New era dawns for Toronto Raptors with emphasis on 'togetherness'

A new era of the Toronto Raptors will dawn on Wednesday when they kick off the 2023-24 NBA season. But just what this new version of the team will look like is still unknown.

Nick Nurse was fired as Toronto's head coach on April 21, shortly after the Raptors were bounced from the play-in tournament by the Chicago Bulls. Months later, veteran point guard Fred VanVleet, Toronto's de facto captain for the past three seasons, left the team for the Houston Rockets via free agency.

Those two departures effectively brought the championship era of the Raptors to an end, although some key players like Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby remain from the 2019 NBA Finals team.

New head coach Darko Rajakovic and recently signed point guard Dennis Schröder will lead a very different team on to the court Wednesday when Toronto hosts the Minnesota Timberwolves at Scotiabank Arena in both teams' season opener.

"I wish our fans could really see our team in the gym in the last couple of weeks and through training camp to see how much togetherness we have, how much individual sacrifice for the team good we have," said Rajakovic following practice Tuesday. "Guys are doing an amazing job with the buy-in and we've got to stay on that path.

"Win or lose, we've got to continue building that kind of culture."