Anyone else love how homegrown our team is?

[Lupe]

DeRozan, Siakam, Valanciunas, Ross, Powell, Poeltl, Wright, Caboclo. Over half of our 15 man roster was drafted by this team. Really impressive, if you look back at our past 1st round picks since DeRozan in 2009. All of them are still on the team except Ed Davis.

I think it's definitely not an accident and more of an intentional thing from Masai. If you bring guys into the league, get them their start, develop them and teach them how to win they're going to want to stay and they're going to want to play hard for you. You could arguably even toss Lowry and CoJo in the mix too given that Lowry basically kick-started the best part of his career here and CoJo is Toronto born and raised and didn't really get big minutes before he came.

[TrueTorontoFan]

I love it. I was thinking about how we truly are a Spurs-lite team. Almost all of our players are solid and have been brought up entirely through our system. We have developed well. Even the injuries that happened allowed the accelerated growth of guys like Siakam and Bebe. Everyone has a chip on their shoulder. COJO doesn't count cause he grew up in the Spurs system, but yeah. Who knows Wiggins actually may come home in 10 years if the wolves implod (I think they are on the up and up).

I think Masai also has a strong connection to international players specifically out of the African Region. It comes from a genuine place.

[S.R.]

Patience paying off, it's great. Drafting and developing well, not mortgaging your future for a quick fix with a year or two left on his contract.

I'm a bit surprised (though I shouldn't be) that Masai isn't getting more recognition for this success + healthy franchise. South of the border most still just think the Raptors aren't that good. Every pre-season prediction the last few years has this team dropping in the W column. Will they take note of the long term trend at some point?

[The Great One]

Not really surprised. If the Knicks were doing this i bet you they'd be talking about them everyday non stop.

Hell, if DeRozan was doing this in a Knick uni, ESPN, NBA TV...all those guys would be talking about him everyday.

[The Great One]

The American media treats the Raptors like they don't exist.

[Nilanka]

The American media treats the Raptors like they don't exist.

I don't take it personally anymore. It's just reality that the average American viewer isn't interested in watching a neutral game involving the Raptors. It's a calculated business decision to ignore the Raptors, backed up by statistical evidence.

This wasn't the case when Vince was doing his thing. Everyone on the planet wanted to watch him play.