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Raptors Reflect On Issues With Defence, Communication After Early Playoff Exit

Holly MacKenzie - Raptors.com

It didn't take long for the Raptors to tie up loose ends in Toronto after getting swept by the Washington Wizards. Following Sunday’s Game 4 blowout, the team flew back to Toronto, cleaned out their lockers, conducted exit interviews and started meeting with the media for the final time this season at 11 A.M.

 After spending the better part of the season discussing defensive woes — a regression from a top-10 defensive team last season to 23rd this season according to NBA.com — the subject was the same on Monday.

“What was missing?” Raptors head coach Dwane Casey asked. “Our defence. I think we got better offensively. We worked ad nauseam at the beginning of training camp to be better offensively to play with a little bit of pace, probably too much pace for my liking or for your defence’s liking. I thought our defence suffered from it, from us getting better offensively.”

With the team getting off to a blistering hot start and winning with their offence, the tone and pace for the season was quickly set. 

“We had a false sense of security,” Casey said. “We never got our roots back into our defensive side of the ball. It eventually told on us in the playoffs.”

Amir Johnson thought the team suffered from mental mistakes on the defensive end of the floor.

“I feel like our coverages weren't that crisp [this year],” Johnson said. “We were on a string last year defensively, where everyone was moving.”

In the visitor��s locker room in DC after the Game 4 loss, Patrick Patterson said something had changed within the team midway through the season, although he couldn’t put his finger on it. Patterson elaborated on Monday, saying that the communication needed to be better. Prior to leaving Toronto to play Games 3 and 4 in Washington, Patterson also mentioned the importance of talking on the floor. It goes without saying, but his wishes were not met. Fresh off the four-game sweep, he couldn’t identify what the roadblock was for a team that is so close.

“We communicate so well off the court,” Patterson said. “We're around each other, we're a family, we're a brotherhood and when we're off the court it's all jokes. We enjoy each other's company so communication is not a problem off the court. It's just when those lights turn on and that ball is thrown up in the air, for some reason, we don't talk nearly enough. We don't shout each other's name out, help, or just say the little things to allow that person to know we're here.”

Keeping the core intact was a priority last summer because of the close-knit nature of the roster. It’s part of why general manager Masai Ujiri elected not to make a move at this year’s trade deadline. This group wanted a shot at the postseason together.

Chemistry is important within the locker room, but the ability to communicate clearly  — express concerns when they arise — is a necessity.

“Sometimes when you’re close with somebody, sometimes when a situation happens you’re timid to yell at a friend or something small like that,” DeMar DeRozan said. “We have to be better than that. We’ve got to understand that if we’re close off the court, no matter what’s being said to one of us on the court, it shouldn’t matter. If it’s you getting cussed out to be in the right spot then you’ve got to able to accept that and that’s the next step for us to understand if we want to be a better team.

Casey said he spoke with DeRozan about continuing to grow as a leader. As the longest-tenured Raptors player, along with Amir Johnson, DeRozan is going into his seventh season in the league and acknowledged that he wants to improve his leadership. Sometimes that includes being the bad guy and calling it like it is. 

While there are positives to take from the season — a franchise-best 49 regular-season wins, a second consecutive Atlantic Division title — as a whole, the team is disappointed. No one expected to be out of the playoffs a week after they started. A sweep certainly was not the plan. 

“It seem like yesterday we were in Vancouver getting ready for training camp,” DeRozan said. “You look around at these guys as your brothers. You do everything with them every single day. They become your family and the reality of it was just tough knowing that it was over and some guys may not be back.”

With six free agents on the roster, everyone knows that some degree of change is inevitable. When the team reconvenes for next year’s training camp, this group as a whole will no longer exist.

“Just the reality of it, knowing that it’s over [is tough],” DeRozan said.