The Raptors closed out their worst calendar year ever with the largest loss in franchise history, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. Toronto lost by 54 points on Tuesday afternoon in Boston, wrapping up a week filled with historic misery. Grange notes that the Raptors gave up a team-record 155 points Thursday in Memphis and set a franchise mark for turnovers in a home game by committing 31 in Sunday’s loss to Atlanta.
The latest defeat wraps up a forgettable 12 months for the Raptors, who were in contention for a play-in spot when 2024 began. Their 20-63 mark since January 1 goes into the record books as the most losses the franchise has suffered in a single year.
Although things look bleak for Toronto, which dropped into 14th place in the East at 7-26, Grange tries to find a few positives for the franchise going into 2025. One of them is the play of rookie guard Jamal Shead, who appears to be a steal with the 45th pick in this year’s draft. Shead combines physical defense with an ability to get into the paint and make quick decisions. His three-point shooting has been a pleasant surprise, as he came into today’s game connecting at 46.7% from beyond the arc.
There’s more from Toronto:
- Head coach Darko Rajakovic has done an admirable job of keeping the team together despite its current 11-game losing streak, Grange adds in the same piece. He has focused on improving his young talent, and management appears to be patient even though the Raptors haven’t won much since he took over. “It’s a roller-coaster season, and that’s what we’re going to understand,” Rajakovic said before Tuesday’s game. “There’s going to be ups and downs, and also improvement. Progress is never linear … at some point you get tired, you get bumped, you gotta learn how to bounce back. There is a lot of adversity, and we’re feeling that adversity, and it’s good. We’re gonna use that adversity to our advantage, to get information that we need to improve, to focus on the most important things, and to see the growth. That’s what this whole season is about, and to also learn who can rise to challenge and who cannot.”
- Rajakovic told reporters that Scottie Barnes has been dealing with numerous physical ailments over the past 10 days, including ankle and knee soreness and tightness in his core (Twitter link from Grange). He added that Barnes is starting to feel better, saying, “I’m expecting him to make strides.”
- One bright spot this week was the return of Bruce Brown, who made his season debut on Sunday following offseason knee surgery, Grange states in a separate story. The versatile swingman, who’s considered to be one of Toronto’s most valuable trade pieces, scored 12 points in 19 minutes. “I felt like myself again,” he said.
Shead had a -37 with 5 points and 3 turnovers in 25 minutes today, jinxed him haha
Shead is a high character guy. Good man.
Weakest era ever. Nobody can play any defense
These people love making stuff up. Who in the world thought that the Raptors were in the mix for a play-in spot?
People exist in the world that didn’t know ahead of time, that the raptors top players/starters would take half a season to finally share the floor together.
Nah you just completely misread that. It said that this time last year they were in the mix for a play in spot. If you go look up last years standings when they made the OG you will find that is indeed accurate.
Since then they have been beset my injuries and had a talent deficit against most teams leading to the disastrous last 12 months in terms of wins and losses.
But please tell us all about people making stuff up.
I didn’t misread anything. The Raptors were not making the play-in at any point in the past two seasons. Get real. They didn’t even know what they wanted to do with the players that they had, at the time…
Raptors are not that bad as this week suggest. They are rebuilding and were without 3 starters (RJ, Dick, and Quickley), plus Scottie Barnes has been injured most of the season (as Quickley), and Bruce Brown played his first game of the season.
They are rebuilding, no need to aim for a playoff spot still. They need to turn around this streak, though, to not get used to losing and being blown out. But it’s worth noting that they are 5 of their top 7 players out.
They need to put the Dick in again xD
Just one more time I promise
Hopefully they can get one of the top 2 picks….
It’s the word of the season so far: Capitulation. The FO reasoning behind Tanking and Load Management has apparently trickled down to the coach and players. Same strategic/ selective effort mindset. Only play hard if you have a good chance to win.
From TOR’s standpoint, the good news it’s not necessarily reflective of the team’s talent level, since a lot of teams are doing it or at least dabbling in it.
Are you aware that a bunch of the players have been sick the last few weeks? The flu bug has compounded the injury bug that has beset this team.
The games have been brutal for sure but this whole tanking narrative is so lazy and reductive.
It’s a league wide phenomenon, not just about your team. Think that was clear from my post. In any event, you either don’t follow the NBA as a whole, or you don’t understand the game sufficiently to know that professional teams don’t lose by 54 points due to absenses for any reason, other than a lack of caring.
Really? Still singing praises to Darko? Raptors have, and have had the worst coaching and management imaginable. Take away the championship season that happened by accident, and that even I could have coached, and what are you left with? 10 years of ridiculous trades, terrible coaching, and records of futility. Enough already. Letting the guilty off is part of the problem.
Raptors plan on building around Scottie Barnes and in order to do that need shooters.
Gradey can be that guy for sure, as can IQ but there best player this season RJ isn’t exactly that and has some position overlap with these two.
Talking about positional overlap you’ve also got Agbaji and Walter there as SG’s who just clog up the depth chart in that area.
Cam Johnson could be a good target.
He’s a shooter, decent defender and just slots in perfectly as the 3.
Brooklyn can have Brown, Walter or Agbaji and a first.
No surprise with a username like that for such an L take. Cam is a low IQ, high volume chucker, that will likely never factor in to any championship team roster. Hard pass.