Their roster and coaching continuity had yielded the most successful stretch in franchise history — five straight post-season appearances, an Eastern Conference final, and 59 wins last season en route to the East's top seed.
But none of that had yielded the ultimate goal of an NBA championship. Last season ended with a second-round sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
First to go was Dwane Casey, only the winningest head coach in Raptors history. Assistant coach Nick Nurse was promoted to take his place.
And then franchise star DeMar DeRozan was dealt to the San Antonio Spurs along with Jakob Poeltl, and a top-20 protected 2019 first-round pick for former Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.
With Raptors killer LeBron James moving to the Western Conference, the Raptors are arguably in their best-ever position to make their first NBA Finals.
"If our team goal is to win a championship, you add some champions to the mix," backup guard Fred VanVleet said of the deal for Leonard and Green. "The goal is to have the best team possible and I like our chances. I think that come playoff time, those two guys will be vital to our playoff success."
Leonard can take over during crunch time on both ends of the floor and has the ability to manufacture his own scoring with an arsenal of moves or make plays for teammates.
He and Green are also tremendous defenders and their ability to guard multiple positions provides Nurse with a lot more lineup possibilities, including the starters, which he noted will be more "fluid" this year as opposed to previous seasons.
"He's a versatile guy but he's not alone," Nurse said of Leonard. "We've tried to make a lot of these guys versatile – Pascal [Siakam], OG [Anunoby], and Delon [Wright] – these guys are playing two, three, four positions and that's what he does.
"We've worked hard on all of our guys becoming more versatile because that's what we want to be, and think is the most effective thing we can do. I think a lot of these younger guys, they'll see his game and be able to emulate some of those things he does [at] both ends. He can guard smalls and bigs and score inside and out."
While the Raptors made huge strides last year in being a more three-point-shooting team, they ranked only 18th in percentage made.
Adding Leonard and Green — a pair of reliable outside shooters — to a rotation that already includes threats like C.J. Miles, Kyle Lowry, and VanVleet could see the Raptors shoot even more threes with higher efficiency.
"It's not so much that we're trying to shoot a ton of threes, we're just trying to get good, high-value shots. Some nights it happens to be a lot of threes," Nurse says. "We've got more guys that can shoot em' at a higher percentage so that would probably tend to favour that we're gonna shoot a few more. But we've got to create them first with great ball movement, cutting, rhythm, chemistry."
The Raptors' second unit — primarily composed of VanVleet, Miles, Poeltl, Delon Wright, Pascal Siakam — was one of the league's most cohesive lineups last season.
They played the 25th-most minutes among all five-player lineups and their offensive rating of 117.3 was 15th in the league.
With the "Bench Mob" being so effective, they were almost inseparable as they finished games together or in combination with the starters.
This off-season, most of the reserves spent some time working out against a collection of superstars, including James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Paul George in five-on-five scrimmages at UCLA.
His improved ball-handling allowed him to be more aggressive in his drives to the basket and the 24-year-old showed no hesitation in last week's pre-season game against the New Orleans Pelicans despite being guarded by a feared shot blocker in Anthony Davis.
But for Siakam to take that next step, he'll need to improve on his 22 per cent shooting from three-point range and he's made some adjustments to his shooting mechanics to help with that.
"From seeing him his rookie year to now, his form on his shot looks really well," Wright said. "There's no hitch in his shot. He's just shooting it with confidence."
Nurse has told the six-foot-eleven centre that he'll be used in the post where he's comfortable as an interior scorer and passing big man.
While the modern NBA game has seen players of Monroe's skillset slowly phased out, he says he's done his best to adapt from shooting three-pointers to better decision-making with less touches.
But perhaps Monroe's biggest asset will be his grit — which aside from P.J. Tucker's short stint two seasons ago — has been missing from the Raptors since Charles Oakley played for the club in 2001.
Monroe was reminded of an old scuffle with Raptors centre Jonas Valanciunas when he was with Milwaukee during their 2017 first-round playoff series. He appreciated that his new teammate wasn't intimated in such a moment and looks forward to adding some extra toughness.
