As the Toronto Raptors begin preparations for their eighth playoff run in nine seasons, it’s easy to forget precisely where this season began.
It started, to refresh your memory, under a considerable cloud of doubt. Kyle Lowry had only recently departed for Miami. And one of the key returns in the trade that sent him there, Goran Dragic, had made clear his preference to play for a team of a higher calibre than Toronto. To which the majority of North American observers, noticing how bookmakers had installed Toronto’s over-under win total at 36.5, would have probably shrugged: fair enough.