Hope and intention make the Toronto Raptors rebuild enjoyable amid losses

The Toronto Raptors may not be making a playoff push (on purpose, anyway) but there is so much depth to this team that makes them easy to root for.

March is one of the best months to be a basketball fan. Of course there is March Madness, college conference tournaments, brackets and all of that. It’s also the final push to the playoffs for NBA teams and the regular season starts to wind down. If your team is set to make a playoff run, the fun is just beginning as you start to get an idea of who they’ll be playing in the first round.

Yet, if your team is not exactly in the playoff picture, like the Toronto Raptors at the moment, March may not be the pinnacle of basketball enjoyment for you. In this case, there are two things you can do. First, tap into Canadians playing in the NCAA, for fun. They are really showing out and making a bracket is super fun. Second, take a deeper look into the current state of the Toronto Raptors. You may just find some basketball joy where you least expect it.

Saturday night for example — the Raptors welcomed the Washington Wizards for night two of a back to back. From a surface level... maybe not the most encapsulating game of all time. The Raptors are 13th in the East, the Wizards 15th (aka last), and both teams are what experts would call “looking ahead to the NBA Draft.”

It was a close game, ending in a heroic play from rookie Jamal Shead that was overturned — meaning the Wizards won the game 118-117. Washington had not won a game yet this month, until tonight.

“I was hyped. I thought we won the game. After the review, I was kind of sad, but we played them again Monday. Next game, mindset.” — Jamal Shead

Two teams seemingly in similar positions outlook wise this season, but while the Wizards feel like they are lost in the stormy seas of tanking... the Raptors have built themselves a private island and are throwing their own party. Darko Rajakovic is holding the limbo pole while this young team has a blast exceeding people’s expectations of how low they can go. In this case, low means high... okay enough metaphors.

Sure, as someone whose work focuses on one specific team, I can’t speak to the culture of every non-playoff team. Yet, while other teams are out there looking helpless even as the lottery balls are leaning in their favour, something about the Raptors team just feels different.

My theory is that the team is rebuilding with intentional culture AND promising basketball talent. That’s what is really making a difference.

At this point in March, there isn’t much of a point of analyzing wins and losses for the Raptors, unless you’re trying to correlate them into draft odds. Looking a little deeper in-between the lines, you’ll find a lot of really enjoyable and heartwarming things about this team. The kind of things that make you want to root for a group that seems to be on the rise.

There’s the things a fan can see — the celebrations when rookie Ja’Kobe Walter hits an unexpected buzzer beater to win the Raptors a game, or even when Shead does despite it not counting in the end. When Scottie Barnes throws him over his shoulder and runs across the court. The social media clips of them painting dinosaurs in adorable berets for charity. The way that fans are still screaming with delight when this Raptors team comes close in a game, like they were Saturday night against Washington.

“We’re in the rebuild. We’re playing a lot of young guys. To see sold out in the arena every night and to see so much love and support from those guys, it’s unique. There’s no other place in the NBA that’s going to be like that. For everybody to show up and cheer and to be with the team, we have the best fans in the NBA. I’m really proud of that.” — Darko Rajakovic

If you look just a little closer, you’ll find the things that are only visible if you pay attention. Like how the bench players do a conga line to their seats at the beginning of every game. The specific handshakes they have with each other, or the nicknames they call each other. The way they enthusiastically cheer for every member of the team from the bench.

Then there are things that you get to see when you cover the team. Like when players are doing media scrums and coach comes behind the reporters to make faces and give heart hands to the guys. The relationships the players build with the staff inside the arena. The way that, despite this team being made up of really young men who could just keep to themselves, they treat everyone they come into contact with on game day with kindness.

Those things are bigger than basketball, they are culture. Yet, in order to do well on the court at a high level, you need strong culture. You need buy in from every single player, every single staff member, and every fan. That’s what made 2019 so special, and that’s what this franchise is trying to recreate in a new way.

Something else essential to a rebuilding basketball team? Hope.

For example, whether or not the Raptors end up getting the no.1 pick in this year’s NBA Draft, getting Cooper Flagg, and all that good stuff — they’ll still get better next year. At least in theory. There’s hope that as soon as next year Toronto will be better.

There are a few other teams headed into the lottery that would need 2-5 Cooper Flaggs in order to have that same hope.

Toronto will add Brandon Ingram to the mix next year, along with of course Barnes, Barrett and Quickley. The rookies in Shead, Walter, and Mogbo have looked promising on different occasions. Gradey Dick’s development this year has been great, and Jakob Poeltl has been the glue all season long. Put that together with a lottery pick, and that has the makings of a playoff team.

Darko Rajakovic went into extreme detail before Saturday’s game about the ways the team is intentionally developing their talent. Among many things, something that stood out was when he said “I think for a player, the moment they stop developing and working on their game, they stop not just growing, but reverses their performance.” Every player from 1 to 15 needs to be working to get better every single day, in the Rajakovic system.

He has specific visions for each player, as well as for the entire team, specifically on “how [the] team needs to play, how we want to play on both ends of the floor, but also the vision of how that player can look, not necessarily now, but a couple of weeks down the road and in two, three, four years.”

Rajakovic also talked about intentionally hiring coaches who specialize in player development. He called himself “sometimes hard to work with” because he expects his coaches to have a documented plan for every workout session they go into, every single day. Another way for the team to document the progression of players from the beginning of a season to the end and create achievable goals specific to each one individually.

“[Darko] is very consistent in what he wants. He preaches consistency. He’s very consistent in his day-in and day-out routines. Even with him and Jama jogging every day around the court, getting their exercises. They do that every day. That speaks volumes. Also, he’s a very good encourager. Just playing for a coach like that, you want to be better for him. — Jamal Shead

He spoke on standing behind his team as well — something fans have seen multiple times from Darko. Whether he’s giving a passionate speech after a Lakers game, or getting ejected defending his player, or just hyping them up court side — Darko stands ten toes down for his players. They do the same for him.

So to recap — the Toronto Raptors have a team that is promising talent wise, are intentional with their player development, they genuinely like being around each other, have a strong sense of culture, and are extremely likeable. It truly could be so much worse. Not saying Saturday night’s game in particular was proof but.......

If there are bad teams and rebuilding teams, Toronto is definitely rebuilding. There is a ton beneath the surface level to enjoy, if you look up from hate-tweeting long enough to search for it.