Raptors’ Wish List: Embrace mushy middle, eat some peas
Green, round and, most certainly, mushy in the middle.
Peas are as polarizing as they are populous, with people’s opinions on the vegetable often boiling down to one thing: perspective.
My wife, for instance, loathes the voluminous green bulbs because of the taste and texture, which “feels like pimples popping in your mouth,” and the fact that she hardly ate them growing up, as her mom didn’t like them either.
On the other side, peas offer me a positive reminder. They speak to the comforting embrace of my mother’s cooking, each bite of her matar pulao perfectly blending fluffy seasoned rice and tender peas — contrasting textures that found harmony together.
My wife is not wrong in her lived experience, and by no means needs to change her thinking. It just means the value peas can provide — high in fibre, protein and vitamins which can improve digestion, heart health and the immune system — is lost along the way.
So, maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part this holiday season. But I’m here to make the case that it’s time for the Toronto Raptors and their fan base to embrace the mushy middle, so they can get the value from eating some peas.
And look, I get it, there’s definitely a sentiment of “been there, done that” floating around this franchise, but that’s not how sports work. Every iteration of a team goes through its own unique life cycle.
These Raptors don’t get to pick things up from where previous versions left off. The 2025-26 squad is still in the infancy of its development, learning what it wants to be, at a time when many teams in the Eastern Conference are in a similar position.
So, yes, while it’s tempting to pursue a blockbuster deal to shake up the core, or even bottom out to start from scratch, I believe there’s something to be said about trudging through the mush — staying the course. Say what you want about the ghosts of Raptors past, but eight playoff appearances in nine seasons is nothing to scoff at — just ask anyone who was a fan for the first decade-and-a-half of the franchise’s existence.
And we all know how the story goes. The trade for Kawhi Leonard pushed that team over the edge and into a championship winner.
Yet I saw that as validating all the work leading up to 2018-19, not erasing it. Masai Ujiri, Bobby Webster and that front office don’t have the wherewithal to make the trade for Leonard, or Marc Gasol later that season, if there wasn’t ample data on what that roster — and nucleus — had to offer (and what it didn’t).
Ujiri and Co. made plenty of incremental moves along the way and built a team that they felt deserving of another shot and worthy of a swing for the fences. And I’ll admit that yes, keeping a group together longer than maybe they should have was seemingly the post-championship Raptors undoing. But I have no reason not to believe that Webster can’t — or hasn’t already — learn from those decisions now that he’s moved up a spot.
Battling for seeds 3-8 before a presumed first or second-round exit may sound futile to some. But just like eating a bowl of peas, I think it just depends on how you look at it.
Consider the Minnesota Timberwolves, a team I believe is similarly constructed to the Raptors but a couple of steps further along their journey through the mushy middle. A team that moved on from an all-star calibre cornerstone to build around a new-age star and an increasingly expensive roster — projected to be a top three cap team in the NBA from 2024-27.
All of which has led them to four consecutive winning seasons, yet only a pair of first-round exits and two Conference Finals trips where they won a combined two games to show for it. Does that seem worth it?
How about if I say it like this: After failed iterations of building around top-end prospects and stars, like Kevin Love, Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine, Jimmy Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns, the Timberwolves finally found the player and group that’s led them to four consecutive playoff appearances and their first WCF trips in 20 years.
Doesn’t sound so bad now, does it?
And while it’s unclear if this version of the T-Wolves ever gets over the hump, the chances are only better after an ascending star like Anthony Edwards got to experience going head-to-head against his peers atop the West in the highest stakes moments.
Nor would these years be a waste if the Edwards-led Timberwolves never lifted the Larry O’Brien trophy. Because that’s basketball. Yes, there’s an end goal — glory for the victors — but overnight success stories are few and far between in the NBA.
Sure, you can point to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who, after 11 straight winning seasons, tore it down for basically just 2.5 years before climbing back to routinely winning 50 games per year and capturing a title. Or the Detroit Pistons, who went from dwellers to darlings in the span of just one off-season and are now rulers of the East over a quarter of the way through 2025-26.
Those are very real examples, but good luck replicating either timeline. The Thunder’s speedy return to relevancy required asset wizardry that I believe only Sam Presti is capable of and may actually be a result of harnessing the dark arts (go ahead, try to prove me wrong if OKC gets a top-five pick this year from the Clippers).
As for the Pistons, their turnaround came after HEAPS of losing. Forget five seasons of not making the playoffs, we’re talking half a decade of sub-25-win seasons. Frankly, I’m just not sure if the Raptors front office (or fans) could stomach so much losing, which honestly didn’t pay off nearly as much as it could have theoretically.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand no one roots for an inevitable early playoff exit. But just take a trip down memory lane with me and reminisce on how meaningful losing in seven games to Brooklyn a decade ago felt. I remember being huddled with six other people in a 2003 Toyota Camry as we had our ears glued to the radio during Game 7, only to hear “Here’s Lowry, on the deck, through two. Lowry put it up, it’s blocked by Pierce! And the Nets win the series.”
An agonizing feeling of heartbreak I’ll never regret because it sold the front office on the duo of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry while tipping off the “We The North” era in full force.
Or how about a six-game ECF elimination that not only earned LeBron James’ respect, but showed the world how passionate fans north of the border are about basketball.
I’m not going out on a limb by saying very few must’ve thought the Raptors were going to win it all, most of those years. Yet how many of us cared since those “shortcomings” came on the heels of season-after-season of irrelevancy? The wins and losses finally meant something, and for a brief period, that was enough.
So now the path that these Raptors are on is undoubtedly murky … or, dare I say, mushy.
But I’m not so sure they find their way through by trying to skip ahead blindly or by turning back in the direction they just came from.
There will be problems. It won’t always be easy or simple. But growth is hardly ever linear. Learn from the moments — what and who is worth investing in. If there’s a franchise that should understand that, it’s Toronto.
It all just depends on how you look at it. So, if you’re willing, take a seat and join me. Let’s eat up.
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