Columnist image

TSN Raptors Reporter

| Archive

TORONTO - As Kyle Lowry was heading out following the Raptors' latest win, their franchise-best 11th straight, he turned back and shouted at DeMar DeRozan.

"Alright, Beavis," he said, bidding farewell to his teammate and good friend on his way out of the locker room.

It took DeRozan a moment to catch on.

"Ohhhhhhh," he responded, eventually. "Oh, Butt-Head, alright, got it. I got it."

Toronto's all-star backcourt has become must-see TV, both on and off the court. By now you've probably read or heard about one of the NBA's most endearing bromances. The bond between Lowry and DeRozan has grown in each of the four seasons they've spent as teammates in Toronto. 

"It just happened," Lowry told reporters after Thursday's official announcement that DeRozan would be joining him in next month's All-Star Game. "We just clicked and it works and it’s a true life relationship. It’s not fake at all. It’s just good."

Although they've probably been playing it up for the cameras a tad lately, their friendship is sincere and they're not alone. For years the Raptors have prided themselves on the continuity and camaraderie between their best players and, this season more than ever, there seems to be a harmonious vibe around the entire roster.

"We do everything together," DeRozan said. "We talk about everything, all the guys on the team. We joke around when we’re on the road. We try to take advantage of it, have fun and try not be so uptight and think about basketball 24/7. With that, we go out there and have fun with each other and try to pull out a win every single night."

"The guys on this team — from the superstars, Lowry and DeRozan — all the way down to the guys who don't play that much, [Lucas Nogueira] and Bruno [Caboclo], we all respect one another," said reserve forward Patrick Patterson. "Everyone cares about each other; everyone wants to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. We all just truly and generally enjoy each other's company."

Of course, winning will do that, but it's not unlike the question of the chicken and egg. What came first? Does winning breed chemistry or does chemistry breed winning? 

Chemistry is one of the most ambiguous concepts in professional sports, difficult to plan for and just about impossible to quantify. It comes, it goes and even the most intuitive minds have trouble explaining why. 

By his own admission, Raptors’ general manager Masai Ujiri caught lightning in a bottle two years ago, trading Rudy Gay and then watching as his team came together in a way no one could have predicted.

That togetherness appeared to come undone late last season as the team hit a slide that would eventually lead to an embarrassing first-round sweep in the playoffs. So Ujiri went back to the drawing board last summer and - in addition to the on-court concerns, particularly on the defensive end – chemistry was one of the areas he addressed.

"They like each other and that's a compliment to Masai making sure you go out there and making sure you get the right fit for the program," head coach Dwane Casey said. "You just don't go out and get players and say 'Okay, make it fit.’ Masai has a great feel of who we want, who we need, who fits with the core and that's huge."

"The last couple years, the teams we've had, we've been relatively close," DeRozan added. "This time around everybody wants to see everybody succeed, it don't matter if this guy plays less, everybody's just happy for one another."

Consider that last point made by DeRozan: "Everybody wants to see everybody succeed.” The Raptors traded Greivis Vasquez and chose not to retain Lou Williams, in part because of their limitations on defence, but fit also weighed heavily into the decision to let them go, according to team sources.

Williams was a little too cool, a little too laid-back, which was not always seen as a positive influence on Toronto's younger players. Vasquez, who would frequently remind people how overqualified he was for his role, seemed more willing to sacrifice and buy in when things were going well.

The players that were brought in this past off-season — DeMarre Carroll, Cory Joseph, Bismack Biyombo and Luis Scola — have all accepted their jobs and bring a positive, competitive spirit to the team.

They've gelled quickly and no one within the organization is surprised. As you might expect, just about every Raptor believes their off-court chemistry has translated on the floor and will continue to do so.

"I think it always does," Patterson said. "You've got to have a team that respects one another, most importantly, and loves to play side by side. Guys that will sacrifice for the good of the team and every single person is like that here."

That seems like a no-brainer. Teams that get along should achieve more success together, shouldn't they? Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy offered up a different take ahead of his team's 111-107 loss in Toronto on Saturday. 

"I don't think it's a big deal, to be honest," Van Gundy said, speaking generally and not specific to the Raptors. "I've seen and been around, been a part of staffs with great teams who got along really well and great teams who didn't get along all that great off the court.  There are two separate things. I mean, I definitely think you need a chemistry, but it's a chemistry on the floor." 

"A lot of guys can become great friends off the floor and get to a point they don't want to challenge each other on the floor and everything," he continued. "We're in a business here and coaches, players alike, everyone's been hired to get a result. When you lose sight of that, doesn't matter. You can be the greatest friends in the world but if you're not out there doing what it takes to get the result then you don't have chemistry, you just have friendship."

Do off-court chemistry and on-court success go hand-in-hand or do they have very little to do with one another? The reality probably lies someplace in between, where extreme cases of one — in either a positive or negative way — can affect the other.

We can never truly know what goes on with a team behind closed doors. Do the reigning champions in Golden State like each other as much as we think? At the time they were playing together and winning, did Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal hate each other as much as we think now? Chemistry is required, to some degree, for a team to excel on the floor but, more often than not, talent trumps camaraderie.

Even if having a team that gets along — led by two stars that are close friends — doesn't help, most would have a hard time believing it actually could hurt, but that's exactly what Van Gundy suggests, and it's not an unreasonable notion. This is a job and getting too close to your co-workers can compromise your professional judgement and ultimately hurt productivity. 

It's great for getting through the daily grind or, in this case, an 82-game season, but when adversity hits and people need to be held accountable — say, in the playoffs, where the Raptors haven’t had much success — will they be able to put their friendships aside?

To their credit, Lowry and DeRozan's bond at least appears to revolve largely around basketball, which is an encouraging thing for this team's fortunes. They both have families and relatively modest lifestyles, by pro athlete standards. When they talk, it's generally about basketball. When they sit side-by-side at their lockers after games it's usually a discussion about what went right, and what didn't.

Will their bond, the team's bond, be the very thing that helps take them to the next level, or will it ultimately be their undoing? It's a question we won't know the answer to for at least another three months, if ever.