Happy Toronto Raptors season to all who celebrate!
The boys in red (#rippurple) kick off their season on the road Wednesday night, the first time in a decade they are not playing their season opener at
home. With the energy in Toronto at a high given the Blue Jays’ World Series appearance kicking off Friday, fans are ready for a revitalized Raptors team to get started.
A lot about the Toronto Raptors feels new this year — Brandon Ingram finally making his debut at the top of the list. After winning it all in 2019, followed by another thrilling season cut short in 2020, it’s been nothing but disappointment for Toronto’s basketball squad. A relocation to Tampa Bay in 2021, a mass exodus of the championship squad in the seasons following. Missing the playoffs for the past few seasons, injuries, and a coaching and front office change have all been the stories of the past few seasons. The team has been slowly trying to rebuild into a contender, and everything points to this season being successful.
Ingram, joined by 2021-22 Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes, hometown hero RJ Barrett, sharpshooting Immanuel Quickley, the Austrian Hammer Jakob Poeltl, and the team’s supporting cast of youthful talent, will try to return this franchise to the playoffs. Postseason sports in this city, this country, are remarkable, and this team is hungry to get there. Hopefully, seeing the Jays climb to the mountain top this October will motivate the Raptors to give fans another postseason run in April.
Aside from just hopes, though, do the Raptors have what it takes to make it to the playoffs? Let’s dive into 3 reasons they might just be able to make it happen:
Roster Upgrades Paying Off
Managing a basketball team is a game of chess, not checkers. The immense amount of trades this Raptors team has done in the past few years to rebuild their roster is head-spinning. Yet, that’s the goal: keep making small moves until they aren’t so small anymore.
This iteration of the Raptors’ team started with the squad’s longest tenured player: Scottie Barnes. Drafted No. 4 overall after the team’s terrible Tampa season, Barnes is growing into a vocal and poised leader going into his fifth NBA season. Gone are the days of emotional outbursts, and Barnes showed last season that he is developing into a mature team voice for his squad. Plus, with the right pieces around him, hopefully Barnes will not be asked to do it all this season, focusing on his own developed skill set as a forward and elite defender.
His right-hand man was acquired just a few months ago in a trade, as the team got Brandom Ingram from New Orleans. Ingram’s offensive power is just what this team needed to go along with the defensive-minded guys they usually sign. Ingram seems motivated to get back to winning ways after an unsuccessful tenure in NOLA and an injury that has had him sidelined since December of 2024.
Rounding out the starters are RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, and Jakob Poeltl. The big man was re-traded back to the Raptors a few seasons ago from the San Antonio Spurs after the team suffered a few seasons without a true starting center. Poeltl was initially a part of the deal that sent him and DeRozan to Texas in exchange for Kawhi Leonard. He averaged a career-high 14.5 points last season, the team remarkably better when he was on the court, and his two-man game with Quickley is something fans are looking forward to seeing.
Quickley and Barrett came to the team together in early 2024 as part of the O.G. Anunoby trade with the New York Knicks. Initially, Quickley was the focal point of the trade, but Barrett showed incredible advancement in his skill in the first few months of playing for his hometown team. As he described in the new book “We The Raptors” by Eric Smith and Andrew Bricker, coming home for Barrett happened at the exact right time. Near the end of the 2024 season, Barrett’s brother Nathan passed away due to an illness, and Barrett was able to continue playing while also being there for his brother and family during that time. While it’s been tough personally for Barrett since becoming a Raptor, his on-court game continues to be an outlet for him, and his efficiency and power have been highlights in his season and a half here. Now with some of the offensive pressure relieved from him, he can continue making the most of every trip to the basket, and his efficiency will hopefully continue to shine through.
For Quickley, this season is about taking on his role as the team’s starting point guard. He spent a lot of last season injured, and he seems to be healthy heading into this season. On top of facilitation duties, Quickley said at media day that he wants to be taking upwards of 10 three-point attempts per game, something he is capable of. He is another one who will benefit from the attention placed on Ingram in the Raptors’ offence.
Overall, the Raptors’ starting lineup is filled with young talent that is no longer fresh and green and now has the grit and experience to win. These first few games, seeing them play together, will be a test of this team’s aptitude as playoff contenders.
Depth, Remember That?
It seems like, for the first time in a few years, the Raptors have depth on their bench. Darko will likely deploy a 10-ish man rotation on any given night to start the season, and there is competition for who will get those minutes as you get to the end of the bench.
To start, though, the Raptors have both Gradey Dick and Collin Murray-Boyles ready to rock off the bench. Going into his third season, this team has asked a lot of Dick in his early career. He’s been upgraded to a starter and sent back to the bench repeatedly, and his role has never been the same for too long. Now the hope is that he can come off the bench and provide secondary offence for the team. When he was drafted, a big focal point was his shooting ability — he shot 40.3% from distance in his one college season. He’s shot 35% since coming to the NBA, so there is hope he can get back to his college numbers this season.
Murray-Boyles is coming into his rookie season after being selected No. 8 by the Raptors in this year’s draft. He is Masai Ujiri’s swan song, and the kid looks like he is built like a tank. Despite missing the Raptors’ first game tonight with a forearm injury, there is a ton of excitement at CMB’s potential as a two-way player, but mostly as a defender.
The Raptors also picked up Sandro Mamukelashvili to provide depth at the center position, and guys like Ochai Agbaji, Ja’Kobe Walter, and Jamal Shead will be fighting for some of those minutes as well.
Trouble in the East
The last factor here in the Raptors’ potential postseason hopes? The outlook of the Eastern Conference, which is… in question.
Injuries to Jayson Tatum in Boston, Dame Lillard in Milwaukee (where he was eventually waived), and Tyrese Haliburton in Indiana make it exponentially harder for three former top teams to imagine making a long postseason run. The 76ers are teetering on washed status, Jimmy Butler left Miami for Golden State, and many of the other East teams just don’t have the juice to be considered power teams.
There are 5 teams I think could be better than the Raptors in the Eastern Conference, giving them a path to a No. 6 seed. Cleveland, of course, has been excellent in recent seasons, leading the East last season with a record of 64-18. The Knicks should do well this year, building on their 51-31 record from last season. Despite losing Tatum, the Celtics still have a shot at being a strong team, with Jaylen Brown leading them. Then there are the Pistons and the Magic, who, similar to the Raptors, have been building and could take advantage of a weak conference this year. There are other teams who may be in the mix as well, but if we are out here making predictions, the Raptors could end up in 6th.
It all starts this week, though, as the Toronto Raptors will try to work off the excellent energy in Toronto by winning their first few games. This season could be the start of a rise in Toronto basketball.
