The more things change, the more they stay the same.
At first glance, that’s probably not the perfect definition of Raptors squad preparing to kick off their first season as defending NBA champions. But if you remember the post-media-day buzz from a year ago, not many experts outside of the GTA were expecting the Raptors to hit the heights they eventually hit. Toronto wasn’t even favoured to win their own division, let alone the conference or the whole enchilada.
A similar buzz follows the Raptors into the 2019-20 season. The defending champs are, again, not favoured to win anything.