"That's just competing, especially in a playoff series. [When] you're going against somebody four, five, six games in a row, things get chippy. You're playing hard. [The] season's on the line," Monroe said. "I would much rather that than someone to be timid. That's one thing I pride myself in is just being tough, not dirty. I think we both understand that."
DETROIT (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co Ltd’s (7201.T) North American division chief said on Tuesday that the Japanese automaker is awaiting details of the U.S.-Mexican trade agreement but is confident it can comply with its rules because it assembles around 1 million vehicles annually in the United States.
FILE PHOTO: Denis Le Vot, senior vice president and chairman of the management committee for Nissan North America, speaks during the presentation of the 2019 Nissan Altima at the New York Auto Show in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
“We are not just importing cars from abroad... we are very, very, very heavily American,” Denis Le Vot told Reuters during a visit to Detroit. “We have all the basics here; we’re producing locally with local steel and local content.”
Nissan makes a range of vehicles at plants in Smyrna, Tennessee, and Canton, Mississippi, including its popular Rogue crossover, Titan pickup trucks and the Altima midsize sedan. Nissan also builds a number of vehicles in Mexico, including the Sentra and Versa sedans.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said he is prepared to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement, last month struck a bilateral trade deal with Mexico.
The deal with Mexico would require 75 percent of auto content to be made in the NAFTA region, up from the current level of 62.5 percent, and would require 40 percent to 45 percent of auto content to be made by workers earning at least $16 per hour.
“We’re working actively with the U.S. government and Mexican government to get all the details,” Le Vot said. “Only when we get them can we say ‘OK, this is what we have to do.’”
“We can only hope it’s going to be good for business, good for suppliers and dealers, good for our employees and more importantly for the customer and the market,” he added.
Le Vot said after a difficult transition last year to its new-year model vehicles, Nissan has reduced inventories and is poised to grow its retail market share in the second half of the year.
Nissan’s inventory is currently around 230,000 vehicles, down from 300,000 vehicles a year ago. The company has also been reducing low-margin fleet sales and Le Vot said new vehicles like its small Kicks crossover and a revamped Altima should help boost sales.
The automaker’s U.S. sales rose 4.4 percent in August versus the same month in 2017, but are down 4.8 percent year to date.
TORONTO, Nov 8 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar touched a two-month low against its U.S. counterpart on Friday after data showed robust U.S. jobs growth in October despite a government shutdown.
The U.S. report fanned expectations the Federal Reserve could move sooner to scale back its monetary stimulus.
Canada’s economy added 13,200 jobs in October, while U.S. employers added 204,000 jobs to their payrolls.
“The good (U.S.) jobs numbers were a surprise to the topside and piggy-backs on the better-than-expected GDP data that we saw yesterday,” said Scott Smith, senior market analyst at Cambridge Mercantile Group in Calgary.
The jobs data “really fuels expectations that the government shutdown didn’t really impact the U.S. economy and hence ... possibly having a December taper on the table,” he said.
The U.S. payroll data had a broad impact on financial markets, boosting the greenback against a range of currencies and pushing stocks higher and bonds lower.
“The U.S. number at the margin kept the taper discussion alive,” said Royal Bank of Canada chief economist Craig Wright.
The Canadian dollar ended the North American session at C$1.0478 to the greenback, or 95.44 U.S. cents, compared with Thursday’s close of C$1.0461, or 95.59 cents.
It had slipped to C$1.0504 at one point, its weakest level since Sept. 6. The move meant it lost 0.5 percent for the week.
The loonie, as Canada’s currency is colloquially known, gained against the euro. This followed strong gains against the euro on Thursday, when the European Central Bank surprisingly cut rates to a record low.
