How the Raptors Flipped the Script on Rebuilding

The theory goes that the NBA is a superstar's league. Take away the two best players on Real Madrid or the Patriots, and you're still left with good teams. But omit Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant from the Thunder, and the smoldering wreckage is this miasmic 3-12 squad. Stars have more relative impact on the outcome of games in basketball, so team building is typically an exercise in acquiring a superstar then building around the talents of that particular player. However, the Toronto Raptors are standing in opposition to that logic, atop the Eastern Conference.

When Masai Ujiri took over Toronto's basketball operations in 2013, he inherited a spirited mess of a team. Rudy Gay looked like a star, swam like a star, and quacked like a star, but produced like a consciousless gunner. So the 6-12 Raptors shipped him to Sacramento in what appeared to be an attempt to open salary cap space and wait until next season. But instead of sinking, Toronto has been the best team in the east by 4.5 games since the trade. They're playing the best basketball in franchise history. "Addition by subtraction" falls short of explaining how thoroughly different the team has been.

The expectation was that Ujiri would emulate the Thunder model and strip mine his roster to better position a superstar grab via the draft. But the problem with the Thunder model is that it's incredibly risky. For every team that snares a Durant or a LeBron James, you have many more teams that hitch their wagons to a Michael Beasley or an Evan Turner. Being bad in a specific direction doesn't guarantee future success, merely the chance to take a swing at picking a star. Consider that Oklahoma City's turnaround took an unprecedented run of on-point draft picks, and the idea that the draft as the only avenue for undesirable markets, like Toronto, to snag a superstar is heavily served by confirmation bias. Sure, you could become the Thunder or the Wizards, but your team could also become the Wolves. Tanking for a draft pick only feels safe because you at least get a chance every year.

So rather than insist on putting his stamp of his new roster as many new GM's do, Ujiri removed Rudy Gay, the team's artificial gravity generator, to see how the rest of the team would wobble and stabilize. Without Gay around to use 31% of the team's possessions, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan realized their potential as a terrifying duo. Other backcourts may be more skilled, but DeRozan and Lowry match each other beautifully. They're not superstars, but neither player has significant weaknesses on either side of the ball, which makes for an uncommonly balanced backcourt attack.

In fact, that balance defines the whole team. Beyond their lead guards, the Raptors are efficient and deep without any glaring holes. They force a ton of turnovers, go 10-deep most nights, and currently have the best record in the NBA. Lou Williams, who only cost Ujiri John Salmons, just won Eastern Conference Player of the Week. Jonas Valanciunas is starting to morph into the evolutionary big man who dominated Europe as a 20-year old. Nobody is a superstar, but the team has the offensive and defensive efficiency numbers of a championship contender.

April and the playoffs are a long way away, of course, but the Raptors look likely to win their first playoff series in 14 years. Still, for this team especially, the playoffs present a different type of challenge, where the games are slower and rotations get tighter. Compositionally, Toronto doesn't quite fit the bill of a championship contender, but that's because they're not built like anyone's prototype. They don't have any of the problems that top-heavy teams like Cleveland have. For all their lack of a LeBron James-type, Toronto's egalitarian basketball is proving nigh unstoppable. Convention isn't the only path to success, and whatever the Raptors do this year will be on their own terms.