Title: Raptors 905 year-end report cards: A turnaround season cut short
Date: March 18, 2020
Original Source: The Athletic
Synopsis: In my latest for The Athletic Toronto, I gave year-end grades out for Raptors 905 under the assumption that their season is not coming back.
Raptors 905 were finally turning things around.
Not unlike their NBA parent club Toronto Raptors, the 905 were dealt a tough injury hand for most of the 2019-20 season. The Raptors’ own injury issues had a direct impact. Injured Raptors meant less NBA depth, which meant a lower willingness and ability to assign players to the 905. The 905 received by far their lowest number of NBA assignment games in their five-year history, which threatened the team’s once-promising ceiling. The floor then became susceptible, too, as the 905 lost their own handful of players to injury and saw two briefly called up to the NBA on 10-day contracts.
Some of those problems are the good kind, others understandable. It was a lot to deal with simultaneously, though, and at the midway point of the season the 905 had reached a spiritual fork in the road: With so much talent and so many close calls, could they turn it around in time to secure a fourth consecutive playoff berth, a very rare feat with the near full-roster turnover G League teams experience?
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 