NEW YORK, June 11 (Reuters) - * The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX rose 60.60 points, or 0.37 percent, to 16,263.29. * The biggest contributor to the TSX gain/loss was Enbridge Inc , adding 16.62 net index points. Energy was the top sector contributor with 41.4 net points to the upside. * Leading the index were MEG Energy Corp, up 6 percent, Pretium Resources Inc, up 5.2 percent, and Detour Gold Corp , higher by 4.1 percent. * Lagging shares were Prometic Life Sciences Inc, down 4.2 percent, Aurora Cannabis Inc, down 4.1 percent, and West Fraser Timber Co Ltd, lower by 3.8 percent. * On the TSX 149 issues advanced and 93 declined as a 1.6-to-1 ratio favored advancers. There were 14 new highs and 3 new lows, with total volume of 168.9 million shares. * The most heavily traded shares by volume were Bombardier Inc, Aurora Cannabis Inc and Baytex Energy Corp. * The TSX’s energy group rose 1.54 points, or 0.77 percent, while the financials sector slipped 0.03 points, or 0.01 percent. * West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 0.47 percent, or $0.31, to $66.05 a barrel. Brent crude fell 0.14 percent, or $0.11, to $76.35 * The TSX is up 0.3 percent for the year. (Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak)
Johnny Knoxville and his fellow pranksters wander Japan in panda outfits, wreak havoc on a golf course, perform stunts involving alligators and more.
A 'boring is best' bodyguard must ensure a star witness who happens to be a volatile assassin stays alive to testify against a brutal dictator.
Three buddies with big dreams go from underachieving slackers to badass warriors when their posh hotel is taken over by terrorists.
When a smooth MI6 assassin embarks on a dangerous mission that reunites him with his happy, numbskull brother, they must team up to save the world.
Two fledgling criminals kidnap a pizza delivery guy, strap a bomb to his chest, and inform him that he has mere hours to rob a bank or else.
Terry and Bob excel at blackmailing small-time crooks. But when the two cops target a big score, they learn not all criminals are easily intimidated.
On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its largest single-day point decline in history.
The blue chip index fell 1,175 points, or 4.6%, to bring its year-to-date performance into the red. The Dow has now lost 1.5% this year.
The benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq also fell sharply on Monday, with the S&P declining 113 points, or 4.1%, and the Nasdaq losing 273 points, or 3.8%. These declines were the worst single-day losses for the market since 2011 and make clear that after a placid 2017 in which stocks seemed to float higher for much of the year, volatility has returned.
In the last three days, the bottom has fallen out of the stock market, and for the Dow and the S&P 500, 2018’s gains have turned to losses. (Source: Yahoo Finance)
But as Monday showed, earnings and economic data may matter, but right now the market action is being fueled by emotion, by the rocky transition between phases of life.
At the end of 2017, complacency and certainty were the prevailing themes in markets. Earnings were expected to be strong and economic growth was forecast to be its best in years. Wall Street strategists uniformly expected a further rise in the stock market; the only question was to the magnitude of these gains. The market’s next chapters had already been written.
And while another consensus call is that 2018 would be more volatile than 2017 — which was one of the least-turbulent years on record — the action seen Monday is almost certainly not what was meant by “more volatile.” As markets entered the final hour of trading on Monday, the bottom seemed to be falling out of the market. The Dow fell 1,500 points, reporters looked up when circuit breakers would be tripped, and fear was the overriding emotion on Wall Street.
A trader works on the floor following the closing bell as a screen shows the Dow Jones Industrial Average on the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 5, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
After the markets closed Monday, futures broke lower. The selling pressure did not end with the bell. Trading in overseas markets Monday night into Tuesday will certainly set the tempo for U.S. investors on Tuesday. But no matter what markets do in the days and weeks ahead, the market environment so many investors knew was lulling them to sleep in 2017 has clearly ended. Investors have been jarred awake.
As for why the markets went down on Monday, the rise in bond yields is the most obvious culprit. Warren Buffett, among others, has long made the argument that low interest rates make stocks more attractive on a relative basis; higher yields, in turn, make stocks less attractive.
Rich Barry, floor governor at the New York Stock Exchange, also notes that Friday’s jobs report — which augurs for a more aggressive rate hike program from the Federal Reserve this year — along with higher yields, a stabilizing U.S. dollar, and soaring investor sentiment combined to set the table for a decline in stocks.
“The word we are getting now from traders is that markets should be very choppy over the next few days,” Barry said in an email after the market close. Volatility in markets often begets more volatility. But that investors are likely to point to a series of factors, and not one cause, for the market sell-off explains why the decline is unsatisfying and confounding.