Uncle LeBron And The Raptors

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DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry

The past five years have seen the Toronto Raptors emerge as one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference which included them winning a franchise best 59 games this past NBA season. But the Raptors success in the regular season has not lead to that coveted NBA Title which is the result of them being unable to conquer Mt. LeBron in the playoffs.

For three straight years the Raptors have met small forward LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs only to be rebuffed each time. However this year’s playoff loss to the Cavs was the worst in franchise history for the Raptors.

The Raptors came into the 2018 NBA Playoffs owning the best record in the Eastern Conference. And aside from having home-court advantage, the Raptors were facing a Cavaliers team that wasn’t loaded with stars like they were in year’s past, nor were they a fresh team as it took them seven grueling games to get past the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs.

Image result for raptors-cavs game 1 2018 playoffsBut when the Raptors began their series against the Cavs, they appeared ready to exercise those past playoff demons as they built a 14-point lead in the first quarter of Game 1. Throughout the contest the Raptors never trailed, but they couldn’t put Cleveland away and late in the fourth quarter James made them pay.

Late in the fourth, James hit a basket to tie the game, and after the Raptors missed several chances to win the game at the buzzer, you felt the air leave the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

The Cavs would go on to steal Game 1 by the score of 113-112 as they only time that they led in the contest was when it mattered the most.

Following the Game 1 stunner, the Raptors were never able to recover as they lost by 18 points in Game 2, and insult was added to injury in Game 3 as James knocked down a buzzer-beater to win the contest which put Toronto in an insurmountable 0-3 hole in the series.

Image result for raptors-cavs game 4 2018 playoffsThe Raptors would cap off their disappointing series versus the Cavaliers with a 35-point loss in Game 4 this past Monday night which included Toronto’s best player in swingman DeMar DeRozan getting tossed early after he earned a Flagrant 2.

For the series James averaged 34 points, 11.3 assists, and 8.3 rebounds as he single-handedly destroyed the Raptors dreams, ended their season, and sent them into the summer with a bevy of questions that must be answered.

Raptors team president Masai Ujiri is the architect of this current team and he has built tis squad around DeRozan and point guard Kyle Lowry. Together DeRozan and Lowry have been a solid backcourt combination for the Raptors which includes each player making multiple trips to the All-Star Game. But Ujiri has made the same mistake that many other front office executives around the NBA are making which is developing a team that is too perimeter oriented.

Too many people see what is working for the Golden State Warriors and believe that they can emulate it. But the main reasons for the success of the Warriors is that they have three of the best perimeter shooters in NBA history in small forward Kevin Durant, shooting guard Klay Thompson, and point guard Steph Curry, while power forward Draymond Green is a tremendous facilitator at his position. And as good as DeRozan and Lowry are, they are not superior perimeter shooters, nor are they stars that can carry the Raptors in the playoffs. In the Raptors frontcourt, center Jonas Valanciunas and power forward Serge Ibaka are complimentary players. Valanciunas has continued to make strides in his six years with the Raptors, but he is not a player that you can consistently feed in the post in order to give you 20 points a night, while Ibaka has fallen in love with becoming a three-point shooter which has taken away from his effectiveness close to the basket.

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Dwane Casey

Dwane Casey has seven years under his belt as the head coach of the Raptors, and although that he’s the most successful head coach that the franchise has ever known, he could be the odd man out. The Raptors already have more than $127 million committed to player salaries for next season, and with big contracts such as the $31 million of Lowry which is all but movable, it is going to be hard for Toronto make any roster altering deals unless they want to start over from scratch which is highly unlikely.

But in Casey’s case, he failed throughout the Raptors series with the Cavaliers to properly make adjustments, and most importantly motivate his team to take their game to another level. Casey was outcoached by James and Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue who himself more than likely will not be returning next season due to health issues. Casey never had an answer when James completely shut down DeRozan at both ends of the floor, nor was he able to pick his team up off of the canvas when they were receiving huge body blows from Cleveland.

Now the Raptors will head into the off-season knowing that nobody with a quality basketball IQ will ever take them serious in regards to winning a title as it is quite evident that James owns them. At the start of this series I said that if the Raptors could not beat the Cavs now that they never will as this team is James and 11 guys who are collecting paychecks. And regardless of whether or not that DeRozan and Lowry can come back and play at a an All-Star level next season, the Raptors title window may have closed.

The Boston Celtics are a team that is young and deep, while the Philadelphia 76ers are a team on the rise. And if James leaves the Cavaliers this summer in free agency in order to join another Eastern Conference team, they will immediately become title contenders. The Pacers cannot be overlooked either as this team made tremendous strides this season with shooting guard Victor Oladipo leading the way, and with a little more seasoning, they could be ready to make a title run of their own as it’ll be tough for the Raptors to deal with all of them.

The Raptors have suffered the same fate which was bestowed on the Chicago Bulls of the early 2010’s. The Bulls were a team which was good enough to win the Eastern Conference during the regular season, but when they faced James and the Miami Heat in the playoffs, they simply didn’t match up. But even in defeat those Bulls never went down without a fight. These Raptors had the life and fight taken out of them as soon as Game 1 went to overtime as James treated them like bread on a window sill for the remainder of the series as they were simply his for the taking whenever he wanted it.

These Raptors can continue to sell out the Air Canada Centre, rally behind their slogan of “We The North”, and give the basketball fans in Canada good regular season entertainment, but winning in the spring when it matters is a different thing which is something that they have yet to figure out. James exposed these Raptors for the frauds that they are, and going forward the young phenoms of the Celtics, Sixers, and Pacers will continue to pick at the bones that he left behind when he beat Toronto like they owed him money.

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