The Toronto Raptors came into the Playoffs the 4th seed, facing the 5th seed Washington Wizards. Things didn’t go as they expected, at ALL, and they ended up getting swept 4-0. The 7th time that a lower seeded team has swept a higher seeded team since 1984. The Toronto Raptors had been paving the way, after a record breaking year in terms of record, home wins, road wins, and division titles, all went to waste when the 4th quarter finished Sunday night.
The Toronto Raptors and GM Masai Ujiri now have to go back and assess the entire situation and see what went wrong. The Raptors weren’t just struggling during the Playoffs, but they started off 2015 on a bad stretch of games and never got to where they used to be. So what’s the problem here? According to James Herbert of CBSSports, Greivis Vasquez thinks he knows why the lost the series:
Greivis Vasquez: "Basically, we need a Paul Pierce that's gonna talk that trash. We don't have that."
— James Herbert (@outsidethenba) April 27, 2015
Vasquez on Pierce: "You need to have that spiciness. You need to be a little bit of an asshole like he is."
— James Herbert (@outsidethenba) April 27, 2015
The Toronto Raptors hosted their exit interviews today, hence the loads of quotes from Raptors players today. Grievis Vasquez does have a very interesting point. What if the ‘it’ factor the Raptors lacked, was the the same person that told them they were lacking it, Paul Pierce. Either way, the Raptors GM Masai Ujiri has to do some seriously evaluations. Amir Johnson and Lou Williams become huge free agents to re-sign and an extension is in order for a young Jonas Valanaciunas, but can this roster get better outside of it’s core? Can Dwane Casey keep his job? Masai will have to think of all those things this summer.
