Sports teams can make for fascinating studies in the human condition and human interaction: a dozen or so Type-A personalities thrust together in a potentially volatile mix, a gamble that somehow interpersonal relationships will thrive.

What is playing out now with the unbeaten Toronto Raptors, that study of give and take and getting along, is something to behold.

Yes, the team is a franchise-best 6-0 because it has immense talent and can bludgeon some opponents into submission on skill alone, but the Raptors are equally as good because they are a group that functions as one, the living organism that is a basketball team that just works.

Think about it.

Three new players — two of whom were given incredible roles right off the start — are blending with an existing group that knew its share of success like they’ve been together for years.

The coaching staff is entirely new: a former assistant elevated to the top job, a trio of new front-row assistants who were entirely unknown to the players when they arrived on the scene at training camp.

It should take time for all that to come together — many weeks, if not months — but these Raptors have found a way to click with shocking immediacy.

“Everyone has their own individual personalities, but everyone on this team knows how to come outside their own box and their own bubble to be able to accept others and be in their bubbles,” says Kyle Lowry, one of the team’s longest serving members and in many ways its heart. “That’s where we’ve got good professionals.”

Perhaps it is as simple as that: They are pros and know what it means to be one, to sublimate part of their own personalities for the greater good, to give more than they take, to care about the other guys more than themselves. But still, how quickly it’s happened is truly impressive and why they’ve started on such a torrid pace.

There were concerns about how the intensely private Kawhi Leonard would fit with a gregarious bunch, but there he was Friday night, slapping hands and goofing around with the knee-high children of an assistant coach in the back regions of the team’s locker room.

Leonard’s role has been invaluable on the court, that’s obvious. But in the short time he’s been a Raptor, he’s also fit seamlessly into the culture and even if he’s not bubbly and effusive publicly, teammates and coaches rave about his personality, his work ethic, his — well — friendliness. If he’d been miserable right off the bat, the team could have already gone off the rails; that didn’t happen and here they are, six wins in a row despite not having really played a complete game yet.

No one really knew a lot about Danny Green and he’s become a true voice, gifted as an athlete but also possessing quiet leadership skills that have become immediately apparent.

Teammates such as Lowry and Jonas Valanciunas and Fred VanVleet and C.J. Miles and Serge Ibaka didn’t have to accept him in that role so quickly. It’s usually one that a player morphs into over time, but Green’s there already because the greater group is fine with it.

“The biggest part is that off the court everyone is getting along really well, and I think it will carry over to the court,” Green said early in his tenure here. “When you have good chemistry on the court, hopefully by May and June — if we’re playing that long — it will really be clicking.”

Lowry speaks of that, too. Not so much of group chats where everyone sits around discussing their deepest feelings for each other and the group, but realizing that a team can be a tenuous commingling of personalities and the need for mutual respect is paramount.

“We’re going to be together a lot, so you can’t be mad at each other,” Lowry said. “You just have to go out there and hoop and have fun with it.”

Nick Nurse, who had to go from confidant as an assistant coach to authoritarian as the ultimate decision-maker, has made the team building seamless. He isn’t jocular, but he is easy going, he knows that X’s and O’s are huge and strategy is important, but so are the intangibles that have become so evident with the Raptors so far.

“We like to go to work, but we make that work a little bit playful,” the coach said. “We’ve got the (pre-practice) music, we’ve got the awards (for practice excellence), but there’s still the element of putting in a full day’s work. I don’t know which one comes first (success or fun). I just think we go to work and we try to enjoy it.”

It is a huge reason why they are off to the best start in franchise history. Yes, the on-court aspects of the team are significant. This squad is stacked with talent — more, and in a greater variety of ways, than ever before. They defend and score seemingly at will and have a sense of the moment that’s allowed them to fight off every in-game challenge so far. But that has as much to do with the team aspect of the game, that they have confidence in and respect for each other and play like they’ve been together for six months rather than six games.

And yes, it’s easier to get along when the wins are piling up, all sweetness and light when you’re 6-0. But the sense you get being around the group is that they won’t go through any significant losing streak because they won’t let it happen. They’ll bond because they already do and they’ll figure it out.

This is a unique group, an eclectic mix of personalities and pasts that has turned into a cohesive unit more quickly than anyone thought possible. A bunch of guys who have fun, do the work, get along and enjoy each other.

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It will be tested, for sure. There will be bad losses and ugly ones and maybe three or four in a row some time, but their strength is their collective personality and in the long term that will win out.

“Well, winning’s fun, right?” said Nurse. “That helps. But I also think that this is basketball and we don’t have to be miserable every day going to work. We all understand we’ve got unbelievable owners, organization, fans, players. We’ve got a little history of winning right now going. You better enjoy that. You better make that some fun.”

As they have.

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