We The North｜The long-lost home, and hope

Although I always say to myself that time is limited, and the Toronto Raptors are in the rebuilding period, the game with more wins and less wins should be really exciting to look forward to, just wait for the Highlights after the game. However, since the beginning of the NBA season, I still have no restraint and watched the entire five games of the Toronto Raptors from the beginning (it is true that there are more wins and less wins, currently two wins and three losses). On the one hand, it is related to the procrastination caused by the pressure of reading, on the other hand, it is to see the performance of the new people in our family. Before the start of each game, I think: just take a look, and then I will be as excited as all Tyrannosaurus fans. .

The Toronto Raptors were lucky to get the fourth pick with a lower overall pick this year, and when fans all over the city were excited that we were about to select one of the NCAA guard Jalen Suggs (the so-called Big Four in the draft), On the night of the draft, the T-Rex management surprised NBA observers around the world, fell below the glasses of all fans, and chose Scottie Barnes who was less optimistic (no shooting ability on the scouting report), Although now, many people will claim that they thought this choice was "not bad" and "reasonable" at the time, but in fact, as a Youtuber said: "Obviously the polls at that time showed that 86% of fans did not want the Tyrannosaurus to choose him, 8% The person who thinks he should be replaced, why is everyone saying that he was optimistic about him now?" The beautiful now always makes people go back and revise their memories. My husband scolded him for two days at the time, but now he is watching the game and saying that he was just a Slightly surprised that Suggs wasn't chosen after all our lead guard left, and the brazen moment was all smiles at Scottie Barnes' performance.

Looking at the performances of Jalen Suggs and Scottie Barnes since the start of the season, and looking back at the decision of the Raptors management to choose Scottie Barnes, it is the first time I have such a profound experience of the importance of professional scouting, and it has once again confirmed the success of the ball. The team manager will choose an unusual path. Of course, the victory of the team has to be accumulated over a long period of time, but at the critical moment, it is a bold and decisive decision that others cannot imagine or understand. It's a leader style. Before the 2018 season started, team president Masai Ujiri traded Toronto's favorite player for Kawhi Leonard, who had only one year left on his contract and would never stay in Toronto. Fans all over the city were complaining. We won the championship this year.

In fact, when Scottie Barnes arrived in Toronto on his first day, he captured the hearts of fans with his enthusiasm, claiming that he hadn't taken his T-Raptor hat off since the moment he put it on in the draft. He seems to genuinely enjoy coming to the city to play -- which is the most important thing, because most NBA players always feel like coming to Toronto is like exile (even though Toronto is much more prosperous than where most NBA teams are located). As a fan of the Toronto Raptors, no matter how high or low the record is, I will support the team, but in a certain way, it is also disheartened. Unless the most talented players are forced (traded), there is absolutely no one who wants to be free. Came here on the initiative, but the Tyrannosaurus has always been reluctant to play a bad season to grab a lottery rookie. For the management and the main players of the team, it is our culture to strive to win, even if it cannot win every time.

So we can only cultivate our own players from low-level picks, second-round picks, and even undrafted players. Behind every core player, there is a set of super inspirational stories that can be adapted into Netflix documentaries. However, the NBA is such a field: you You can work hard until you get there, but you'll never get ahead of the talented guys who practice as much as you do (well, with the recent exception of Benjamin Simmons of the Sixers). Over the years, Raptors fans can only look at the best rookies on other teams, and silently hope that our rookies who are still training in the G-League and don't know where they came from will have one. What a hall.

Until this year, after Scottie Barnes joined, all of a sudden Raptors fans finally understood what talent and hope are: starting from the summer league and the warm-up games, every time everyone watched and thought: The defense is really good, but it's still a rookie, look at this How much progress can be made in two years? Since the beginning of the season, he has scored 25 points and 13 rebounds against the Boston Celtics in the second game, or scored 18 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 blocks yesterday. Standing up in critical moments, sometimes consoling teammates for mistakes, sometimes directing tactics, of course there is still a long way to go before top players, but fans always have the feeling that we finally wait for a star player of our team Feel, or: Oh! That's what talent is.

Last year, the team was constrained by Canada's epidemic prevention regulations and was forced to exile in Tampa in the southern United States. The entire season became blurred for fans. The team management felt that this year had made the team's construction a big step backwards . It's a strange emotion. It's the same way of watching the game on the screen. Knowing that the team is in Toronto can have such a big impact. Maybe it's because there's no cheers from the home crowd in Tampa, or you don't see the superfans under the basket. Waving a towel and these games are literally missing something. And this year finally came back. I heard that the Toronto Tyrannosaurus in Las Vegas can only win 37 games at most, but no matter whether they win or lose, they are always in their own home. A video of the opening game forced the audience to cry.

We are home now, and the NBA season is real again.

Further reading
Introduction to the new version of the NBA draft lottery system (5/15 lottery draw)
[Draft Preview] Who is the next superstar? 2021 NBA draft complete first round final big prediction!
Textbook-like team building! The Raptors' 15-man roster doesn't have a lottery pick, but it's a title contender