It was a year ago around this time that Dwane Casey, the Raptors coach, was hailing the emergence of a likeable hero.
Norman Powell, the second-round draft pick who’d previously toiled in the NBA’s G League, had just put up a team-high 25 points in a huge Game 5 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. The Raptors would soon be en route to beating the Bucks in six as a result; Powell would go a perfect 9 for 9 from three-point range in Games 4 through 6 combined. And in that moment — given that Powell was proving himself a worthy post-season contributor for the second straight spring — it looked as though Powell would be a Toronto mainstay for years to come.