CBC-Sports

End of the line for Raptors

March 13, 2009 11:43 AM | Posted by   Paul Jay  

Anyone who's watched an episode of Star Trek or spent a late night trolling message boards has probably heard of the uncertainty principle in quantum physics, which basically says you can know the direction a particle is travelling, or you can know its location, but you can't know both.

The same paradox is at work with the Toronto Raptors this year. We may not be able to piece together when, exactly, the team's playoff hopes were officially dashed, but one thing is for certain: this season is over for everyone but the schedule makers.

Was it the Dallas-Houston Texas-two-stomp? The Dwyane Wade show last Friday night? Or do we go back to the start of the team's six-game losing streak and the 133-113 genuflection to the Phoenix Suns?

Little hope with 17 games to go

Perhaps this is a philosophical question and not one to analyze. Is it not deep thinkers with time on their hands who puzzle over whether an unheard tree falling in the forest makes a sound? Perhaps then the question is this: if the Raptors lose to Philadelphia and game is on TSN2, does it matter?

Any way you dissect the last two weeks, you end up with the same coroner's report: the Toronto Raptors are legally dead, with 17 games to go. It's just a matter of when to pull the plug.

For basketball fans, there is ample time to devote to the college tournaments in Canada and the U.S., and for Raptors fans, the U.S. tournament gives them an opportunity to scout, for themselves, whether college swingmen like Ohio State's Evan Turner, Arizona State's James Harden or Wake Forest's Al-Farouq Aminu are indeed the answer to the team's greatest weakness.

It also gives the team a chance to figure out how, if at all, players like Roko Ukic, Pops Mensa-Bonsu and Joey Graham fit into their future plans.

Not that the team has called it quits: after all, they still get to play 17 games, including two each against Charlotte, Chicago, New York and Indiana - four also-rans theoretically in the hunt for the final playoff spot - and one game against Milwaukee, the 30-37 team currently holding that precarious place. And hey, they're only six games back, right?

This logic works until you remember that the Raptors are not a good team, have no depth and no longer bring consistent effort on most nights. If any one of New Jersey, Charlotte or Chicago finishes the season by winning half their games, Toronto would need to go 13-4 to tie. Good luck with that.

Hope for future?

Which brings us to the next question: is there any hope for the future?

The trouble with Toronto is simple: they have three good players in Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani who are under contract beyond this season.

They also have five players under contract who, realistically, you probably wouldn't want to see on the court in a playoff game: Jason Kapono, Kris Humphries, Marcus Banks, Roko Ukic and Nate Jawai. Maybe Hump and Roko will take the next step into "solid-rotation player", but for now, they are not there yet. The rest are free agents or, in the case of thoroughly underwhelming Patrick O'Bryant, buy-out candidates.

Which means Toronto has many, many holes to fill. Ideally, they need a starting shooting guard, a starting small forward, a backup swingman and a backup big man, and better than the ones they currently have.

Will they be able to fill all of those needs with one draft pick and $10 million US and change to spend in the off-season?

It seems unlikely, but who knows? Like the elusive electron, there is too much uncertainty involving the Raptors to say for certain what direction the franchise is heading. But we do know where they are, and as Neil Young once sang, everybody knows this is nowhere.

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