“Tanking” apparently isn’t in the vocabulary of fringe roster guys trying to carve a place out in the NBA, as the Raptors’ youth proved tonight.
Let’s just start this with a visual of who was available for the Toronto Raptors vs Philadelphia 76ers game today:
Drummond is available.
Here are the available players for each team, with their total career NBA games played pic.twitter.com/xXYLPlNdaK
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) March 12, 2025
Okay, now that we have some context — you many understand why I was perplexed sitting here at good ol Scotiabank Arena wondering what to write tonight. Is this real basketball? Hard to say.
To (likely) avoid scrutiny from the league, Jakob Poeltl started — which was the last separation between this being an all-college aged guys game.
Seriously, apart from Poeltl, Garrett Temple and Jared Rhoden, every player who got minutes from Toronto was either the same age or younger than UConn Star Paige Bueckers.
Like sure, this is the most tank-y Raptors lineup maybe of all time, but honestly so is Philly’s. Not to mention this was essentially a MUST lose for the Raptors if they want to safely avoid the play-in tournament.
I know you’re thinking “Chelsea, get to the point” and honestly I DON’T KNOW IF I HAVE ONE GUYS. Even with all of this the Raptors STILL held the lead for a majority of the game. They were up TWENTY points in the second quarter. T-W-E-N-T-Y.
Garrett Temple already had the most assists he has made in a game since 2013… by halftime. The Raptors had 12 three-pointers… by halftime. Jared Rhoden had 17 points… at halftime. Like they could not even go further into the bench to try and tank more if they tried… these are the youngest most inexperienced players they have!
The next option would be to pull in guys from the Media Game… which didn’t go well for many of us. ROLL THE FILM:
Now of course, players don’t tank. If you’re a fringe 10-13th spot rotation guy or a two-way and you are given the full green light to play — you’re playing the hardest you’ve ever played in your life. This is your shot. This is your chance to get noticed.
Maybe the team messed up by signing a bunch of good-hearted, hard working, underdog mentality kind of players — because they were motivated. They wanted it so bad, and you can’t even blame them. You almost (and kind of did) want them to succeed.
In the end, despite a valiant comeback effort from Nick Nurse’s 76ers, the Raptors still won this game 118-105. AJ Lawson had another great game scoring 28 points on 50% shooting from the field and 4-9 from three. Orlando Robinson 24 points, 12 rebounds to get the double-double, while Jared Rhoden scored 25 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals to lead the starters. To think, none of these guys were even on the roster to start the season…
Look, if anything, this is somewhat a good sign. Even if the Raptors don’t get a top draft pick this summer — these guys seem alright? Can the Lawson, Rhoden, Shead etc dominance last or is it just twisted luck that it’s happening right now, only to fizzle when the Raptors need some bench rotation guys next season?
Is Darko’s development system just THAT good that even when they try their hardest, they can’t lose? Masai and Bobby have to be laughing at this, because how can you not? They are trying SO HARD to fail and just cannot manage to. It’s hilarious.
Maybe they will make the play-in, maybe they won’t get a top-four pick, maybe maybe maybe — but if these guys are actually this good, maybe that’s not a bad thing after all?
Former Raptors head coach, now 76ers head coach (until mid-April anyway, probably not much longer), Nick Nurse said prior to the game that he is trying to be positive. The 76ers entered the season as championship potential and are now a lottery team. He’s low-key losing his job in a very drawn-out, painful kinda way. The only thing we can do on the Raptors side right now is take a lesson from our old friend Nick and be positive.
So yeah, the Raptors can’t seem to lose. Hilariously, we are annoyed that they can’t seem to lose. Yes, the schedule isn’t doing them any favours as well as they play against some of the worst teams in the NBA. Yet, maybe we are seeing the sparks of what could become a legitimately good basketball team, and people are too focused on the lottery balls to realize it. Let’s go with that.
Omg wow, I found the point!