The LeBron Factor Proved Fatal for the Raptors, and Could for Years to Come

The Toronto Raptors won their first two seven-game series ever this year, and their first two playoff series of any kind in 15 years. Then, they pushed the totally healthy, LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers further than any Eastern Conference team has since James returned to his home region. The Raptors now have two conference final wins. This was, by most objective measures, a result that comes awfully close to the Raptors' ceiling in terms of their final destination.

But the journey, man… the journey. How to describe it? Uneven? Maddening? A roller coaster? A rickety beater of a Buick Skylark that required endless repairs but usually got you where you needed to go? In their 20 games, the Raptors delivered a version of their best game no more than a quarter of the time. Fittingly, they finished 10-10. Their opponents, obviously, had a lot to do with that. Still, as the Raptors' death was sealed by their inability to go open shot for open shot with the red-hot Cavaliers, it felt as if the Raptors did not—could not—punch with Cleveland.

And, well, of course they could not. The Cavaliers have James, and he can move mountains on the floor and in the offseason. His presence makes every shooter he shares the floor with that much more lethal. His presence makes Cleveland a destination for ring-chasing veterans. His presence guarantees a team with a lethal offence, and puts the pressure on opponents to make it rain with the Cavaliers, lest they die alone in the flood.

"I feel like we missed a lot of shots that we normally hit that we hit a couple series before," DeMarre Carroll said when asked if the Cavaliers' 3-point shooting, which came in at 55 percent in Friday's Game 6 series finale, made the pressure on the other end even more intense.

"Do injuries play a role in that? I don't know. Maybe. I think Pat (Patterson) missed a couple of shots that he normally hits. I missed a lot of shots in this series that I normally hit. It's one of those things, man, when you're trying to get to the Finals, it's usually the… healthiest team."

Except if LeBron is on that team. James, you will recall, carried a Cavaliers team to the Finals last year without Kevin Love and with Kyrie Irving going in and out of the lineup. This is now six straight Finals appearances for James, and now the Raptors have the honour of asking themselves the same question that the Bulls, Pacers and Hawks have had to ask in previous years: How do we beat James if we don't have James or a similar transcendent force?

To be sure, it starts with hitting more than your share of open shots. Cleveland is an exploitable team on defence, with Irving and Love figuring so prominently. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan were as good as you would hope in this series, particularly in the portion played in Toronto. Carroll, however, battling knee, ankle and elbow injuries, shot 19 percent from 3-point territory. Patterson shot 32 percent, including 1-for-5 in the finale. Terrence Ross shot 29 percent. Against a team as brilliant with the ball as all of James' teams are, the margin of error is almost non-existent. Hitting your shots gives you more room to work with.

Naturally, there is more to it than that for the Raptors, more than just hoping the shots fall next time around.

They have to assess whether having DeRozan—a wing player who struggles to hit 3-pointers and defend—eat up 30 percent of their cap room makes sense. They have to figure out if Bismack Biyombo is a luxury they can afford, if they are even able to give themselves the option to pay him, given that they lack the rights to go over the salary cap to re-sign him. And they have to figure out how much their young players can absorb—whether Jonas Valanciunas can take on a bigger role in the offence, whether Lucas Nogueira and Norman Powell are ready for regular minutes, and whether they can implement a lottery pick into the team and continue to thrive.

Regardless, this was a wonderful season for the Raptors. Their two stars had career seasons, Valanciunas showed himself to be ascendant and, because of the All-Star Game and the playoff run, the city's reputation as basketball crazy grew. James looked to be amazed by the fans as they chanted "Let's go Raptors" for the final 150 seconds of a blowout, and saluted the crowd in his postgame comments. That can only help in free agency, assuming the Raptors have flexibility with which to work.

With an extra draft pick in each of the next two drafts in tow, Masai Ujiri is in a great place. It just happens to be a complicated place, too. Ujiri has a number of routes to choose from, and none of them are blowing the whole foundation up—not as long as you have either Lowry or Valanciunas on the roster.

"That next step is probably the biggest step we have to take as an organization," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said.

They must attempt to do it knowing that James is lurking. Assuming that DeRozan is back, Ujiri is in an interesting spot where he could possibly build this thing in waves: Lowry is 30, DeRozan is 26 and Valanciunas is 24. Lowry is at the end of his prime, DeRozan is in the heart of his and Valanciunas should be entering it now. There is comfort in that.

"What (Lowry and DeRozan) have done for this franchise and this city and this fan base (is) nothing short of amazing," James said.

The reason that some fans wanted the Raptors to move on from their star guards almost three years ago, though, is that none of them are James. They are totally admirable and have been great. Just like the Pacers' and Hawks' cohesive, brilliant starting fives in years past, they were not quite enough to overcome the way James manipulates the floor and the league in general.

"It's just that the fact that they have that superstar. There are four or five players (like that) in the league. I've just happened to play versus LeBron both times," said Raptors forward Luis Scola, who was with the Pacers two years ago when they were James' conference final victim.

"The true facts (say) that you need those types of players to win. Those are the ones who make the difference. There are not many of them. And they're unreachable for most teams. When you have them, they make the difference. LeBron is one of them, obviously. He made me pay twice. I had to suffer him twice."

Compared to their five-year playoff drought, some of which was spent trying to build around Andrea Bargnani, attempting to dethrone James is a champagne problem. It is still a problem, though—a very complex one.