Toronto’s all-star break is finally over. The question now is what will come next. The Raptors play for the first time since Feb. 12 on Friday, hosting the new-look Miami Heat, before one of the NBA’s biggest disappointments — the Phoenix Suns — make their lone visit north of the border Sunday.
The Raptors reconvened for a practice Wednesday night, and another Thursday, and return to action with a 17-38 record, good for third-worst in the Eastern Conference and fifth-worst in the NBA. Toronto has gone just 7-30 this season against teams at .500 or above, but Miami and Phoenix are both below the mark and only five of the remaining 27 opponents currently have winning records.
Two of those games come next week (Boston in town Tuesday, and Toronto completing the back-to-back in Indiana the next night) and the easy schedule is a main reason why it won’t be a slam dunk for the Raptors to finish with a record in the bottom five, even though that’s in the best interest of the franchise long-term, given the strength at the top of this summer’s draft.
But it’s not surprising the team’s players and coaching staff give exactly zero thought to draft positioning. They get paid to win games (though a big part of head coach Darko Rajakovic’s mandate since being hired was to develop his players and steer them into and through a rebuild) and will aim to be competitive as long as they are on the court.
Barnes said as much after practice Thursday.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
“(Fans) can be excited about (the draft lottery), I don’t really give a damn about it,” Barnes told reporters. “I’m trying to go out there and win games, try to possibly make something happen. So, they can be excited for that but my mindset’s in a different place.
“I look at the standings every day. We’re still in that fight. We still could make something happen. That’s my motivation. When I look at it, I see that we still have a chance. We feel like we still want to win.”
Barnes is technically correct. The top nine spots in the East are probably out of reach (Miami is ninth with 25 wins, nine games up on the Raptors), but the final play-in spot is up for grabs, with Brooklyn and Philadelphia each 20-38, 3.5 games ahead of Toronto and Chicago five games ahead. The Nets have no incentive to compete and will likely tank hard the rest of the way. The Sixers need to make the play-in to at least help salvage a disastrous season, but could also go the other way, shut down Joel Embiid and Paul George and even Tyrese Maxey and hope for lottery luck.
If the Sixers don’t land in the Top 6, the selection will go to Oklahoma City. And while the team entered Thursday tied for the sixth-worst record, there’s nearly a 33% chance of a team in that position falling to seventh, meaning the pick would be gone. Should Brooklyn or Toronto overtake the Sixers in wins, the odds of retaining the pick get even worse.
If you’re scoring at home, as the NBA season starts up again, going from the bottom of the standings, last-place Washington has a great chance of staying at 30 the rest of the way; New Orleans and Utah, tied at 13 wins for second-worst, might not stay there unless they shut down some players; Charlotte is a disaster and we could easily see them sinking to second-worst; Toronto is in an OK spot, but might not lose enough games to get the high draft pick it needs, while still also managing to miss the play-in; Brooklyn will continue to embrace the tank; the Sixers will try to compete, at least for now; Chicago will waste away in no man’s land, like usual; Portland will probably take a foot off the gas following an unexpected run of success before the break and San Antonio will lose a lot of games now that Victor Wembanyama has been lost for the season.
AROUND THE RIM
New Raptor Brandon Ingram is able to launch three-point shots at practice, but there remains no timetable on his return to action from the ankle injury that has kept him out since early December. Starting centre Jakob Poeltl was listed as questionable to face Miami, but was quickly updated to out due to his right hip pointer. The team will be extremely cautious with injuries the rest of the way … Amazingly, a Miami win Friday would be the first victory at Toronto ever for Andrew Wiggins. The Vaughan, ON, native, was part of a still-running Minnesota Timberwolves skid at Toronto that dates back to 2004, and also came up short while with Golden State. He was part of the package the Heat received to finally end the Jimmy Butler saga.
@WolstatSun