Depleted Raptors overmatched by Magic who are heading in opposite direction

Before each game, Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic meets with the media to answer any questions relevant to that night’s game. 

Topics usually include the final determination on who is healthy or not, the key elements (in broad strokes) of the game plan, some observations on the opponent or a particular player on the opposing team and sometimes questions about league-wide trends of the moment. It usually takes seven or eight minutes and rarely more than 10. 

But on Friday night, before the Raptors hosted the Orlando Magic, it was very brief. Rajakovic started by making a statement. He had a couple of notes scribbled down, but spoke from the heart, addressing the news Thursday night that Raptors wing RJ Barrett’s younger brother had died earlier this week after a brief illness. 

“Before we get into questions, I would like to address a couple of things,” he said. “As you guys probably heard, RJ Barrett lost his brother, and their family lost their beloved son and brother, Nathan Barrett. That sad news shook up all of us. We are all here for RJ: teammates, coaches, the whole organization, and Canada Basketball, as well. Family asked for some time and privacy. With RJ, we don't have any timetable. He's going to take as much time as is needed to process this hard time for him and for his family. We're in touch with RJ and his family and our thoughts and prayers are with them. We're hoping that they can feel our support and love.”

There weren’t really any questions after that. Nothing about the upcoming game seemed all that pressing. Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley started off his media session similarly. “Our hearts and our prayers and our thoughts go out to RJ and his family for their loss. I just want to put that there first, because I can only imagine what they’re going through.”

It's tough to think about. 

Not long afterwards, the Raptors and Magic met on the floor for a game that felt a little more meaningless in the grand scheme of things, even given that the tail end of the Raptors' season has become what Rajakovic has already termed an extended training camp with an eye on next season. 

Still, some takeaways from a 113-103 Magic win that was the Raptors' sixth straight loss and eighth in their past nine games. While they fell to 23-44 on the season, the Magic improved to 39-28. 

1. The game might have been relatively meaningless for the Raptors — at least according to the standings — but it carried weight for the Magic who arrived in Toronto in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, a game-and-a-half up on Indiana in sixth and just one game behind the New York Knicks in fourth. Pretty impressive for a team that has been in the draft lottery for the previous three seasons.

If you want to trace the roots of the Magic's turnaround you can refer back to a two-game series the Raptors played in Orlando in early December. The Magic were 6-20 at the time, the worst record in the NBA, a rebuilding team with no clear path forward. The Raptors were .500 and harbouring aspirations for better. But the Magic smacked the Raptors around pretty convincingly and went on to play .500 basketball for the rest of the season, setting the stage for their success this year so far. The Raptors went on a six-game losing streak and haven’t been over the .500 mark since, which in turn motivated a full-scale roster makeover that could make playing .500 basketball a distant dream for a couple of seasons or more.

Can the Magic ride their momentum into a playoff run? The odds are against it. Post-season basketball is a learned skill and teams going through it for the first time often learn their lessons the hard way. That and the fact the Magic’s Achilles' heel is their three-point shooting (they rank last in the NBA in three-point makes and 26^th by percentage) providing an obvious way for an opponent to game plan for them in a playoff series.

But to their credit, the Magic — still one of the youngest teams in the league, even with 36-year-old Joe Ingles on the roster — have turned into one of the NBA’s best defensive teams, ranking fourth in defensive rating, first in opponents’ turnover percentage and second in defensive rebound rate. It’s a good formula, but regardless of what happens the Magic are well positioned: they have all their own draft picks, an additional first from Denver in 2025 and some extra second-round picks as well. They have a path to considerable cap space this summer to boot. They are — by any definition — a team to watch. They play unselfishly too: against the Raptors they had 10 players with at least five points on the night and none with more than Franz Wagner’s 19.

2. There is no one in Toronto who wants to relitigate the 2021 draft. The Raptors moved up to fourth in the lottery, picked Scottie Barnes and haven’t had a second thought about it. Barnes won rookie of the year, was an all-star in his third season and was leading the Raptors in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals before his season-ending hand injury on March 1^st. But Jalen Suggs — who many thought the Raptors might take but instead went to the Magic with the fifth pick — has turned into something almost as valuable: a 22-year-old third-year lottery pick who is committed to being a superstar role player.

Suggs is already getting mentioned as an all-NBA defender and has improved his three-point shooting enough — he’s up to 39.5 per cent this season after shooting 21.4 per cent as a rookie and 32.7 last season — that he can play almost any role required: point guard, off guard, even small forward, offensively or defensively.

“I think when Jalen is healthy and good to go, he’s a first-team all-defender because he cares and wants to defend,” said Mosley. “He’s not afraid of the physical contact and he understands the game and knows how to read offensive players and where they’re going.”

The entire Suggs repertoire was on display Friday. He finished with 16 points and three steals. After making the last of his three triples to put the Magic up 11 with five minutes left to play, he then man-handled the Raptors' Ochai Agbaji — no small feat — while pushing his way through a screen to force Gradey Dick into an airball. You’d never wish the Raptors had taken Suggs at four instead of Barnes, but Suggs had proven to be a nice find at five.

3. Gary Trent Jr. may or may not be your flavour as a basketball player. As he wraps up his sixth season, it’s no mystery what he does well and not so well. He’s an offensive-minded player who can shoot from deep, find himself some looks in the mid-range if you give him enough time to play with his food, but doesn’t have the oomph to get to the rim and is a below-average playmaker. Defensively he can be pesky on the ball, get lost off of it and is a bit limited in terms of who he can cover.

That’s all fine; not every NBA player has to be a star. But the one skill Trent Jr. does have is the ability to knock down open three-point looks. He was 7-of-11 from deep against the Magic on his way to a season-high 31 points. Trent Jr. is now shooting 40.9 per cent from three on more than six attempts per game. He’s done it coming off the bench and lately as a starter. He’s a free agent at the end of the season and at this point, there would have to be an explanation for why the Raptors didn’t bring him back.

4. Gradey Dick has had a really nice run of play over the past six weeks, but he’s still a 20-year-old rookie. After making three consecutive starts for the first time in his career, at the end of the most recent road trip Rajakovic said he was expecting a fatigue-related dip. Sure enough, Dick struggled to make shots and defend his position against the bigger, more physical Magic. He ended up 3-of-9 for the night and a remarkable -32 in his 23 minutes of floor time, which is hard to do in a game your team only loses by 10. But that’s okay. It’s about accumulating experience and even playing badly and playing tired can be a positive if you respond the right way.

“He did not have that extra juice that he usually brings and it was a tough night,” said Rajakovic, who sat Dick for some long stretches in the second half. “Sometimes, yes, playing through mistakes but he also needs to understand ‘I can’t do this’. There is a fine line, sometimes learning is on the bench as well.”

5. The final games of a season with nothing on the line may seem meaningless, but they are vital for young NBA players desperate for a chance to make their mark. Jordan Nwora is in his fourth season having played his first three in Milwaukee and Indiana. He’s in a position where he needs to show he can play a role in the NBA to stay in the league. Similarly, Jahmi’us Ramsey has played 34 NBA games since being drafted in the second round by Sacramento in 2020.

Nwora is a pending free agent and Ramsey signed a second 10-day contract with the Raptors. Each of them helped their cause against the Magic. Nwora popped off for 14 points on eight shot in his 16 minutes and Ramsey had 10 points, five rebounds and a steal in his 18 minutes. Each finished with a positive plus-minus.