CALGARY — It is prove ‘em season.

Unofficially, it started about a decade ago when then-Raptors star DeMar DeRozan was displeased with his placement in Sports Illustrated’s top-100 player rankings. This is the time for the haters and doubters to be used as motivation. The Toronto Raptors spoke frequently about various-sized chips on myriad shoulders during Monday’s media day, and it wasn’t particularly surprising. Broadly speaking, most observers think the Raptors have overpaid their best players in recent years.

Brandon Ingram is one of those guys, having agreed to a three-year, $120 million deal shortly after his trade from New Orleans in the offseason. Ingram has been frequently injured over the past few years, and that money likely wouldn’t have been there from any other team in the offseason, given how the second apron and the NBA’s harsher penalties for spending brought along relative thriftiness from teams.

And wouldn’t you know it, Ingram fell from 40th to 77th in this year’s ESPN rankings. As much sense as that makes — he played just 18 games last year, mostly because of a badly sprained ankle — you wouldn’t expect a former All-Star still in what should be the prime of his career to take kindly to that.

“I think when you go try to prove yourself to other people,” Ingram said on Monday, “it never works out.”

Consider that a record scratch moment. Maybe more than anyone else, Ingram should have external motivation at his disposal. However, a glimpse at the right side of his neck removes the surprise. Ingram has a bible verse tattooed there, a line said by Jesus to Peter: “Focus on me, not the storm.”

“Of course, we’re surrounded by a lot of chaos,” Ingram expanded on Thursday. “And I think for me, I would say that (I try to) just stand (apart) from everybody else. If you look too far and try to impress people, you’ll take failures more.”

The Raptors, almost to a man, are looking inward — funny, as many of them wouldn’t have trouble finding motivation if they looked outside. Even in a weakened Eastern Conference, Bet MGM has them with the eighth-highest win total over/under at 39.5. That’s a jump from last year’s 11th-place finish, but not one the players believe represents the likely outcome.

After a year full of injuries and a couple of seasons in the Eastern Conference dregs, the Raptors are well off the radar, and their best players draw skepticism. Even the Raptors’ top-ranked player on ESPN, Scottie Barnes, is at once ascending, jumping from 35th to 30th, and looking way up at his Class of ‘21 peers such as Evan Mobley (13th) and Cade Cunningham (12th). He beat those two out for Rookie of the Year four seasons back. Now they are franchise players, while Barnes’ own maximum-level deal is considered by some to be a franchise albatross.

ESPN’s top-100 ranks of Raptors starters

“Scottie was the No. 4 pick, but everyone was like, ‘Why are they picking you No. 4?’ RJ (Barrett) and (Immanuel Quickley): Toronto wanted you, but New York obviously traded you,” Garrett Temple told The Athletic. “BI, New Orleans traded you. Ochai (Agbaji) got traded after (in his second season). You can look guys down the line: ‘Gradey (Dick), are you really good enough to play in the NBA, or is it just show?’ You can look at a lot of our players, and there’s a reason to have a chip on the shoulder. I think that’s what brings a lot of people together.”

Together, sure, but not burning with “we’ll show them” rage. Temple remembered earlier in his career using the fact that he was undrafted as motivation — he wanted to prove he belonged in the league. However, Temple noted everyone is different and that social media has only intensified since his start in the league.

Now, if you go searching for doubt online, you’re not going to find just one piece of criticism; you’re going to find an ocean of it.

“You hear it,” Barrett said, adding that players have to construct their support system wisely to limit how much noise filters into their worlds. Agbaji agreed, saying if you pick the wrong people to surround you, not only will they hear the criticism, they also might get harmful encouragement.

“They’re like, ‘Oh, man, you should do this. You should be this. You should be doing this. You should be doing that,’” Agbaji said. “Take it (in) one ear, out the other.”

It is the coaching staff’s job to make sure the players are correctly focused. Darko Rajaković said it is essential to allow players to be themselves. Some thrive on perceived doubt, while others can get distracted by it.

Regardless of how it is used, what comes from outside is fleeting.

“I think the better version of motivation is always the motivation that’s coming from within and not necessarily ‘me against the world,’” Rajaković said. “When you are competing against yourself and you are trying to be the best version of yourself, and that’s what you can control, it really does not matter what the outside world thinks about you.”

That seems to be the message that the Raptors are trying to embody. Quickley and Barrett both spoke about how putting in their individual work arms them against external criticism. If they’ve done all they can to improve, they believe — or at least hope — it will show up on the court. At that point, the outside world will be proven right or wrong.

Yet, NBA players are humans, often disproportionately competitive ones. Most need uncommon self-belief to get to this level. It is easy to understand why they might get hung up on what’s said about them in public.

“The work is always going to show up. … It’s the reason I’m in the NBA. It’s the reason we’re gonna have a great year this year,” Quickley said. “You can’t really get into that type of stuff. It’s more about proving yourself right.

“Although, you know, it is cool to prove some people wrong. That’s not the main goal. It’s secondary.”

(Photo: Gregory Fisher / Imagn Images)