Raptors Hot Topics: Any Toronto all-stars, will they win another road game?

Article content

It’s time for another edition of Toronto Raptors Hot Topics. What’s going on in the wacky and not so wonderful world of the Raptors?

Toronto has lost 15-of-16 after Thursday’s gritty, but ultimately unsuccessful effort against NBA-leading Cleveland. Things can only go one way from here, right?

When will the Raptors win another road game?

To date, this team has a single road victory. It came against the only team with a worse overall record than the Raptors, the dismal New Orleans Pelicans, back on Nov. 27. Since then, it’s been seven straight away losses for a Raptors team that is finally at full strength (or close enough, given Ochai Agbaji, who had been the team’s iron man, is banged up).

Toronto has a chance to finally win on the road against a good opponent on Saturday at Detroit. But the Pistons no longer reside at the bottom of the standings, as that franchise has for a number of years. This year’s group has been a positive surprise, taking a .500 record into the game with 19 wins after only 14 victories last year and 17 in 2022-23 (no Detroit team has won more than 23 games since 2018-19’s .500 group in Dwane Casey’s first year there). Detroit is only 9-9 at home, though, and plenty of Raptors fans always cross the border from Windsor so this could be a winnable one, especially with Jaden Ivey lost for months. But then again, even when the Pistons stunk, they still went 10-5 against the Raptors over the last four seasons.

If it doesn’t happen Saturday, winning at Milwaukee will be tough, but the Raptors will get consecutive cracks in Atlanta on Jan. 23 and 25 before visiting Washington, the only team in the East with fewer wins than Toronto, on Jan. 29. If they somehow lose all of those we might be talking end of February or even March for the next road win. Yikes.

Will the Raptors have an all-star in San Francisco?

Sorry, but no, unless a number of players can’t suit up. Scottie Barnes, the only former all-star on the roster, has a statistical case to go again, but he’s missed way too many games and the team’s record will hurt him. Jakob Poeltl has a real shot, given the lack of big men options in the East, but we’d still peg him as unlikely.

Since the NBA still only takes 12 players per conference, it’s tough to make it and the East has four locks in Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson, two players with huge leads in fan voting that are poised to start in LaMelo Ball and Karl-Anthony Towns, and many other deserving candidates (like at least two of Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen from Cleveland, Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, most improved player favourite Cade Cunningham, assists leader Trae Young, the resurgent Tyrese Haliburton and Tyler Herro, amongst others).

Realistically, Barnes and Poeltl would be battling for the final spot with too many other options to make it.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

Have any Raptors actually exceeded expectations this season?

It’s hard to find positives given how disastrous things have gone overall, but we’d argue there are a few.

Not sure anyone expected Poeltl to perform at about an all-star level, but he has been a force. Agbaji showed next to nothing after being acquired from Utah last winter, but got off to a great start before tapering off more recently. He’s looking like a rotation player, which is a win for the Raptors.

We’d say similar things about rookie Jamal Shead, the 45th pick of the draft, who is getting a chance to show what he can do in recent weeks. Fellow first-year player Jamison Battle has provided desperately needed shooting, not bad for an undrafted free agent. Even if RJ Barrett hasn’t stayed at the spectacular level he started at (especially at home early in the season), he’s still been quite strong offensively.

Expectations were high for Barnes, so it would be hard to argue that he’s exceeded them, though he hasn’t failed to meet them by any means, and it’s tough to assess Gradey Dick who has alternated from extremely promising to quite sub-par, depending on the point of the season one is evaluating.

@WolstatSun