Before getting into this article, I have to make a bit of a disclaimer. I’m a huge Toronto Raptors fan. Die hard. Have been since I became a fan of the NBA years ago. It was to my great delight then, that the Raptors destroyed/embarrassed/dominated the Cavaliers on Thursday night, in what was the first nationally televised game of the season for the Raptors. In a lot of ways, this was the Raptors sticking up the middle finger to whoever schedules these things. Side note: when the hell are we going to play a Christmas game? Anyways, the Raptors won 133–99 in a game in which Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka were sidelined and undrafted point guard Fred VanVleet was the team’s leading scorer. Boom.
In a lot of ways, this shows how far the Toronto Raptors have come as a franchise. They do not have one top 10 player in the NBA (although I would argue DeMar Derozan is now officially the second best SG in the NBA), and yet, they’ve been the best team in the East since trading Rudy Gay years ago. They have enjoyed a lot of success this year due to the play of their bench, as was certainly the case on Thursday night. This bench doesn’t have an Andre Iguodala or Lou Williams either, which just goes to show what happens when a team (or unit) buys in. If any non-Raptors fan can name me the Raptors main bench unit this season without looking, I’ll be shocked. This might just sound like a huge homer rant, but seriously, the in-house growth and success the Toronto Raptors have had over the past 4+ years without bringing in any superstar talent is only comparable to the San Antonio Spurs.
Please, blog, may I have some more?