The Toronto Raptors are a great regular season team. 59 wins was enough to finish second in the NBA standings. They finished first in the Eastern Conference and played with championship contender confidence.

Until they met LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

For the third straight year, the Raptors have been eliminated by the Cavaliers. The Raptors have been swept in back-to-back seasons now and have a 2-12 record against the Cavaliers in the playoffs since 2015.

This year is the most painful for the Raptors because of the success they had in the regular season. With the Cavaliers having a down year and finishing fourth place in the Eastern Conference, the top-seeded Raptors undoubtedly believed this was their time to finally take the thrown as kings of the east from LeBron James. After a tough seven-game playoff series for the Cavaliers against the Indiana Pacers, the Raptors looked like they had a legitimate chance against a vulnerable Cavaliers team.

Once again, the Raptors didn’t just lose, they were dominated by the Cavaliers. After blowing a double-digit lead in the final seconds of the first game to Cleveland to eventually lose in overtime, the Raptors seemed to lose all the confidence they played with in the regular season. Watching the games made it clear that the Raptors themselves don’t really believe they can beat the Cavaliers. Two of the games were blowouts were the Raptors didn’t even belong on the same floor as the Cavaliers and the other two losses both happened because of mental breakdowns in the final minutes of each game.

In game one, they couldn’t finish off the Cavaliers and missed four potential game-winning shots in regulation after allowing the Cavaliers to storm their way back into the game. In game three, after mounting a furious comeback of their own, the Raptors broke down defensively on the last possession of the game and gave LeBron James a much too easy floater that banked in for the win.

Their defensive strategy going into that possession was solid. They intended to trap LeBron James in the backcourt with eight seconds left to force him to pass the ball to somebody else for a contested jump shot. They initially appeared to do that with a double team until Raptors Forward Pascal Siakam runs away to regain defensive position in the backcourt. LeBron easily blows by his primary defender and rises up for the game winning shot with Siakam nowhere near the play. It didn’t help that the Raptors best player, DeMar DeRozan, was benched for the entire fourth quarter after only scoring eight points while shooting 3 for 12 from the field.

This series just highlights that the Raptors, for as great as they are in the regular season, are a bad playoff team.

So, what’s next for the Raptors?

It’s clear that the current roster is simply not good enough for a deep playoff run. The core players the Raptors have chosen to build around just aren’t getting the job done when it matters most.

The obvious answer is to trade Kyle Lowry. The 32-year-old point guard is making way too much money for unremarkable production. This season, he averaged 16 points-per-game with 7 assists while shooting 43 percent from the field and 40 percent from the three-point arc. That’s not bad by any means, but it’s certainly not worth $33 million per year until 2020. Now that DeRozan has taken over as the team’s offensive leader, it’s time to move Lowry.

However, that contract is a big part of the problem. It’s going to be hard to find a team willing to take on that contract for an aging, serviceable point guard. It’s a tremendous risk and it doesn’t allow much flexibility to sign other players because of the salary cap.

What about entertaining the idea of trading away DeRozan?

DeRozan is great. He’s developed into one of the league’s best scorers and is the face of the Toronto Raptors which is why he should be traded. The Raptors could get a lot from DeRozan and while they would miss him offensively, the depth of their team is among the best in the league and would make up for his absence. They proved it when he was benched during the fourth quarter of game three against the Cavaliers.

Any assets acquired in a trade for DeRozan would help make up for that offensive production as well. Trading DeRozan not only frees up a lot of room in the salary cap because of his $27.8 million annual salaries, but it also removes a defensive liability.

The offense was not the issue against the Cavaliers. The Raptors couldn’t stop them and looked confused against the Cavalier’s offensive schemes. LeBron James matched both Lowry and DeRozan in terms of offensive production for the series. DeRozan is not a great defender and the Raptors desperately need a wing player to slow down someone like James.

Of course, if the Raptors are happy with making the playoffs every year only to lose in an abysmal matter to a much better team, then they don’t have to do anything. If they do want to make that next step and start contending for championships, then something has to change with DeRozan and Lowry.