What A Time For The Toronto Raptors

Look out, our neighbor to the north is on the rise in the basketball world.

On Thursday, the Toronto Raptors defeated New York Knicks at home 103-93 and set a franchise record by winning their tenth straight game. They improved their record to 31-15, fifth best record in the NBA and currently second in the East.

“We can’t dismiss the fact these young men have strung together 10, the first time in 20 years. It’s not the end-all but it’s an accomplishment” coach Dwayne Casey said. This also is coming on the same night the NBA announced reserves for the All Star Game with the Raptors’ own Demar Derozan being named and who will join his backcourt mate Kyle Lowry. It’s good to be a Raptors fan these days.

Not many people saw the Raptors coming into the season as a Top 5 team, after they struggled through the 2nd half of last season. They still won their division, set a franchise record in wins and got home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs against the Wizards. The Raptors were swept in a stunning upset when many experts believed the series should have gone the distance. Many doubted the coaching of Casey and the play of their all-star duo of Lowry and Derozan, who completely ran out of gas in the end.

For 21 seasons the Raptors have had very a little success and are often seen by many outside of the USA as a basketball team that does not matter. They have only one playoff series which happens to be a 5 games series win against the New York Knicks in 2001, where they also lost in a thrilling 7 game series against Allen Iverson and the 76ers that year. But other than that season, the Raptors have had many losing seasons and have lost many key players such as Damon Stoudamire, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and Chris Bosh.

The Raptors have slowly improved since Dwayne Casey took over five years ago and have been a top 4 playoff team in the East since Masai Ujiri has been their GM. Since the Raptors have announced that they will have the NBA All Star game in Toronto, which is happening in a couple of weeks, the Raptors have looked to changed the culture around the team.

This season they have a new logo, as well as four new fresh and simple jerseys. They also successfully create the “We the North” slogan, bringing Raptors fans from all over Canada to come together and support the team. This campaign has gotten fans to go as far as traveling to different NBA cities and cheer for the Raptors as a community, at times even rooting louder than opposing fans in their own building. They have also shown in the playoffs to be one of the best and loudest fans in the NBA, with thousands of fans going to “Jurassic Park” and watching the Raptors playoffs games on a big screen just outside the arena. All of this rebranding and fan interaction has played a part in helping point guard Kyle Lowry become a starter in the last two years through fan voting over Cavaliers’ own Kyrie Irving.

They also hired rapper and Toronto native Drake to be their global ambassador. He has not only created buzz in the basketball world for the team but also buzz around the hip-hop scene and pop culture by referencing the teams in hits songs like “0-100” or from his latest mixtape “30 for 30 Freestyle,” as well as shouting out players such as former Raptor and current Laker Lou Williams in songs such as “6 Man”. The team also created merchandise and clothing around his OVO brand in which occasionally they play in a Black and Gold jersey – the OVO colors.

The organization also created “Drake Night” where fans get free OVO T-shirts and recently this year had fans dancing on a “Hotline Bling” music video set that was built outside of the arena. Drake is also close to big NBA stars like Lebron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, for which he used his concert in August of 2014 as a recruiting pitch to influence Durant to come to Toronto once his contract is expired. Drake and the Raptors would end up being fined for these actions.

But with the all the changes around the Raptors they needed to show that they can win, especially considering the recent playoff failures. This offseason became a very important one as the Raptors resigned their coach Dwayne Casey and added some new players to the rosters, one that fit Casey’s system like DeMarre Carroll, Luis Scola, Bismack Biyombo and Cory Joseph. These changes, however, didn’t make some fans too happy as the Raptors let go some of the fan favorites in Amir Johnson, Grieves Vasquez and 6th man of the year Lou Williams. There also has been the concern of whether the team will resign Demar Derozan to a max contract in the upcoming free agency, considering the All-Star guard recently opted out of his contract.

With all the concerns coming into the season the Raptors have played great basketball, winning their first 5 games of the season and beating opponent such as the Cavaliers, Spurs, Thunder and Clippers. In a very tight conference they have managed to have a 22-8 record against their East opponents, as well as sit comfortably 2nd in the East only 2 games back from the Cavaliers.

The new and slimmer Kyle Lowry has been one of the best point guards in the East averaging 21 points per game, 6.5 assists and is 2nd in the league in steals with 2.2. Dear Derozan has been proving he could be a max contract player this year leading the team in points with 23.1 per game and averaging 4.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists. With a favorable home stand that will go thru the All-Star weekend it seems a lot of good things are coming together for the Toronto Raptors.

We the North indeed…