The Toronto Raptors- A Team in NBA Purgatory

By: DoctaJ

In the 18 year history of this not so storied franchise, the Toronto Raptors have made the playoffs 5 times, and have only won one playoff round. The franchise has lost every star player it’s had, mostly due to the teams incompetent, and downright terrible Front Office. The past General Managers: Isiah Thomas, Glen Grunwald, Rob Babcock, and Brian Colangelo had no success in creating a team that could not only win immediately, but had longevity in maintaining success for the years commencing.

The closest this franchise has come to becoming a contending team was in the Glen Grunwald era, when the Raptors had a superstar player in Vince Carter, an up and coming star in Tracy McGrady, and solid(but limited) role players surrounding them. Mcgrady left in the summer of 2000, and the chances of the Raptors becoming a contending team for years  to come exited with him, despite making the playoffs in the following 2 seasons, and even winning a first round series against the New York Knicks.

In what has been a recurring theme over the franchise’s existence, the Front Office was unable to surround it’s franchise player with the type of talent capable of lifting this team to new heights. The Raptors have consistently signed average players to long term contracts, which has essentially killed any opportunity to effectively build a team around it’s star players.

When viewing general media, blogs, and message boards regarding why the Raptors can’t lure the top tier talent in the NBA, the same three reasons are regurgitated: weather, living in a different country, and taxes. All three reasons are fallacy, because there is one key fact that has been consistent  over time in the sporting world: If a team is winning(and has the necessary cap room to acquire the player in the first place)they can sign, trade for, and retain talent, despite any of the three reasons mentioned. There are numerous teams who have attracted top tier talent who are in cities that have cold winters, high taxes, and don’t have nightlife or quality of life anywhere near as good as Toronto’s.

So  the question remains, how do the Toronto Raptors get out of NBA purgatory? Again, it starts with the front office. In the 2013 NBA off season, Toronto had a change in ownership, with Tim Leiweke taking the reigns as the President and CEO of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment. The change in ownership has given fans a glimmer of hope that the organization is finally going in the right direction, due to the fact that he helped bring championships to both the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL, and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Leiweke brought in Masai Ujiri, an understudy of Brian Colangelo, who had success in rebuilding the Denver Nuggets in his 3 years with the organization. Masai Ujiri is the key figure in helping the Raptors turn around their historically bad 18 year run as an organization, as he has shown the ability to upgrade his roster through trades(acquiring 5 rotation players and 1st round pick for Carmelo Anthony, and acquiring Andre Iguodala for Aaron Afflalo and a 1st round pick), but has also shown the ability to be able to draft talented players later in the draft(Evan Fournier, Kenneth Faried ), which is key for a rebuilding team looking to stockpile talent. He’s also extremely cap conscious, something that we have yet to see from a Raptors General Manager, as giving out large contracts to below average talent has been a calling card for the organization since it’s inception.

If his work with the Denver Nuggets is any indication, the Raptors should be out of NBA purgatory sooner than anticipated, and once the Raptors start consistently winning, the stigma that players do not want to play in Toronto will cease to exist.