The immediate benefits of the long road trip that just ended for the Raptors are obvious.
They won more than they lost, got rid of a long and difficult journey in the first month of the regular season, and stayed very much in touch with the other teams near the top of the NBA’s Eastern Conference.
That is all well and good, and should leave them with a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment, but the true measure of what they just did will come long into the future.
“I would say we’re … we’ve got to be pretty satisfied and, you know, on the plus side of it, we grew a little bit,” coach Nick Nurse told reporters after the 3-2 trip ended with a 110-102 loss in Dallas on Saturday night.