The final Run It Back show of the Raptors’ regular season where Kyle and Zulfi provide their closing thoughts on the 2023-24 season and hand out some end-of-season awards! Agree or disagree, let us know what you think! Kyle’s Power Rankings (Mar. 18-31st) Scottie Barnes RJ Barrett Immanuel Quickley Jakob Poeltl Gary Trent Jr. Kelly Olynyk Gradey Dick Jordan Nwora Ochai Agbaji Bruce Brown Chris Boucher Garrett Temple Javon Freeman-Liberty Kobi Simmons Jalen McDaniels Sound off in the comments! Let us know what you loved, what you hated, and any suggestions you have. If you’d rather hit our D ..read more

Well, if Jamal Murray and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander aren’t the winners so far of the first few games of the first round, I’m not sure who else could be. Team Canada, let’s goo. Game winners are awesome. Meanwhile, my Bucks smoked the Indiana Pacers, without Giannis, in Game 1. Extremely impressive game. Home teams stay winning. Any other thoughts? How’s everyone holding up? The post Open Thread: First Round for the Canadians first appeared on Raptors Republic ..read more

Sweet mercy is here! The extremely unpleasant yet not forgettable 2024 season is finally over and we welcome Zulfi Sheikh from the Run it Back podcast to sum it all up plus look around the league and talk PLAYOFFS. YES. YES. YES. Make sure to check all our Raptors podcasts; all Confederacy of Dunks episodes are available separately as well. The post 2024 Season End & Playoff Preview – Confederacy of Dunks first appeared on Raptors Republic ..read more

Cathryn Naiker is joined by Jerome Chang to discuss the Play-In tournament, Warriors loss and more. Make sure to check all our Raptors podcasts; all Buckets & Tea episodes are available separately as well. The post Play-In Recap, Warriors Over?, Masai Ujiri & more first appeared on Raptors Republic ..read more

I hope I got my hyphenations correct in that title. I saw some comments recently that people wanted open threads during the playoffs so that everyone could chat, so I’ll try to do that. How’s everyone doing? It’s still weird to prep for the playoffs and not have the Raptors involved. Who’s everyone got on Friday? Chicago-Miami and Sacramento-New Orleans. I’m going Chicago and New Orleans. Watching DeMar cook against the Hawks was really, really enjoyable. I know the Raps won after he was traded, but he’s just one of the best players to watch in history. The movement, the shooting, the smoothne ..read more

Well. The NBA just announced, immediately after Masai Ujiri finished his end-of-season press conference, that Jontay Porter is officially banned for life from the NBA. They found that he has bet on games, including on the Raptors to lose, and that he limited his own performance to influence the outcome of an under prop. I honestly don’t have a take here. Really, really sad. He worked hard to get here, and now it’s over. It’s telling what the NBA considers a “cardinal sin,” but that’s a conversation for another time. The post Jontay Porter banned from NBA first appeared on Raptors Republic ..read more

After earning Bronze at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, Canada has put the basketball world on notice. But it’s only the beginning for a country that has aspirations of becoming a global powerhouse in the sport. In preparation for the 2024 Olympics in France, I take a look at some of the individual journeys of the eccentric personalities that comprise Canada’s Men’s Basketball team. You can find the rest of the series here. It’s strange being the veterans of a team at ages 25 and 24 years old, respectively like both Shai-Gilgeous Alexander and Lu Dort are for the Oklahoma City Thunder.  ..read more

Join Samson Folk as he discusses the Raptors exit interviews. The post Talking about the Raptors exit interviews w/ Samson & Es first appeared on Raptors Republic ..read more

This wasn’t the Toronto Raptors’ first losing season. But it was Toronto’s first losing season since Kyle Lowry without frustration, pain, anger. When the Raptors lost in Tampa, lost last season, it was accompanied by enormously angry players and coaches, questioning their jobs, their performances, their identities. They hated losing. These Raptors weren’t happy losing, by no means. But they were more or less fine with it. Expected it. The team remained positive (which may or may not be a good thing). That was new.  It wasn’t the only new thing this year. The 2023-24 season opened with a ..read more

Well… that’s it. The 2023-2024 season is in the books. While some fans might be thanking the man above that this dreadful season is coming to an end, I tend to lean on the sadder side of things knowing that there will not be any form of Toronto basketball until the summer. Alas, the Raptors ended the campaign on a bitter note losing to the Heat 118-103. The two teams were tied heading into the second quarter when Miami took over, outscoring Toronto 43-26 in frame number two. The Raptors lost for the 19th time in 21 games to close out the season, finishing with a record of 25-57, the fifth-lowe ..read more