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They filed in. They talked. They smiled, and they scattered to their off-season homes.

Except for Shawn Marion, who said he was headed for Niagara Falls for some sight-seeing. And maybe Montreal.

"I heard it's crazy up there," he said with a big grin. "You can follow me on tour."

If you didn't know differently, it would be easy to conclude the Toronto Raptors were merely sight-seeing through Loserville on their way to the NBA playoffs based on the hope and optimism generated by a 9-4 spurt to finish the season.

They ended at 33-49, good for 13th in the Eastern Conference, about nine spots below where they hoped to be when the 2008-09 season started. But the postmortem yesterday at the Air Canada Centre was light on dissection of what went wrong and heavy on wishful thinking.

"Just putting together the stretch that we did, not having anything to play for, I think that was really important for us," all-star forward Chris Bosh said. "It made me kind of realize how good we could have been."

"If I was here for the whole season, we'd be in the postseason, definitely. It is what it is," said Marion, who joined the team in February in the trade that sent Jermaine O'Neal and Jamario Moon to the Miami Heat. After the trade, the Raptors went 12-15.

The Raptors — starting Bosh, Andrea Bargnani, Marion, Anthony Parker and Jose Calderon — would have been firmly in the Eastern Conference playoff mix were it not for nagging injuries to Calderon, the energy-sapping, early-season negativity of former head coach Sam Mitchell and the chemistry-killing presence of O'Neal.

That's the past. But little was settled about the team's precarious future as it heads into the off-season with two free agents (Marion and Parker) in their starting lineup, an interim head coach (Jay Triano) with a 25-40 record and a franchise cornerstone (Bosh) entering the final year of his contract while still playing footsy with his long-term plans.

There was some clarity to be had: Calderon said he would step down from his Spanish national-team duties if the Raptors asked in order to preserve his health for the NBA grind. Parker said he'd be willing to play off the bench in the future. Triano was clear about the team's most glaring short-comings: overall toughness and a perimeter player who can break his opponent down on one-on-one situations.

But most of the other issues facing the team will only be cleared up as the off-season wears on — though Triano seems a good bet to return based on the reactions of the players yesterday.

Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo, in New York for NBA meetings this week, may be able to clear that up when he meets the media on Monday.

"I told [Triano] he has my vote," said Parker, summing up the mood of the group. "I'm excited to see what he can do with a team starting in training camp. Just talking to Jay, he's a learned a lot. He became more comfortable in the head coaching role toward the end."

The exception to the retain-Triano refrain might have been Marion — though he may not have understood the question as he rolled in sporting sunglasses following a "long night" after the Raptors' season-ending win in Chicago on Wednesday.

Marion is yet another moving part in the Raptors equation. "If [up-tempo] is the style we want to play he's of huge importance to this team," said Triano, who wants the free-agent-to-be back at the small forward spot. "He was a pleasure to coach."

But Marion, a 10-year NBA veteran who earned $17.1-million (U.S.) this season and who is heading for what might be his last contract, isn't offering an adopted-hometown discount, even if Bosh came calling, which Bosh says he plans to do.

"I've still got a lot more basketball left in me and stuff [but] I've got to worry about my future," Marion said. "I've got to be selfish right now because, I can't worry about nobody, I've got to worry about myself."

The question that drives everything around the Raptors is Bosh's future as he enters into what everyone expects will be the last year of his contract prior to hitting the free-agent market in 2010. And, as has been his habit, the 25-year-old chose not to answer it — other than to say he's going to proceed as if he's returning (no summer trade demands from him) with the expectation that the Raptors' recent visit to the nether regions of the NBA was just a detour.

"Things can happen fast," said Bosh, citing the Raptors' 20-win turnaround in 2006-07. "You look at some teams in the league, and they turn around their team in one summer. So it can be done."