CHICAGO - Two seasons ago, during Kawhi Leonard's carefully load-managed tenure in Toronto, the Raptors roared off the starting gate like a Ferrari.
Unbeaten, they raced to 6-0 in six games.
That vicious opening kick was the impetus to what would become a championship run, the first ever for the 25-year old franchise.
To borrow a line from a Mary Hopkin song, "Those were the days, my friend."
Since then, though, the Raptors have seen more departures than The Exodus.
Kawhi "The Klaw" Leonard is now prying wins as an L.A. Clipper alongside Serge Ibaka. Marc Gasol turned purple-and-gold while Danny Green had a one-season, one-ring stop as a Laker before heading to Philly.
Naturally, the depletion in talent and experience has resulted in a serious power outage that could lead to a total playoffs blackout.
Through six games in this young season, the Raptors are a woeful 1-5. It's their worst start since the 2005-06 season when they lost nine straight.
Surprisingly, their defense still wields a lot of bite despite losing three defensive-oriented bigs.
The Raptors are ranked 10th in defensive rating with a score of 106.5 and they're 13th in points per game allowed at 110.2.
But their offense is Frankenstein ugly. Scarred, wounded.
The Raptors average only 106 per, 26th among 30 teams. Their offensive rating of 102.4 is 29th. They are last in field goal accuracy, making only 41.2 of their shots. And their 33.5 percent clip at 3 is ranked 25th.
WE THE NORTH HAVE GONE SOUTH.
And as the losses pile up, some misgivings have surfaced.
"The part that we need to be embarrassed about, or disappointed about, is just the fight and the belief and going down four to eight and letting that balloon to 20 before you know it," Fred VanVleet told The Toronto Star.
"We have no swagger to us. We have nothing. Teams are looking at us like, 'All right, let's go eat,'" added Kyle Lowlry, a 14-year vet campaigning on his ninth season in Toronto.
With a combined average of 40.5 points, 10 rebounds and 13.2assists per game, VanVleet and Lowry are the only reasons why Toronto is not 0-6. Without them the Raptors are a G-League team.
After signing a four-year, $130 million contract extension in October 2019, Pascal Siakam continues to underperform. He followed his 2020 playoffs dud with a slow start this season where he is shooting only 40.7 percent from the field and 30 percent from 3.
Siakam is a cautionary tale for NBA executives and GMs to not to fall in love quickly and then commit to an expensive, long-term relationship.
There are 66 more games to play and as much as I'd like to give the former champs the benefit of the doubt, I seem to struggle finding optimism in their playoff hopes the way things are going.
We used to fall for their magical Cinderella run. But now, these Raptors are just free falling.
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