The Toronto Raptors followed the growth model young Orlando Magic want
The Orlando Magic are hoping to progress and break through to the Playoffs next year. Sort of like how the Toronto Raptors burst onto the scene last year.
The Orlando Magic’s growth has been a slow one. The first year of the rebuild saw the Magic get 20 wins to 23 wins to 25 wins with four games remaining this year.
The third year has not lived up to its expectations, a reality that has set in for the Magic but one they are hoping to at least change in the short term heading into the offseason.
Across the way Friday night is a nother team very much like the Magic.
In 2010, the Raptors were a middling NBA team that had lost their superstar player in Chris Bosh. They won 22 games behind second-year guard DeMar DeRozan in 2011, jumped to 23 games in 2012 without a first round draft pick in Dwane Casey’s first year as head coach and then hit 34 wins in 2013 as the team slowly began building its talent base.
The Raptors did not build through the draft. They acquired Rudy Gay and Kyle Lowry via trades to supplement role-playing rookies in Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross in 2013.
What is undeniable is the breakthrough they have made the last two years. Things have clicked and the Raptors vaulted into the Playoffs last year with an Atlantic Division title and 48 wins, following it up with 46 wins this year entering Friday’s game.
It is another division title and another Playoff appearance for the young Raptors team. The slow rise and break through is not unlike what the Magic want to accomplish with their rebuild.
“I think they’ve grown as a group,” James Borrego said of the Raptors. “I think they’ve embraced who they are. They have good chemistry as a group, which is what we’re trying to build here. They have added a little edge, a little nastiness to their group. That’s the next level for us. They get to the free throw line at a very high level. We need to add a little bit of that to our game as we go.”
The Magic seem to have that point guard in place in Elfrid Payton for the team to trickle down from. The nastiness though, that is something that is uniquely the Raptors.
Kyle Lowry can be a bull at the point guard position and Tyler Hansbrough has his reputation throughout the league. Everyone remembers the Raptors getting 48 free throws in the team’s first meeting back in November. On the year, the Raptors have a 29.8 free throw attempt rate, good for seventh in the league. They very much want to out-physical teams and make games seem slow with their parade through the paint and to the line.
Opponents to the Raptors have to match the physicality while still playing their game and dictating the pace. It is not easy, thus the Raptors’ success.
Dwane Casey has come in and preached a defensive mentality which helped turn Toronto around last year. The defense has certainly slipped a lot this year — their 105.0 defensive rating puts them 23rd in the league — but the bully ball on the offensive end of the floor has been surprisingly effective.
This is a dangerous Raptors team that is ready to compete in the Eastern Conference Playoffs once again.
“They definitely have [established themselves],” Victor Oladipo said. “They’ve grown and they’ve gotten a lot better. Players have gotten better within the program as well. We can learn a lot from them. At the end of the day, we have to continue to keep getting better and growing or we won’t have any progress.”
And, even though Toronto has Orlando’s number right now, that team was once in Orlando’s shoes, just trying to burst through.
The Magic right now are playing some of their best basketball of the season, having knocked off two consecutive Playoff teams needing wins in tight Playoff races as the season comes to a close. The hope for the Magic, and the belief coming from the players, is that these performances will build momentum for the offseason and the beginning of next season.
There are hints that the kind of burst the Raptors made last year could occur with the Magic.
Casey said he has seen growth within the Magic team throughout the season, even dating back to when Jacque Vaughn was fired. He said they have a good talent base to supplement with free agents and draft picks to continue this growth.
And this recent stretch has shown at least one coach who has been through that difficult climb that the future is bright and that next step is the one the team has to take now.
“That next step is hard,” Casey said. “We’ve taken one step and taken that next step is the hardest thing to do to grow from being that underdog-type to getting where you need to be and then that next step. But they are right where we were two years ago, three years ago. It’s tough. It’s probably the toughest thing you do in sport. But if people are patient, and it sounds like they are here, good things are on the horizon.”
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