Raptors’ climb up Eastern Conference standings just got steeper

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Life in the Eastern Conference had already gotten tougher this summer. 

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It took another jump on Sunday. 

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Jrue Holiday is now a member of the Boston Celtics, joining Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brown, Derrick White and Kristaps Porzingis in a lineup that looks awfully like a championship contender, not that it didn’t have that smell before the deal. 

The Celts did give up promising, though oft-injured centre Robert Williams and quality sixth man Malcolm Brogdon, but with Holiday they replace the defensive stopper they gave up in Marcus Smart. 

Almost definitely factoring in is the upgrade in professionalism that comes with Holiday. As popular and as involved as Smart was in all of the Celtics’ success, there always seemed to be a lot of excess drama with Smart around. Holiday is the exact opposite, a low-maintenance star who calms the waters in times of turbulence rather than rocking the boat in the first place. 

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For the Toronto Raptors, who host media day on Monday before hopping on a flight for training camp in Vancouver, it’s one more hurdle in their path. 

Damian Lillard joining Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee made the Bucks better. Now Holiday, the cost of prying Lillard from Portland essentially, makes the Celtics better. 

The Holiday trade is either the final or next-to-final piece to move in a busy off-season that has seen Bradley Beal head to Phoenix to join Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and Chris Paul move on from Phoenix to join Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, although an injury to Green sounds like it’s going to cost him at least a month of the season. 

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James Harden could still be on the move from Philadelphia, but that deal and that relationship between player and team seem a lot less straight forward. 

But just in the East, the upper-tier teams seem to have added, while the middle-of-the-pack teams and lesser lights settled for less. 

The Cavs added Max Struss and Georges Niang, the Knicks seem to be rebuilding the Villanova college success story with Donte DiVincenzo joining Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart. Only the defending Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat failed to upgrade in a big way among the conference elite, which is ironic given the expectation going into the summer was they would come away with Lillard. 

In any event, the rich got a lot richer in the off-season, while teams like the Raptors failed to keep pace. All of the Raptors’ improvements — more depth with the arrival of Jalen McDaniels and Garrett Temple Jr., not to mention the drafting of Gradey Dick — were more than offset by the loss of starting point guard Fred VanVleet. 

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VanVleet was both the straw that stirred the Raptors’ drink and the head of the snake, to steal two of Dwane Casey’s favourite sayings. The Raptors countered with the signing of free-agent Dennis Schroder, but with Schroder come questions. Can he be the same kind of difference-maker for the Raptors that he was in the summer in leading Germany to a FIBA World Cup title? 

The answer to that question may be answered with the role he is given in Toronto. It’s not a secret that Schroder and new head coach Darko Rajakovic have a pre-Toronto relationship that was equally embraced by both parties. Could Schroder finally get the starring role in the NBA he’s always pined for? 

If Schroder is given the kind of prime role he got from Gordie Herbert with the German national team, maybe FIBA Schroder becomes NBA Schroder. 

That would go a long way to turning around Toronto’s off-season grade.  

It still wouldn’t match what Milwaukee and Boston were able to do, but those two clubs may have been out of reach before their off-season work in any event. 

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