Last season, the Toronto Raptors failed to make the playoffs. That led to head coach Nick Nurse being fired. Fred VanVleet has left the team in free agency and is now on the Houston Rockets. Pascal Siakam is still on the roster, but there’s still trade speculation surrounding him. NBA sources reported that Van Vleet and Siakam were “deeply frustrated” with younger players on the team in 2022-23.
The dominoes are starting to fall and the Raptor’s championship core is slowly fading away. Kawhi Leonard played one season with Toronto and helped win them the Finals in 2019. He left after that season and he was the first player on the championship core to leave.
Toronto was able to keep VanVleet and Siakam around for a few more seasons. Now the time has come when the team looks like it could be headed for a rebuild.
The Raptors have been in a state of flux for months now, but it feels like more changes are coming: https://t.co/LoNqmoGG9g
— Michael Grange (@michaelgrange) July 5, 2023
The Toronto Raptors’ veterans had a problem with the team’s younger players last season
Michael Grange of Sportsnet reported that Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam were “deeply frustrated” with Toronto’s younger players. He even said that the younger player was not appreciated by veterans on the roster. Former head coach Nick Nurse was unable to “bridge the divide” between veteran and younger players.
This led to turmoil on their roster and it was never the same. The Raptors were supposed to be a surprise team in the East last season. However, they finished with a 41-41 record and missed out on the 2023 playoffs. It was the second time in three years that they missed out on the postseason.
Just goes to show how truly special Toronto’s championship in 2019 really was. It’s hard to sustain that type of success year in and out. The Raptors had lighting in a bottle that season and it was their championship to lose. Since then, the team has been rather disappointing.
Next season, Darko Rajakovic will take over as the new head coach of the Raptors. Reports say there is increased trade speculation with Pascal Siakam. The Raptors could do a clean sweep this offseason and start with a new core group. Siakam has played his entire career with Toronto.
