Toronto Raptors:
Raptors looking to claw there way back into the playoffs

The Toronto Raptors have only been a part of the National Basketball Association since the 1995-’96 season when they were brought into the league, along with the Vancouver Grizzlies, as an expansion team. They weren’t only expanding the size of the league but they were expanding the NBA into another country. The last time a season opener had been played in Toronto came during the 1947-’48 season when the Toronto Huskies matched up with the New York Knickerbockers. The next year the two teams would meet up as the season opener on the game’s 49th anniversary.

The Raptors suffered through some incredibly disappointing seasons including two 16-66 records in their first three years. The team made a traded for North Carolina guard Vince Carter in the 1998 draft and he started to change the franchise’s losing ways. During the ’99 lockout shortened season the young guard reminded fans of another guard from North Carolina, Michael Jordan, on his way to winning the Rookie of the Year award. In his first full season he was named to the All-Star team and led the Raptors to the postseason for the first time in franchise history. The Raptors lost in the first round to Knicks but it would be a good lesson for the young team. The next year the Raptors went into the playoffs and met up with the Knicks in the first round. This time Vince Carter came up big for the Raptors as the won the series 3-2. In the second round Carter matched up with Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers. In game two the Raptors were torn apart by Iverson when he dropped 54 points on them in one of the greatest playoff performances of all time. The next game Carter came out and threw in 50 points of his own to put the Raptors up 2-1. The Raptors would then lose two of the next three games and go back to Philadelphia for game seven. Before the game Carter flew out to Chapel Hill to receive his degree from the University of North Carolina. After the ceremony Carter flew back to Philadelphia in time to make it for the game. It was a great game that had Carte scoring 20 points and Iverson scoring 21 and having 16 assists. The series came down to the last shot and Vince Carter missed the shot just inside the three point line which opened up all kinds of criticism about him traveling to get his degree and even more so, losing the series for the Raptors.

Last season the Raptors found themselves in a very familiar situation, eight games below .500 and not in the playoffs. To give the team some credit they did this with Vince Carter banged up almost all season. He missed 11 games, but it wasn’t only Carter that spent extended time out with an injury. Only one player on the team played in every single game during the season and that was Morris Peterson.

In the off-season the Raptors haven't made too many moves, but they did join in on the trend of General Manager’s giving insane money to marginal players. They gave former Heat point guard Rafer Alston a five-year, $28 million contract. Which was a lot more than most teams would’ve paid for his services. There other big move of the off-season came when they signed backup center Loren Woods to their squad. The big story out of Toronto has been about where Vince Carter will end up playing next year. He’s asked that they move him out of Toronto, but no team wants him or they won’t give the Raptors anywhere close to equal value for him. The Raptors have yet to make any moves for him but they could do it sometime before the trade deadline in February.

In the draft the Raptors needed to get a big man and a point guard and they made a little bit of a reach by getting 6’11, 290 pound BYU center Rafael Araujo with the number eight pick in the draft. He will help them out in the middle but very few expected him to go in the top 10 of the draft especially with point guards like Jameer Nelson who went to Orlando, Beno Udrih, who went to San Antonio, and Sasha Vujacic, who was drafted by Los Angeles.

The team will be decent this year in the East. They’ll need to get a lot out of their front line and their point guards to get anywhere during the season and even more from them to go past the first round of the playoffs.

Are you a Toronto Raptors Fanatic? Check out TorontoRaptorsFanatics.com!