The Toronto Raptors have finally made the splash their fans had been hoping they make, leading the Eastern Conference as a top seed by a wide margin. Yet there still remains some hesitation of their postseason chances after being bounced from the playoffs the last two years and failing to make a run at the NBA Finals in the last four postseasons.
For head coach Dwane Casey, this new play-style team also had to come with a change of mentality, going from predator to prey — as odd as that sounds.
Per Marcel Mutoni of SLAM Magazine:
“The challenge for the Raptors, according to Casey, is being mentally sharp enough each night and getting used to transitioning from “the hunter to the hunted.””
This mentality involves going from trying to hunt down the titans of the East to being the titan everyone wants to take down, but can't.
Casey added that the Raptors are “one of four teams” that can legitimately challenge for the title. “We’re one of the teams that I feel like can win it. Why not?”
Ask his star shooting guard and leading scorer DeMar DeRozan about his team's chances, and he'll show no signs of hesitation that this team can make more than just a dent in this postseason.
“Yes,” DeRozan responded. “If we didn’t think so, there’s no reason to be in this line of work. So, we definitely believe so.”
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