https://youtu.be/lY3LriybLjc
We’re almost a week into the season, and the Raptors have yet to win a game. I’m not implying that they’ll NEVER win a game, obviously they’re not going to pull a Detroit Lions and just lose for a whole season, but I am implying that they’ll probably only win 4 or 5 games during their shortened 2020-21 campaign.
This is, as they say, “just deserts” for the way Raptors fans strutted around with their chests puffed out after they won a championship, and for the way they crowed endlessly about how good their development program was (note “was”, not “is”). Oh wow, you won a championship on the back of a mercenary superstar who you couldn’t even convince to stick around for even one more season? Oh wow, you found some underrated talent who you then grossly overpaid only to watch them suck or for them to start spreading antivax stuff while not having two brain cells to rub together?
I don’t even see Dewan Hernandez on the roster anymore. So much for that amazing G-League-to-NBA pipeline that they were building, huh?
There is some good news. Good news item numero uno: the championship the Raptors won is wholly legitimate, and those rings can not be removed from their fingers. Good news item numero two: Chris Boucher, while still way older than it seems like he should be (and getting older all the time, at the exact rate of one second per second), looks like a stud. Why would you sign Aron Baynes, and really why would you sign Alex Len, when you have Boucher waiting in the wings, ready to bust out with his gigantic wingspan, trebuchet jumpshot, and exotic Saint Lucian heritage? New Zealand and Ukraine aren’t nearly as exotic.
Boucher has 7 blocks tonight, definitely a career high, which is the real reason that this video exists. 22 points is fine, but 7 blocks is a total that only happens occasionally during a season. He was the beneficiary of some Spurs players just kind of walking into his outstretched arms, but it was a better showing for sure than that game last season where he went up for a block and DeMar DeRozan postered him so hard that I judged it to be the best dunk of the year and then gave him a hug as they both plummeted to the hardwood.