. The variety of Toronto’s menu gets them in the mix.
To get what? The Raptors don’t want to take much longer-term money in a trade but if they had to take one amount next season while adding draft capital, they most assuredly would. It’s the process they are pursuing right now and it is likely the only way they’ll be players on the market before the Feb. 6 deadline.
There are no names being kicked around but there are definitely concepts being discussed.
The next chapter in the Butler story should play out Friday when the seven-game suspension handed to him by the Heat hammered is over and Miami gets ready to play at home.
He will show up — it’s unimaginable he’ll give up more money after the suspension cost him about $2.5 million — and how big a circus it becomes could impact how quickly the Heat will proceed.
When they do, the Raptors are going to be on the phone offering their assistance to help a trade happen and, most important, to help enrich their assets as well.
Why Win? Raptors Explain the Value of Wins Even in Rebuilding Season - Sports Illustrated
Consider the difference the last two games have made to Toronto’s future. If the season ended today, the Raptors would sit fourth in the NBA draft lottery standings, with a 48.1% chance to land a top-four pick, a 12.5% shot at No. 1, and the potential downside of falling to eighth. Had Toronto lost those two games, the Raptors would own the second-worst record in the league, improving their odds slightly across the board. It’s not a huge difference, but when the future of the franchise is dictated by what happens in the draft lottery, every extra ping pong ball in the draft lottery machine helps.
There is, however, another view.
“Everything we do over here is about winning,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said to a similar question. “You need to develop that character. I think how you compete night in and night out, that builds the culture. It's building the culture this season, and it's going to trickle down in the future when we are ready to compete for championships as well.”
At times this year, it’s looked like Toronto’s hard-working culture has completely disappeared. The Raptors lost lopsided games to the Memphis Grizzlies, Celtics, and Milwaukee Bucks, and Barrett even acknowledged the team’s lack of effort as alarming.
Lately, that’s been different.
Toronto turned in its best performance of the season on Wednesday and appears to be taking important steps forward. It’s progress, though, that has come at the cost of lottery odds.
So why win?
“It’s the point. It’s why we’re here is to win. Rebuild or not, the goal is to win, and a part of rebuilding is to get to a point where you’re winning again,” Barrett said. “You try to win every single time you’re out there on the floor no matter what.”
Raptors looking for three wins in row for first time in nearly a year - Toronto Sun
Which isn’t to say there isn’t plenty of work to be done as the Raptors enter the second half of the season, having managed just 10 wins and a .244 winning percentage (which amazingly would be the second-worst in franchise history) through the first 41 games.
“Of course, we don’t want a record like this,” Mitchell said, before mentioning the age of most of his teammates. “We lost a lot of close games got blown out a couple times. But, I mean, I feel like we’re learning. We got a really young team. We got a lot of rookies, got a lot of people that wasn’t on the team last year. A lot of these teams are playing with teams that are playing with each other with chemistry (after many years together),” he said.
“So we just got to be more kind of like perfect, because they know each other’s tendencies. They cover for one another. They play with one another for a couple years, and we just kind of just started this year.”
And even then, Toronto has had so many injuries that there hasn’t been enough time over the season’s first half for the players expected to form the core moving forward to gel with each other.
At least as noted on the broadcast Wednesday, Toronto leads the NBA in scoring from players aged 24 or under. The team’s three scoring leaders (RJ Barrett, Scottie Barnes and Gradey Dick) fit in that category, while Quickley, who is tied with Dick at 16.2 points per game, is 25.
Friday will mark the beginning of the next stage of the season. The short-term will indicate whether the last two games were a mirage or the start of something different for these Raptors. The long-term is just as murky. Will it be a needed high lottery pick arriving come June, or will we see an inconsequential late-March and April pursuit of a play-in spot?
The team is walking a fine line. While that high draft pick is needed for the long run, a culture of losing and of bad habits can’t set in on the way to finishing near the bottom of the standings. Until recently, there were too many ugly losses where Toronto showed little fight.
“Everything we do over here is about winning,” head coach Darko Rajakovic said after the win over the Celtics. “We want to win championships, we want to win and compete in every single game. You need to develop that character. I think how you compete night in and night out, that builds, that builds the culture. It’s building the culture this season, and it’s going to trickle down in the future when we are ready to compete for championships as well.”
