Raptors' roster finds semblance of normalcy, but next steps still uncertain

The Toronto Raptors‘ long road to normal — or what passes for it these days — began in Detroit on Wednesday night.

Where it leads is an open question. With the NBA’s March 25 trade deadline fast approaching, the Raptors’ brain trust will have no choice but to gauge the value — or even likelihood — of getting their year back on track for a playoff push compared with punting on the season, sifting through the offers that keep coming for pending free agents Kyle Lowry and Norman Powell, and adding prospects and draft picks that can help them in the future.

The Raptors’ 116-112 loss to the Detroit Pistons was the sixth-straight and eighth in their past nine games, every loss making Toronto’s journey back to the top tier of the Eastern Conference — where they’ve lived for the past seven years — that much more difficult. The Raptors remain in 11th place with a 17-23 record but are just three games out of sixth, which would see them avoid having to be part of a four-team play-in tournament.

“We understand we got a little uphill climb, getting a little steeper but there’s still a lot of basketball to be played and we’ve already proven with this team that we can play very good basketball,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. “[It’s] just a matter of can we get back to a little bit of our identity, get a little nastier on the defensive end.”

But will they have time to get things rebalanced? There are just four games left before the trade deadline, which adds some urgency to the situation.

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“I think that our people that make those decisions have to do what’s best for the health of the team, organizational health, whatever that means,” said Nurse. “It’s always unsettling when there’s trades, and trade talk is unsettling as well but it’s going to be interesting to see if we do anything for the short-term or long-term.

“What are you looking at now so we can make a push here with this team — because they deserve a chance to make a push, they’ve proven they can play well against the best teams in the league — and then what do you do about the future?”

The Raptors’ short-term needs are obvious – beyond getting everyone back, healthy and ready to compete at game speed. Toronto is the worst rebounding team in the NBA and it showed again against Detroit as they were out-rebounded 41-20 and gave up 13 offensive rebounds leading to 20 second-chance points for the Pistons. Some quality size might help in that department, as Aron Baynes has obvious limitations and Chris Boucher, for all the punch he can add in so many areas, is consistently over-matched on the defensive boards.

Longer-term? The Raptors have two valuable assets heading to free agency in Lowry and Powell, and decisions will have to be made about whether it’s better to recoup something in return for them or if Toronto can re-sign them in the off-season.

The Raptors got some welcome news before the game when it was determined that starters Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet, and depth pieces Malachi Flynn and Patrick McCaw would all be available after missing nearly three weeks of action due to health-and-safety protocols related to COVID-19. OG Anunoby remained out, with the hope being he can return to play on Friday against Utah.

But no one was expecting the returnees to be anything close to full strength. It was just nice to have them available, and they were happy to be available.

“For me, just being back today, it’s been great, awesome,” said Siakam. “I felt great out there being on the floor. Obviously, you haven’t done anything in a long time, you’re going to be a little sluggish out there but for the most part, I was happy to be back, man. Like Fred said yesterday, you don’t realize how much you love this until it’s taken away from you. Just being back, playing the game, running up and down the court.”

Siakam and VanVleet struggled, predictably. Missing nearly three weeks of time in the middle of a compressed season due to an illness with wide-ranging and not entirely understood effects on high-performance athletes is not a recipe for immediate success. VanVleet shot 2-of-13 from the floor for 12 points and managed just three assists, less than half his season average while playing 32 minutes. Siakam shot just 3-of-11 for 13 points in 30 minutes.

Conversely, Powell was magnificent, building on a body of offensive work that keeps growing by the game. The six-year veteran put up a career-high 43 points by shooting 14-of-18 from the floor and 8-of-12 from deep — spectacular numbers, but not all that shocking given he came into the game shooting 52.2 per cent from the floor and 44.8 per cent from three since becoming a fixture in the starting lineup 23 games ago.

It’s been quite an evolution for a second-round pick who struggled to shoot consistently early in his career, not that Powell has taken much time to reflect.

“I’m just always focused on what’s next, trying to get better. Trying to perfect the flaws that I saw each and every year. I spend a lot of time on that,” said Powell. “… I think, the time I do reflect on it is when I’m talking to the [younger] guys, trying to get them mentally focused and preparing them for what the NBA is like.

“…I think that’s the only time I really talk about it. My family and my friends, they talk about it a little bit more, but I’m just always focused on how do I get better, how do I improve, and how can I help the team win.”

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Powell did his part against the Pistons.

The Raptors trailed at the start of the second, third and fourth quarters and led only briefly early in the third. They were down by seven with less than a minute left but almost pulled it out after Siakam had a block/charge call reversed, leading to a pair of free throws. Later, Lowry found Boucher for a lay-up and Powell nailed a three with 23 seconds to play. He was fouled but missed the free throw that could have cut the lead to two and then the Pistons’ Jerami Grant hit a pull-up jumper over Lowry to ice the game with 7.7 seconds to play.

Still, there was some sense of progress – Nurse said it felt like a step forward, just having bodies back on the bench.

But that the Raptors could take a step forward even while losing for the sixth-straight game and the second-straight to the Pistons — mired in the bottom of the Eastern Conference all season as they go through a full-scale rebuild — says everything about how deep a hole they’re in as they fell to 17-23, matching the six games below .500 mark they were at through the first 10 games of the season.

Toronto got back to .500 by going 15-7 over the next 22 before the bottom fell out recently, and so the question is whether the Raptors should double-down on the group that went 15-7 or wave the white towel on the performance of the group that has otherwise gone 2-16.

The decision doesn’t need to be made for another week, but it’s a compelling set of choices that could shape the franchise for years to come.

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