Toronto Raptors Articles - Page 68

During the summer of 2018, Kawhi Leonard requested a trade from the San Antonio Spurs and was dealt to the Toronto Raptors. Several stuff transpired during the 2017-18 season which ultimately led to Leonard leaving the franchise, one of the hallmark organizations in the NBA. Spurs legend Tony Parker’s comments about his quad injury being […]

A few weeks ago, Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse told the local media in Canada that center Marc Gasol’s face has “looked slim” on Zoom calls. Well, we now have visual proof that Nurse wasn’t kidding around. Gasol, who came into the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies on the heavier side, looks like a […]

The NBA will enter uncharted waters when it resumes its 2019-20 season at Walt Disney World in Orlando, but one thing that is sure to happen is tampering, as 22 teams will be sequestered in the bubble with ample opportunities to line out trades. Here are five possible moves that can emerge from the Orlando […]

Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green may have left the team last summer, but the Toronto Raptors didn’t skip a beat during the 2019-20 season before games were suspended in March. The defending NBA champions actually had the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and looked well on their way to contending for the Finals spot. […]

The Toronto Raptors won the 2019 NBA championship in one of the most historic single-season runs in NBA history. Led by Kawhi Leonard, the Raptors defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in an intense seven-game series, overcame an 0-2 deficit to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks, and ended the Golden State Warriors’ dynasty. Heading into that monumental 2018-19 […]

Danny Green is the only player from the 2019 Toronto Raptors squad who has not received his championship ring. The Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard was supposed to get his ring on Mar. 24, but the NBA suspended the 2019-20 season due to COVID-19 a couple of weeks before that. The Raptors offered to send […]

The Toronto Raptors don’t have a successful track record of signing big-time players in free agency. The franchise has also had trouble keeping All-Stars in Canada, as Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Chris Bosh and Kawhi Leonard all left the Raptors at various points. For this piece, we take a look at the most notable free-agent […]

The Toronto Raptors had the second-best record in the Eastern Conference prior to the 2019-20 season getting suspended in March. The defending NBA champions will be among the 22 teams playing at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida when the campaign resumes. Gone are Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, but the Raptors are still rolling. […]

The Toronto Raptors have seen quite a few players pass through during their 25 years as a franchise, including at the small forward position. As we look at the top small forwards in Raptors history, a quick note on Vince Carter. The future Hall of Famer was drafted as a small forward and played his […]

At 46-18, the defending champion Toronto Raptors will head to Orlando with the third-best record in the league. However, the Raptors aren’t considered to be on the level of title favorites like the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Los Angeles Clippers. Raptors All-Star Pascal Siakam, frankly, doesn’t seem too concerned about the perceived lack of […]

Reigning NBA champions Toronto Raptors do have a history of franchise-altering trades. Their brightest decision, after all, came in 1998 when they decided to swap their fourth overall pick, Antawn Jamison, to the Golden State Warriors for their 5th overall selection, Vince Carter. The player dubbed as “Half Man, Half Amazing” went on to captivate […]

Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant will go down in history as one of the greatest players to have ever played the sport. This makes it such a difficult task to narrow down his best performances into just five different games. That was the exact task that we endeavored today, and despite a number of […]

In the wake of the tragic death of George Floyd, Toronto Raptors star Pascal Siakam is just the latest professional athlete to speak out on the nation’s situation as a whole. A Cameroonian born player, Siakam said he was profiled when he came to the United States because of his skin color, something he obviously […]

With the NBA looking to resume the current season in a singular neutral venue the rest of the way, some teams have been looking into how this might work against them in terms of having the home-court advantage in the playoffs. Should the league’s bubble idea come into play, higher-seeded teams in the playoffs will […]

Toronto Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet says people are tired of racism, and he believes the tragic death of George Floyd has pushed people to a “boiling point.” Floyd was killed in Minnesota by a police officer, who has since been charged with third-degree murder. All across America, there are protests going on. VanVleet says […]

Toronto Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri is demanding action. Ujiri spoke out in light of George Floyd’s death on Monday in Minneapolis, writing an op-ed for the Globe and Mail on Sunday. The Raptors president urged citizens, and especially leaders, to take part in discourse about racial and social inequality, no matter how “difficult” […]

Prior to stepping in U.S. soil as nothing more than a mid-level prospect at the college level in 2013, Toronto Raptors star Pascal Siakam did not know much about the NBA. So much so, that he once took a picture with now-teammate Serge Ibaka without actually knowing who Ibaka was at that time. Siakam narrated […]

A year after Kawhi Leonard hit a soul-crushing Game 7 game-winning baseline jumper over the Philadelphia 76ers, Pascal Siakam can still vividly recall the anxiety and tension while that shot went up in the air. With the Raptors’ entire season on the line, Pascal Siakam watched as Leonard put up a fadeaway jumper over the […]

The Los Angeles Clippers landed Kawhi Leonard this past summer in one of the biggest free agency moves the league has ever seen. It was the first time in NBA history that an NBA Finals MVP left the team he won a championship with. The Toronto Raptors were good beforehand, but Leonard helped take them […]

Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet wants to resume the season, not just because he wants to play again but also due to his belief that his team has a “good chance” at defending the title. VanVleet spoke with Rachel Nichol’s on ESPN’s The Jump where they shared their thoughts on the potential resumption of the […]

