{"id":516,"date":"2021-01-31T16:30:28","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T16:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/?p=516"},"modified":"2021-01-31T16:30:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T16:30:29","slug":"the-raptors-nba-title-window-is-closed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/2021\/01\/31\/the-raptors-nba-title-window-is-closed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Raptors&#8217; NBA title window is closed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>After their first 15 games, The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/raptors\/\">Toronto Raptors<\/a> have a below .500 record (6-9) for the first time since 2013-14, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/player\/200768\/kyle-lowry\">Kyle Lowry<\/a>\u2019s second year on the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The NBA\u2019s eastern conference is better than it was last year, and the Raptors are much worse.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether or not the franchise is in rebuilding mode, the Raptors\u2019 championship window has closed, as it\u2019s hard to imagine the Raptors beating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/player\/201142\/kevin-durant\">Kevin Durant<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/nets\/\">Brooklyn Nets<\/a>; not to mention the Bucks, Sixers, and Celtics.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vegasinsider.com\/nba\/odds\/futures\/\">Vegas Insider<\/a>, the Raptors are tied for the 12th best odds to win the championship this year, one spot above the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/hawks\/\">Atlanta Hawks<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The biggest question now for the Raptors is not whether or not they can make a title run, it\u2019s what moves can the Raptors make to get the team back into title contention.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We know who the core players will be, on the court or in a trade. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/player\/1627783\/pascal-siakam\">Pascal Siakam<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/player\/1627832\/fred-vanvleet\">Fred Vanvleet<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/player\/1628384\/og-anunoby\">OG Anunoby<\/a> all recently signed an extension with the team, and all of them are under 27 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Masai Ujiri will have some tough decisions to make at this year&#8217;s trade deadline and in the offseason. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One thing is certain, the days of Kyle Lowry leading a championship caliber Toronto Raptors team is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this point, it would probably be a good idea to find out what his trade value is around the league and consider trading Lowry while he still has value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"involveme_embed\" data-embed=\"kbo\/should-the-raptors-rebuildtank\"><\/div>\n<script src=\"https:\/\/app.involve.me\/embed\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"involveme_embed\" data-embed=\"kbo\/which-free-agent-should-the-raptors-get\"><\/div>\n<script src=\"https:\/\/app.involve.me\/embed\"><\/script>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After their first 15 games, The Toronto Raptors have a below .500 record (6-9) for the first time since 2013-14, Kyle Lowry\u2019s second year on the team.\u00a0 The NBA\u2019s eastern conference is better than it was last year, and the Raptors are much worse.&nbsp; Whether or not the franchise is in rebuilding mode, the Raptors\u2019 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":309,"featured_media":517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[65,64,66,61,63,62,67],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-kevin-durant","tag-masai-ujiri","tag-nba","tag-nba-championship","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-trade-deadline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/309"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":523,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions\/523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}