guyroch wrote:
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In terms of how the team actually performed, this year's playoff "run" was actually a huge leap forward for the Leafs. They just lost a good, hard fought series against the two times defending champs. Previous years they collapsed (last year in particular) against lesser teams. They had big issues from previous years that they fixed. This year's team if they stay the course should be very, very good for a long time and have as good a chance as anyone to go deep in the playoffs. The challenge for their management is keeping the right parts as they go through the annual cap crunch.
Contrast that to the Raptors, who advanced further in the playoffs earlier but started their success with much more established key players (DeMar was 24 when the Raps made that FIRST run to the playoffs, and was traded heading into his age 29 season, never mind Lowry who was actually who made the team tick). And Masai gave them year after year after year to get over the hump, even when years like 2014-15 were happening. I would expect the Leafs to take a similar approach to their core - build around it, fix weaknesses you find along the way, and eventually it either pays off, or your players are still falling short when in their prime, and when that happens you have a tough decision to make. But I think if management is smart (like Masai) that tough decision should still be a ways off.
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