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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO – In the business of professional sports, the annual turn of the calendar means very little. Jan. 1 is just another day.

For most athletes, the New Year begins when their season does. That would be the time to re-evaluate and set new goals. Needless to say, NBA players aren’t big on New Year’s resolutions.

“I think that obviously you try to take time to reflect and slow down a little bit, be reflective on whatever year you had, but I’m not sure that the New Year marks anything,” said Raptors guard Fred VanVleet, whose team will play its 39th game of the season on New Year’s Day, hosting the Utah Jazz.

“I kinda set my goals around our season. So, in the off-season I set new goals of what I want to do as a person, as a man, as a player. As professionals, and even college players, the holidays start to lose a little value over time.”

However, if you prefer to break things up into 12-month intervals, this is certainly an exciting time for Toronto. There’s no doubt that 2018 was a big year for the Raptors, individually and as a team.

Take VanVleet, for instance. He established himself as a regular rotation player in the league, signed his first big contract and became a first-time father. Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green both moved cities after spending several years in San Antonio, Pascal Siakam went from role player to budding star, and Nick Nurse got his first NBA head-coaching gig.

Overall, it was arguably the biggest year in franchise history. The Raptors finished 2018 with a regular- season record of 61-24, good for the most wins in the NBA over the calendar year. They earned the top seed in their conference for the first time ever.

Then, after yet another disappointing playoff exit, they underwent monumental changes, including the firing of long-time coach Dwane Casey and the trade that sent DeMar DeRozan to the Spurs in exchange for Leonard and Green.

“I think I’ll remember a lot of this year,” said Nurse.

While it’s only natural to reflect, especially after an eventful year, it shouldn’t be hard for the Raptors to turn the page and start looking ahead. As big as 2018 was for them, it’s not a stretch to call 2019 the most important year in the history of the franchise.

The work they’ve put in and the moves they’ve made have set them up to take advantage of this window of opportunity. The Eastern Conference is wide open with LeBron James in Los Angeles, and with the Warriors looking vulnerable for the first time since landing Kevin Durant, there’s some hope that they might be beatable.

If everything breaks the right way – a big ‘if’, but not out of the realm of possibility – the Raptors could find themselves in the Finals and competing for a championship this spring.

Then, shortly thereafter, their fate will be in the hands of Leonard. His decision in free agency will alter the course of the team’s future, for better or worse.

In six months from now, the Raptors should have a pretty good idea which direction they’re headed – from perennial contenders looking to put the right pieces around their superstar franchise player, all the way down to a possible teardown and long-term rebuild, depending on where Leonard wants to spend the next four or five years of his career. As an organization, they’ve never had more at stake.

That’s why the months leading up to that moment will be every bit as crucial as they set the foundation for what’s to come. If the Raptors have any chance at wooing Leonard, or other stars down the line, they’ll have to prove that their playoff failures are a thing of the past. If they’re going to prove to be legitimate title threats, now’s the time to start building the right habits.

After a red-hot start to the season, one that coincided with a friendly schedule and relatively good health, they’ve predictably hit a bit of a slide with injuries becoming a factor and the degree of difficulty going up.

At 8-7, the month of December was one of mixed results for the Raptors. On one hand, they played 11 of those 15 games without Leonard or Kyle Lowry and still managed some big wins, including victories over Philadelphia, Golden State, Indiana and the Clippers. On the other, they just haven’t looked like the same team.

Thanks in large part to Lowry’s back and thigh ailments, which have kept him out of seven of the last eight games, the team’s once-prolific offence has fallen apart of late. The Raptors have shot less than 41 per cent in five of their last seven contests and have failed to record 20 assists in four straight for the first time since March of 2017.

Even some of the games they’ve won, most recently in Miami on Wednesday or at home to Chicago on Sunday, weren’t pretty.

Should they be concerned? To a point, perhaps. It’s clear they’re prioritizing the long view, as they should, especially after so much empty regular-season success over the years. They’ve been extra cautious with Leonard, holding him out of back-to-backs, and some of their injured players while Nurse continues to use this time to experiment with his rotation. That’s all well and good in December, but at some point in the near future they’ll have to switch gears.

“That’s been our overall thing for the year,” VanVleet said. “But that’s a dangerous game to play. We’re halfway through already, so we’ve got to have a little bit more urgency coming up. Maybe that can be our New Year’s resolution. We’re going to figure it out, but it’d be a lot better if we figure it out tomorrow, you know what I mean? Obviously injuries play a part in that. But at some point we’re going to have to start building our championship habits, and I think that we have been, but I think we can do a much better job of going out there and being boring in the way we attack our details and just be sticklers about every little thing that we know is going to pay off in the playoffs.”

First and foremost, the Raptors’ New Year’s resolution should be to get healthy. Lowry has already been ruled out for Tuesday’s game against Utah, but is said to be nearing a return – it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him play in Thursday’s highly anticipated visit to San Antonio.

From there, it’s about – as VanVleet says – building those habits, figuring out what works, paring down what doesn’t, and finding a chemistry and cohesion amongst the team’s best players.

 

There’s no doubt that 2018 was a big one for the Raptors and 2019 will be even bigger. Whatever the result, it should be a fascinating year ahead.​