There was golden confetti dancing on a video loop near the press conference dais. In a matter of a few weeks, they’ll raise the championship banner and hand out the gaudy rings.

But the truth is the arena on Bay Street didn’t much feel like the home of the NBA champions during the Raptors’ 25th annual media day on Saturday.

Yes, it was only a few months ago that Canada’s NBA team luxuriated atop the basketball universe. Now that another season is getting underway, with training camp in Quebec City beginning Sunday, the Raptors are back to playing a familiar role — that of rank underdogs.

That, at least, seems to be the message emanating from the U.S.-based pundits and the Las Vegas oddsmakers. In a year in which parity has returned to the wide-open NBA, the consensus suggests anybody can win it but the reigning champs. Which seems to suit the Raptors just fine. Being underestimated is a big part of being them.

“I mean, if you look at the roster and you know all the players that make this team, at some point they’ve been overlooked,” Marc Gasol was saying. “So for us, it’s nothing new.”

Not that the Raptors have been making grand pronouncements in the face of the blatant disrespect that’s been shovelled in their direction. Klay Thompson has insisted the Warriors would have won the championship if he hadn’t torn his ACL in Game 6. Nobody in Raptors gear has slowly explained to Thompson how the Raptors would have won the title at home in Game 5 had Nick Nurse only deployed his timeouts a little more deftly. Kevin Durant has characterized Toronto’s title run as “probably the last time they will be in the Finals.” Nobody in Toronto has chimed in with the obvious comeback about how the same probably goes for Durant now that he’s chosen to spend the post-Achilles-reattachment portion of his career alongside spaced-out Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn.

If this Raptors team learned one thing from the departed Kawhi Leonard, now a member of the L.A. Clippers, it’s that there’s no need to call your shot.

The quiet truth, of course, is that there is a path to the Raptors being an Eastern contender. And a lot of it hinges on Pascal Siakam making another gigantic leap. If Siakam can go from being named the NBA’s most improved player last season to being considered one of the conference’s best players this season — if he can transform himself from the team’s No. 2 offensive option to a legitimate No. 1 — well, then the Raptors might have something here.

With the league’s true power residing in the West, after all, the East isn’t particularly daunting. The 76ers are the consensus Eastern favourites, but their closer, Jimmy Butler, now plays in Miami. The Bucks are a force, but they’ll be vulnerable until Giannis learns to shoot.

And if Siakam’s off-season labour has seen him improve his jump shot and add some mid-range variety to go with his Olympic-worthy athleticism — this along with beefing up his frame in the name of durability and rim-attacking sturdiness — the Raptors could have a very different look. Last season, Siakam averaged 16.9 points a game, but he averaged more than 20 points a night in the 22 games Leonard missed in the name of load management. And as Nurse was saying on Saturday: This season Siakam’s going to get a lot more opportunities with the ball in his hands. We’ll see how he reacts to defences scrutinizing his skill set with Leonard no longer draining opposing resources.

Which is not to say Siakam’s growth is the only factor that will affect the outcome of the season to come. Gasol spent Saturday explaining how filling the hole left by the departure of Leonard and starting shooting guard Danny Green is a collective responsibility.

“That void is going to be filled by the team … We can’t expect one guy to do all the work,” Gasol said.

Still, the NBA is a star-driven league. And it’s Siakam who’s in the midst of negotiating a potential max contract extension with the club worth $170 million U.S. over five years. Should the Raptors not ink him to that deal by the Oct. 21 deadline, he’ll be a restricted free agent at season’s end. Toronto, in that case, would be able to match any competing offer. In other words, he’s not going anywhere, not anytime soon.

“He’s definitely going to be someone we keep for a long time here,” team president Masai Ujiri said. “He’s going to have more on his shoulders this year … This season I think is a good season for him to grow as a player, to potentially get to where we all feel he can be as a player, which I think could be one of the best players in the league.”

That’d be an ambitious climb. It was only the season before last, after all, that Siakam was a 21-minutes-a-game bench player. Even last year around this time — before Siakam began asserting himself as the obvious No. 2 option in the Toronto scheme — there was an idea he’d platoon as the starting small forward along with OG Anunoby.

Anunoby, who had last season undone by rough luck, is another Raptor who, if he takes a competitive leap, could help change the franchise’s short-term outlook. Ditto Fred VanVleet; if the clutch playoff shotmaker can establish himself as a viable starting shooting guard — if a small backcourt of 33-year-old Kyle Lowry and VanVleet could prosper — suddenly the Raptors look more formidable.

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Not that many around the league will be seeing it that way. As Siakam was saying on Saturday: Now that the masses have hopped off Toronto’s bandwagon, the Raptors are back to being what they’re accustomed to being — always an afterthought, even in the championship aftermath.

“It definitely puts a chip on our shoulders,” Siakam said. “And we want to continue to grind … (and) continue to be who we are, man. And work hard. That’s what we’ve always done.”

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