It took about four minutes for Serge Ibaka to be asked if it was too soon to think about his future in Toronto, and the big man smiled and said, “Yes, very too soon.” That was before it was revealed that after a personal whirlwind following being traded by Orlando, after flying to Toronto, after passing his physical, Toronto’s new power forward wouldn’t play Wednesday night. He had basically had time to shake hands and give general manager Masai Ujiri a new nickname. “Big boss,” he called him.
But Ibaka is the newest Toronto Raptor, and the future is both now and tomorrow. This team entered its game against Charlotte Wednesday in a spiral: losers of 11 out of 15. If they were inspired by acquiring a genuine power forward, it didn’t show in Chicago Tuesday night. Ibaka wasn’t watching that game, though, so after playing for a bad Orlando team, he was psyched.
“For me, it’s going up again, and going back in competition again, and playing for something right now,” said Ibaka. “I’m very excited. Right now I have the opportunity to play for a good team, a good organization, a great city, so I’m very excited.”
And then the Raptors spent two of the first three quarters acting like a bunch of strangers who just got off a bus. They looked fragile, and lifeless. They were booed on merit. So they benched DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas, rode kids like Delon Wright and Jakob Poeltl along with Kyle Lowry and Cory Joseph and DeMarre Carroll, and unleashed a 25-2 run to start the fourth quarter. They made a few plays at the end, and escaped with a 90-85 win over a team that has now lost 11 of its last 12 games. It was the second-biggest fourth-quarter comeback in franchise history.
It beat the alternative, but if they are a contender, they will have to prove it. Of course, Ibaka changes everything either way. He might fit perfectly — a sweet-shooting power forward who can defend the rim, and especially when he plays centre. Ibaka did ask coach Dwane Casey if he could play some centre, after spending so much time chasing stretch fours on the perimeter in the new NBA the past few years. He didn’t need to ask, but he did.
“It’s going to be good,” said Casey. “Still, once we do get back together, it’s not going to be a magic wand. We still have some working to do to get our rhythm back, and our defence righted, and get our offensive rhythm and combinations together. It’s not going to be one game back and boom, we’re back, just because Serge walks in the door. It’s a huge help, don’t get me wrong, but he’s not alone the saviour. It’s everyone, collectively, pulling together.”
He meant forward Patrick Patterson, who when he returns from a knee injury will return to the bench, and whose importance to this team has been proven during the slide. When Patterson and Ibaka are both in the lineup, you can bet that’s the crunch-time lineup at power forward and centre. Patterson, like Ibaka and point guard Lowry, is a free agent this summer. None will come cheap.
And that’s why Ibaka changed everything. Look, there was a time, not long ago, when the Raptors brought in fading stars to bolster a playoff core, one after another. Jermaine O’Neal, for half a season. Shawn Marion, for a spell. Hedo Turkoglu. The first time he saw Turkoglu on a basketball court Chris Bosh said, essentially, you’ve got to be effing kidding me. He left for Miami at the end of that season, and the Raptors started over.
These Raptors, even given their recent slide, are not those Raptors. Ibaka, despite the clear signs of decline and his uncertain age — around the league, the estimates on his true age range from two years older than the stated 27 to four years older, but everyone is more or less guessing — is probably not those players. The fit is better, at least hypothetically.
And if Ibaka fits and the Raptors rediscover themselves, then he will be re-signed, along with Lowry, and presumably Patterson. Contracts will likely have to be shed to avoid the luxury tax, and sources around the league point to Joseph, Carroll, and even Valanciunas as potential ballast. There are big decisions ahead, no matter what.
Of course, if this all flops — if the chemistry doesn’t gel, and the slide can’t be reversed, and the Raptors limp into the playoffs and can’t do a thing — then maybe Ibaka doesn’t get re-signed, and maybe Lowry doesn’t get re-signed, and the whole enterprise is suddenly up for discussion, in its current form.
But at least they won a damned game. So now comes the all-star break, and a chance to breathe and regroup, and when the Raptors come back they will have 25 games to mix in Ibaka, reintroduce Patterson, and book their slot in the playoffs. As a relieved Joseph put it, “We’re going to come back a new team.” The future is now, and the future is next week, and the future is the next two months and then whatever the hell comes after that. It may be very too soon to think about it, but it won’t be for long.
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