The Toronto Raptors’ post-championship season has emerged as one of the best stories in basketball — for those paying attention at least.
After overcoming expectations and winning the NBA title in 2019, the Raptors lost Kawhi Leonard in free agency, the player most assumed was responsible for their great leap forward. That Danny Green – one of the NBA’s best “3-and-D” specialists and a respected locker-room presence – also left in free agency was another blow.
They’d be lucky to make the playoffs, was a common prediction.
But with one game left before the All-Star break – Wednesday night in Brooklyn – the Raptors are sitting on a 15-game winning streak, have the second-best record in the East and third in the NBA (better than Leonard’s Clippers) and are on pace for a franchise-record 61 wins.
Between now and the playoffs there isn’t much that could make the season more fun. There have to be limits.
But I bet people could get excited about an old-fashioned homecoming.
No. Not Vince Carter. No room at the inn for him.
But how about the Cleveland Cavaliers and Brampton’s own Tristan Thompson?
The veteran big man and pending free agent was expected to be dealt at the trade deadline but wasn’t.
He’s one of 12 players in the league averaging a double-double (11.8 points and 10.3 rebounds) and given Thompson’s championship experience, versatility on defence and the Raptors’ poor defensive rebounding, he’s a perfect fit.
Come home, win a title? What’s not to like?
Another feel-good story just when it appeared the Raptors had the market cornered.
Toronto has reached out and expressed interest in adding Thompson if he gets bought out from the final months remaining on the five-year, $82-million contract he signed in the summer of 2015.
Hmmm, let’s not get our hopes up.
The primary complication — according to sources on either side of the non-deal — is that neither Cleveland or Thompson see it as wise to terminate his deal early.
He would have to be bought out by March 1 to be eligible for the playoffs, but as one person who would be in a position to know texted me:
“No buyout.”
The basic explanation is that by Thompson playing out his deal, the Cavaliers maintain his “bird rights” meaning they can sign him to a deal that takes them over the salary cap in the summer and trade him to a team in the market for Thompson’s consistent, high-effort basketball and ideally take back some assets to help them in their otherwise floundering rebuilding effort.
From Thompson’s perspective, taking a buyout – even if he landed in Toronto or maybe with his old pal LeBron James with the Los Angeles Lakers — would mean he’d be entering a tight free-agent market where only a few teams are projected to have cap space during an era when the market for bigs that don’t space the floor is increasingly limited.
The best chance Thompson has of getting a deal for above the mid-level exception is to play things out with the Cavs.
Could the Raptors move the needle by being willing to sign Thompson to a long-term deal this summer? Probably, but with incumbent bigs Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka also heading into free agency and the Raptors desire to maintain flexibility for the summer of 2021, there might not be a fit.
Whether staying in Cleveland pays off for Thompson and the Cavs is to be determined, but in the short term it appears any hope of another narrative log on the Raptors’ cozy hearth of a season ain’t happening.
He’s missing out on something special.
That the Raptors have stayed among the league’s elite while having six of their top-seven rotation players — all returnees from their title team — miss an average of 13 games due to injury – feels like a minor basketball miracle.
Role-playing specialists Matt Thomas and Patrick McCaw have missed big chunks of time too.
But nothing is perfect. A quick scan of the Raptors statistical profile reveals one significant shortcoming: Toronto ranks 26th in defensive rebounding percentage on the season.
They rank 28th during their winning streak, so it’s not like they can’t win as they are, but eight of the league’s 10 best defensive rebounding teams project as playoff-bound while only three of the bottom 10 teams do.
It makes sense. Limiting an opponent’s offensive possessions by rebounding their misses at a high rate can’t hurt.
“There’s been a couple of games where the defensive rebounding hasn’t been as good as we would like it,” Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said Monday. “And that’s just a combination of making sure we’re blocking out a little better, but then chasing them down and trying to sense where the long ones will fly to, with all the threes there’s a lot more long rebounds and we struggled with that early in the year, and it (has) kind of reared its head a bit again.”
Getting Marc Gasol back from his hamstring injury — likely after the All-Star break — will help. Getting more rebounding contributions from the likes of Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby at the wing positions will help. Making sure the guards are locked into chasing down long rebounds will also help.
But any hopes the Raptors might have of getting Thompson to come home and help solve their problem seems unlikely.
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
NAPA, Calif. (AP) — David Lipsky shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday at Silverado Country Club to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Procore Championship.
Winless in 104 events since joining the PGA Tour in 2022, Lipsky went out with the early groups and had eight birdies with one bogey to kick off the FedEx Cup Fall series at the picturesque course in the heart of Napa Valley wine country.
After missing the cut in his three previous tournaments, Lipsky flew from Las Vegas to Arizona to reunite with his college coach at Northwestern to get his focus back. He also spent time playing with some of the Northwestern players, which helped him relax.
“Just being around those guys and seeing how carefree they are, not knowing what’s coming for them yet, it’s sort of nice to see that,” Lipsky said. “I was almost energized by their youthfulness.”
Patton Kizzire and Mark Hubbard were a stroke back. Kizzire started on the back nine and made a late run with three consecutive birdies to move into a tie for first. A bogey on No. 8 dropped him back.
“There was a lot of good stuff out there today,” Kizzire said. “I stayed patient and just went through my routines and played well, one shot at a time. I’ve really bee working hard on my mental game and I think that allowed me to rinse and repeat and reset and keep playing.”
Mark Hubbard was at 67. He had nine birdies but fell off the pace with a bogey and triple bogey on back-to-back holes.
Kevin Dougherty also was in the group at 67. He had two eagles and ended his afternoon by holing out from 41 yards on the 383-yard, par-4 18th.
Defending champion Sahith Theegala had to scramble for much of his round of 69.
Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the AT&T at Pebble Beach in February, had a 70.
Max Homa shot 71. The two-time tournament champion and a captain’s pick for the President’s Cup in two weeks had two birdies and overcame a bogey on the par-4 first.
Stewart Cink, the 2020 winner, also opened with a 71. He won The Ally Challenge last month for his first PGA Tour Champions title.
Three players from the Presidents Cup International team had mix results. Min Woo Lee shot 68, Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., 69 and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., 73. International team captain Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., also had a 69.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., had a 68, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., shot 70 and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., had a 71.
Lipsky was a little shaky off the tee for much of the afternoon but made up for it with steady iron play that left him in great shape on the greens. He had one-putts on 11 holes and was in position for a bigger day but left five putts short.
Lipsky’s only real problem came on the par-4 ninth when his approach sailed into a bunker just shy of the green. He bounced back nicely with five birdies on his back nine. After missing a 19-foot putt for birdie on No. 17, Lipsky ended his day with a 12-foot par putt.
That was a big change from last year when Lipsky tied for 30th at Silverado when he drove the ball well but had uneven success on the greens.
“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun, and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out,” Lipsky said. “You’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that and it seems like it’s working out.”
Laird stayed close after beginning his day with a bogey on the par-4 10th. The Scot got out of the sand nicely but pushed his par putt past the hole.
Homa continued to have issues off the tee and missed birdie putts on his final four holes.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic is moving on to the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open.
The Mississauga, Ont., native defeated the tournament top seed, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) in the round of 16 on Thursday.
Stakusic faced a 0-4 deficit in the third and final set before marching back into the match.
The 19-year-old won five of the next six games to even it up before exchanging games to force a tiebreaker, where Stakusic took complete control to win the match.
Stakusic had five aces with 17 double faults in the three-hour, four-minute match.
However, she converted eight of her 18 break-point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
