Marc Gasol came aboard at the trade deadline last year, and four months later he was chugging bottles of wine and nearly falling off a double-decker bus. The giant Spaniard fit seamlessly: He was so smart, so tough, so unselfish, and so good. Raptors president Masai Ujiri has never loved the trade deadline, but he aced it last year.
That kind of deal didn’t exist this year. Nothing made sense. The Raptors didn’t have extra contracts to throw around, and their players who had the requisite money attached couldn’t easily be improved upon. These are your Toronto Raptors.