STINSON: Raptors facing a year of stark change

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How unusual was it to be again within the Scotiabank Area for press conferences to open a Toronto Raptors coaching camp?

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The final time the Raptors did one in all this stuff, within the enviornment lobby throughout from Jurassic Park, that they had but to start their defence of the NBA title. Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol have been nonetheless Raptors, as was Kyle Lowry. Nobody on the workforce had seen a banner raised to the rafters or been given their championship rings.

It has been a really lengthy whereas in a literal sense, however the distance between the Raptors of then and the Raptors of immediately is even larger in a figurative sense. That title defence was crusing alongside fairly properly early in 2020 earlier than it crashed on the shoals of the pandemic. The workforce nonetheless hasn’t performed a playoff recreation on their Toronto court docket since a loss to Golden State in Recreation 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals. That was the sport wherein Kevin Durant returned from damage, lit up the Raptors, after which blew out his Achilles. It’s been a minute.

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Which is why this NBA season for the Raptors, regardless that it incorporates a lot of acquainted faces and vital part components, feels totally, nearly bizarrely, new. There are such a lot of questions on this workforce and this franchise that may solely be answered with time.

What does a post-Lowry workforce appear like? His manufacturing ought to be replaceable with some mixture of Fred VanVleet, Goran Dragic and Malachi Flynn, however Lowry turned historical past’s best Raptor, as folks like me have been at all times banging on about, as a result of he did numerous little issues to assist his workforce win. He had a freakish knack for key performs at massive moments, and he was the unquestioned chief of the workforce. That management might even have had unintended penalties. VanVleet stated on Monday that Lowry’s gravitational pull in all probability made it tougher for Pascal Siakam to say himself because the workforce’s most vital participant, even after he had been handed a contract that paid him like one. Siakam, for his half, basically agreed: He stated that the Raptors have been nonetheless Lowry’s workforce the final couple of seasons, whereas Siakam was making an attempt to tackle an even bigger management position. “Now there’s no query, proper?,” he stated. But when the Raptors needed to transfer past Lowry to permit the following era of gamers to completely seize management of the workforce, there stays uncertainty about whether or not they can do it. VanVleet was a splendid complement to Lowry within the backcourt, particularly final season, and Siakam was rising as a dominant offensive power earlier than dropping his recreation and confidence in a stretch that started within the Orlando bubble and lasted by a lot of final season.

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Past the various on-court questions, how a lot of a profit will the workforce get simply by being again in Toronto? Whereas they collectively stored a courageous face concerning the transient nature of the final season and a half, they finally admitted it was a serious downside. Crew president Masai Ujiri stated final month that final 12 months’s Tampa-based season set the franchise again “a few years.” VanVleet stated on Monday that he didn’t understand how a lot he loved being in Toronto till he and his household lastly got here again right here. Siakam declared himself “tremendous blissful” to be again and stated he loved feeling the chilly air. (Notice: It isn’t significantly chilly but.) Head coach Nick Nurse stated he walked into his workplace on the enviornment on Monday for the primary time since February of 2020. There was nonetheless a blue swimsuit in his closet, though it had gathered some mud. Whereas enjoying out of Orlando after which Tampa didn’t really feel so troublesome within the second, Nurse stated, being right here now “feels far more snug.” Will that be value just a few wins all by itself?

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And whereas no NBA workforce was dealt a worse pandemic hand than the Raptors, they may even have COVID-related benefits this time round. Normal supervisor Bobby Webster stated the Raptors are one second dose away from having a totally vaccinated workforce, and the expectation is that may occur properly earlier than the common season begins. Elsewhere across the league, a lot of star gamers have bristled at vaccine necessities, with Washington’s Bradley Beal the newest to affix an inventory that features Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving and Andrew Wiggins on Golden State. Not less than three NBA arenas will presently not enable unvaccinated gamers indoors, however that quantity might change. Gamers who haven’t been vaccinated may even face stricter isolation guidelines within the occasion of a COVID publicity, which means the Raptors might but discover themselves at a aggressive benefit simply by advantage of getting all taken the shot.

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Throw all of that in a blender — the lack of Lowry, the return to a delirious Scotiabank Area, the wild card of the pandemic — and what comes out the opposite finish? Solely a idiot would declare to know with any confidence. The betting homes counsel a workforce that may lose extra video games than it wins, and as Nurse famous on Monday, the Raptors aren’t close to the highest of anybody’s energy rankings. However means again within the fall of 2018, when he was simply beginning out as the top coach, Nurse talked a couple of workforce that will tinker and experiment for a lot of the 12 months earlier than, he hoped, discovering an id by the spring of that season. That was a reasonably related message to what he was providing on Monday. This would be the fourth season of the Nurse period, however simply the second — knock on wooden — to finish with video games in Toronto. There may be cause for each doubt, and optimism.

Let the tinkering start.