Title: Barnes shines, Nwora and Dick show encouraging signs for shorthanded Raptors
Date: January 28, 2024
Original Source: Sportsnet
Synopsis: In my latest at Sportsnet, I wrote about a close Raptors loss to the Hawks that might, like it or not, usher in a new lens through which we’ll evaluate the team the rest of the year.
At shootaround on the morning of Feb. 7, 2019, Jonas Valanciunas declared that he would be returning that night from a dislocated thumb that had sidelined him for 25 games. Hours later, Valanciunas was packing his bags, as the Raptors had traded him to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of the Marc Gasol trade.
It was a whirlwind day in a whirlwind week in a whirlwind season. In the days that followed, the Raptors’ post-deadline roster was in such flux that sparsely-known CBA rules came into effect and Steve Sladkowski of the Toronto punk band PUP was able to claim — with legitimacy — that he had secured a Gasol Raptors jersey in New York that weekend before the Spanish centre himself did.
On the night of Feb. 7 in Atlanta, though, the roster was just … empty.
Valanciunas, C.J. Miles, Delon Wright, Greg Monroe and Malachi Richardson had all been traded away, Gasol wasn’t there yet, Chris Boucher, then a two-way player, was with Raptors 905, and Kawhi Leonard was sitting out with a sore knee. The Raptors blew the Hawks out regardless, because they were very good and very deep, and even 26 combined minutes for Patrick McCaw and Jordan Loyd – playing 13 percent of his career NBA minutes that night – couldn’t slow a soon-to-be champion.
On Sunday, the Raptors were once again playing thin in Atlanta near the trade deadline. It was… different than 2019.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 