If the question always seems to stump the Maple Leafs, we’re about to see if the Raptors can come up with the right answer.
How do you make the season end differently when you bring back essentially the same team?
For the Raptors, improving on last year’s 48-win campaign, which ended in a first-round playoff exit, is nobody’s idea of a sure thing, not in an Eastern Conference in which some of the best teams made significant improvements. With Toronto team president Masai Ujiri preferring to remain positioned to pounce on a franchise-changing transaction should a superstar player eventually shake out, the Raptors spent the off-season merely tweaking their roster.