For five years, while the Raptors have reached unprecedented on-court heights, they’ve been governed by an inescapable and harsh truth: a DeMar DeRozan-centric team was always going to have a cap on its success; not an NBA-style soft cap with wiggle room and loopholes, but a strict, non-negotiable one with no luxury to speak of.
Last year, as the Raptors charged to 59 wins and LeBron’s Cavs spent six months teasing East hopefuls with their bed wetting, you, or I, or insert national writer here might have had a real belief that last those Raptors were fundamentally different.