The free agency period allows NBA teams to improve drastically by signing superstar players who can immediately change the course of a franchise. However, there are some teams in the NBA that have no idea what that feels like since they are consistently getting spurned in the summer. For this piece, we’ll be taking a […]

The Golden State Warriors dynasty faced the Toronto Huskies in the 2019 NBA Fi… wait what?? We mean the Toronto Raptors, but that was almost the real deal. Sound weird? How about the Toronto Towers? Toronto Hogs? Toronto Scorpions? Toronto Bobcats? Toronto Dragons? What the heck is even going on out here? Well, they nearly […]

Many have wondered what the Toronto Raptors would have looked like if they had kept Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady as their core players for a longer stretch. According to McGrady, it would have meant matching up against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers and playing for a championship. The Hall of Famer told […]

We all know the drama behind an NBA story goes beyond the 94-foot hardcourt. This is why The Last Dance has given us such an eye-opening perspective on what really goes on behind the scenes of a team’s championship run. In the 10-part series, we saw how Michael Jordan dramatically lead his Chicago Bulls to […]

Los Angeles Lakers swingman Danny Green has been part of two championship teams — the 2014 San Antonio Spurs and the 2018 Toronto Raptors. For the veteran, his current squad has many more similarities with the Spurs. Green spoke with Lakers teammate Jared Dudley in an Instagram Live Q&A where they talked about everything and […]

When Kyle Lowry’s current contract with the Toronto Raptors expires in the summer of 2021, the guard will have made $190,535,966 in NBA money, per Spotrac. Lowry entered the NBA in 2006 with the Memphis Grizzlies. He made $1,011,720 during his rookie season and finished the year with averages of 5.6 points and 3.2 assists […]

Vince Carter has made $172,046,271 during his legendary NBA career, per Spotrac. The high-flyer entered the league with the Toronto Raptors back in 1998 and played in six and a half seasons there before becoming a journeyman. He went on to play for the New Jersey Nets, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, […]

Boston Celtics legend and ESPN analyst Paul Pierce ruffled some weathers on Wednesday when he said that Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is not a top-five player of all time. I’m going to be honest here: that is not a terrible take, because a legitimate argument can be made for James not being top […]

Scottie Pippen is undoubtedly the best sidekick in all of basketball. In his prime, the 6-foot-8 two-way superstar was good enough to be the number one option in any team in the league. However, Pippen spent his best seasons playing Robin to Michael Jordan’s Batman and made that Chicago Bulls dynasty in the ‘90s the […]

Atlanta Hawks veteran Vince Carter had some words of encouragement for students robbed of a conventional graduation because of the coronavirus pandemic. “You are our future leaders of our world and our communities.” – @mrvincecarter15 #ShowUsYourWalk | @Chase pic.twitter.com/4p8spAWqRC — Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) May 17, 2020 Interestingly, in his special message for graduating students, Carter […]

The Toronto Raptors are a relatively new NBA franchise. Having played their first season in 1995, the NBA’s only current Canadian franchise doesn’t quite have the illustrious history that many other NBA franchises do. At the same time, the Raptors are defending champions and they never would’ve gotten to the position they’re in now without […]

Nick Nurse will forever go down in history as the man who coached the Toronto Raptors to an unprecedented title run in 2019 — the first in the team’s franchise history. Recently, the 52-year-old did a lengthy interview with Michael Grange of Sportsnet. Nurse admitted that legendary coach Phil Jackson — who himself is a […]

Mark Stevens, a Golden State Warriors minority owner who engaged in a shoving and cursing match with Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry, is set to return to his role at the end of the season. In a report by Tim Kawakami of The Athletic, according to Warriors majority owner Joe Lacob, Stevens “had a momentary […]

Jeremy Lin is the owner of one of the most compelling narratives in the history of the NBA. From a virtually unknown player, the 6-foot-3 point guard became a household name practically overnight. He made such a tremendous impact during his time with the New York Knicks, that his amazing rise to fame even earned […]

Los Angeles Lakers swingman Danny Green took some time to reflect on being a member of the championship-winning 2019 Toronto Raptors. He specifically recalled being on the court for Kawhi Leonard’s Game 7 buzzer-beater over Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid that sent Toronto to the Eastern Conference Finals. Leonard nailed his now-iconic, improbable shot (that […]

NBA champion point guard Kyle Lowry had something special in store for Toronto Raptors diehard Leslie Bottrell on Mother’s Day. Bottrell is currently working to fight COVID-19 at Saint Joseph’s Medical Hospital in Yonkers, New York. Unfortunately, Bottrell’s brave work has forced her to be away from her children on this day. However, the Raptors […]

The Toronto Raptors had a shot at defending their title and repeating as champions if the 2019-20 campaign wasn’t suspended due to COVID-19. The team was in second place in the Eastern Conference standings, boasting a record of 46-18. It was fascinating to watch the Raptors still play like an elite team despite the departures […]

There are a lot of factors that go into winning an NBA championship. In basketball, the need for a superstar or superstars to build around is a must. Likewise, surrounding those franchise cornerstones with the right role players is key to building a championship contender. Moreover, having the right coach with the right system in […]

Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse was the front-runner to win the 2020 Coach of the Year Award. After all, Nurse guided the Raptors to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference before the season was suspended and he did it despite losing Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green in free agency last offseason. The Raptors […]