No one is walking through the door to help the Toronto Raptors. While several Eastern Conference rivals bolstered their rosters in preparation for the playoff sprint ahead, the Raptors opted to pursue meaningful internal changes.<\/p>\n
The organization is clearly not ready to let go of this group – at least not yet. Whether that mindset proves fruitful remains to be seen. But this iteration of the Raptors seemingly has one final chance to prove they\u2019re worth investing in and it begins with a matchup against the Chicago Bulls on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Tip-off is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. EST on Sportsnet.<\/p>\n
Here are three storylines ahead of the matchup.<\/p>\n
Poeltl Must Pay it Forward<\/p>\n
The unofficial mid-season break couldn\u2019t have come at a better time for the Raptors as they desperately attempt to keep their grasp on a playoff spot.<\/p>\n
The two players that admirably stepped up while the team dealt with injuries earlier in the year, Sandro Mamakelashvili and Collin Murray-Boyles, are ironically listed as questionable. Mamukelashvili has exceeded all expectations and remains on track as one of the best free-agent signings in franchise history. Meanwhile, Murray-Boyles is still dealing with a thumb issue. The rookie is averaging 7.9 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.9 blocks.<\/p>\n
Before the All-Star festivities, Jakob Poeltl finally returned after missing 24 consecutive games. While on a minutes restriction, Poeltl finished with nine points and six rebounds in 20 minutes during a 113-95 defeat to the Detroit Pistons on Feb. 11.<\/p>\n
With only 26 games left in the Raptors\u2019 schedule, Poeltl will finish the season playing fewer than 57 games for the fourth straight year. The Raptors\u2019 playoff hopes and season highly depend on Poeltl\u2019s back holding up. Even if he\u2019s not at full strength, Poeltl\u2019s availability considerably improves Toronto\u2019s chances in the East.<\/p>\n
Even when the Bulls started the season with five consecutive victories, no one outside of Chicago batted an eye. At 6-1, the Bulls held the top spot in the Eastern Conference on Nov. 1. With the NBA returning from its All-Star Weekend, the Bulls are 24-31 and currently hold the 11th seed.<\/p>\n
The Bulls have etched an awkward page in history books as a frequent participant in the league\u2019s play-in tournament. Chicago has appeared in the competition in each of the last three years. They\u2019ve accumulated a 2-3 record during this span.<\/p>\n
After years of mediocrity, the Bulls\u2019 front office decided to move in a new direction. But in what is the feather in the cap for those who believe Bulls fans are still paying for how they ended their golden era, the team still feels directionless despite roster changes.<\/p>\n
Out goes Nikola Vucevic, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, Ousmane Dieng and Mike Conley in separate transactions. In return, Chicago acquired Anfernee Simons, Colin Sexton, Jaden Ivey, Rob Dillingham, Nick Richards and Guerschon Yabusele.<\/p>\n
When Josh Giddey and Tre Jones return from their respective hamstring injuries, the Bulls\u2019 coaching staff will have to solve the funky logjam of guards they have.<\/p>\n
Even with the Bulls in disarray, the Raptors will still have their hands full against a scrappy Bulls team that ranks 11th in rebounding. If Poeltl and Murray-Boyles miss the game, it\u2019ll take a team effort to contain Richards and Yabusele, both of whom are expected to be on \u201cprove-it\u201d missions for the rest of the season. Centre Jalen Smith, who has been dealing with a calf stain, has also been fantastic in limited minutes.<\/p>\n
It feels like the Raptors have been here before. There\u2019s an eerie tension in the air that suggests a transition is waiting around the corner, ready to ambush the fans into the next era of Raptors basketball.<\/p>\n
The optimistic basketball fan in Toronto will remind their peers that something fun typically follows. From Mighty Mouse and Vinsanity to Chris Bosh. From DeMar DeRozan\u2019s \u2018Young Gunz\u2019 era to We the North. Then there\u2019s the 2019 championship run to this current version of the team.<\/p>\n
The latter is still difficult to judge because it\u2019s defined by Scottie Barnes, who has never benefitted from proper roster construction. Since moving on from the parts that helped bring the city\u2019s first NBA title, the Raptors have leaned on the likes of Immanuel Quickley, Canadian RJ Barrett, Gradey Dick and Ja\u2019Kobe Walter as key acquisitions. What makes them important adds were the assets, cap room and draft capital used.<\/p>\n
While the Raptors never miss out on an opportunity to remind fans and media they\u2019re in the middle of a rebuild, it\u2019s difficult to completely buy in, considering their lone move at the trade deadline was partly done to get under the tax line.<\/p>\n
Skipping the play-in tournament should be the expectation because it\u2019s time to see what this group can do in the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No one is walking through the door to help the Toronto Raptors. While several Eastern Conference rivals bolstered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,5842,6,681,53472,5038,33750,680,476,65037,3820],"class_list":["post-615570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-raptors","tag-basketball","tag-general","tag-nba","tag-raptors","tag-raptors-scores","tag-raptors-analysis","tag-raptors-schedule","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-toronto-raptors-discussion","tag-torontoraptors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116108132647706511","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}