The Toronto Raptors have been starved for offense. Brandon Ingram is here to help.
The Raptors are coming off a 30-52 season during which they ranked 26th in offensive rating. Only the Orlando Magic made
fewer than the team’s 11.8 three-pointers per game. They succumbed frequently to offensive droughts that took them out of games.
If there’s one type of player the Raptors have needed to address those problems, it is a three-level scorer who can draw the defense’s attention. One who can go get a bucket when the shot clock is winding down, or when the rest of the offense is stuck in the mud. They’ve needed, in the more succinct words of GM Bobby Webster, “a hooper’s hooper.”
The Raptors traded for that very hooper in February when they acquired Brandon Ingram in exchange for Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk, plus a first- and second-round pick.
Ingram did not suit up for the Raptors following the trade, instead sitting out the last couple months of the 2024-25 season with an ankle injury. Now, Ingram is healthy and entering the first of a three-year, $120 million contract.
Having never seen him play in a Raptors uniform, fans are faced with one major question ahead of the season: What will Ingram look like alongside the existing core? And how will he look coming off his extended absence?
Head coach Darko Rajakovic says he expects Ingram to play as well as he ever has.
“He’s 27 years old, he’s entering his prime — I also expect him to take his game to another level,” Rajakovic said during the team’s media day. (Ingram turned 28 in early September, but the point still stands.)
Ingram was named an NBA All-Star back in 2020, his first year with the New Orleans Pelicans, and the same season he won Most Improved Player. While his counting stats have largely hovered around the same numbers since that 2019-20 season, Ingram has not been back to the All-Star Game; one contributing factor is that he hasn’t played 70-plus games in a season since 2016-17, his rookie campaign with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Rajakovic told media that Ingram’s ankle was “pain-free” back in July, and that he is healthy heading into the season. Whether Ingram’s health holds up will naturally be a major factor in the success of his 2025-26 season.
But what about his actual performance on the court? Fans’ predictions have ranged from concerns that Ingram will be Rudy Gay 2.0 (i.e. lots of shooting, not many wins) to elation that Ingram will be the primary scorer needed to elevate the Raptors to the playoffs.
One thing is for sure: Ingram is now the Raptors’ best pure scorer.
His role in New Orleans has fluctuated a bit over the past few years, depending on Zion Williamson’s availability. But his points per game output has consistently fallen in the 21 to 25 range since 2019-20.
When it comes to shot diet, Ingram is one of the NBA’s leading mid-range shooters. He’s able to use his length — Ingram is 6-foot-8 with a 7-foot-3 wingspan — and high release point to shoot over defenders, smoothly navigating the floor to get to his spots and knock down off-the-dribble, off-balance shots.
Ingram played just 18 games last year, but in his most recent full season (64 games played in 2023-24) Ingram scored 25.2% of his points off mid-range jump shots. That was the third-highest mark in the league among players with 50-plus games, behind only Khris Middleton and Chris Paul, and just ahead of the mid-range legend himself, DeMar DeRozan (24.9%). Those shots range from short mid-range (i.e. just outside the paint) to long twos, and as a three-level scorer, they’re an important part of what makes Ingram a threat with the ball.
But mid-range pull-ups will not solve all the Raptors’ woes. They are dreadfully in need of some three-point juice, and while the return of a healthy Immanuel Quickley will help in that department, the Raptors might need Ingram to take threes at a higher clip than he’s used to.
Ingram only attempted 3.8 threes per game in that 2023-24 season, after attempting 3.6 the previous year; his percentages were a very solid 39% and 35.5% those seasons. Last year Ingram took a positive step (albeit with a small sample size) with 6.4 three-point attempts per game, hitting 37.4% of them. The Raptors’ coaching staff will likely want him to match, if not exceed that number.
With that being said, three-point shots are not the main appeal of Ingram’s game. Raptors fans can look forward to watching Ingram use his length and a bevy of moves — stutter steps, up-and-unders, crossovers, spin moves — to attack defenses for mid-range looks, as well as to get into the interior.
Of course, this begs the question of how Ingram, who’s great with the ball in his hands, will fit in an offense that seeks to thrive off ball movement and had the second-highest assist percentage of any team last year.
Ingram’s usage rate last year was 30.5, the league’s 13th-highest mark. (The highest mark on the 2024-25 Raptors was RJ Barrett’s 28.1 usage rate.) One area where fans have concerns is the idea that there isn’t enough to go around for Ingram, Scottie Barnes and Barrett to all share the ball. Another concern is that Ingram will be a ball-stopper who disrupts the flow of the offense.
As for the first concern: I would expect to see a fair bit of staggering, with two of Ingram, Barnes, Barrett and Immanuel Quickley on the floor basically at all times, but with all four of them sharing the floor at only the very beginning and end of halves.
As for his reputation as a ball-stopper, Ingram has actually developed into an underrated playmaker, averaging more than 5 assists in each of the last 4 seasons.
“Obviously he’s a lead scorer — we’re gonna put him in situations where he can not just score, but play-make,” Rajakovic said. “I think that’s one area of his games that a lot of times has been overlooked, is his willingness to pass the ball and make the right play.”
Ingram had 3.6 isolation possessions per game last season; the Raptors’ team high was Scottie Barnes with 2.2. But Rajakovic said that Ingram will not only draw attention with his scoring chops, but that he believes Ingram will leverage that attention into opportunities for his teammates.
“With his size and his scoring ability, he’s gonna be attracting a lot of attention to him, and I believe that he’s gonna be really good [at] finding his teammates and making the right play,” Rajakovic said.
One facet of the game Ingram is not necessarily known for is the defensive end. But Ingram brought that up as a point of emphasis during media day, saying one of the first things he noticed after arriving in Toronto was “how hard the guys played on the defensive end.” (He also said he immediately noticed that Scotiabank Arena was packed night after night regardless of team performance, unlike New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center.)
“Coming here, I know Darko speaks a lot about defense, so he’s gonna be on me a lot about the defensive end, and trying to make my game complete,” Ingram said.
The Raptors are not keeping any secrets about having an aggressive defense that picks teams up full-court and aims to force turnovers.
Ingram received a vote of confidence from Jakob Poeltl during the veteran big man’s media day press conference.
“I think what’s really impressed me is how much he’s bought into it,” Poeltl said about Ingram.
“He’s really dialed into our pressing, being-aggressive style of play.”
Poeltl expanded, saying that Ingram could be a natural fit for the Raptors’ specific style.
“I think his greatest skill on defense is he’s good at anticipating where the ball is going and using his length to be disruptive,” Poeltl said. “I don’t know if that’s something he’s done a lot in his career, but I think he has the natural build and instincts for it.”
Time will tell what Ingram’s defense looks like, and how his addition will impact the team’s often muddy offense.
What we know already is that Ingram — a player who’s made an All-Star Game and is ostensibly entering the prime of his career — is being added to the Raptors’ lineup at the expense of no rotation players. If he can overcome durability concerns, and if he does mesh well with Barnes, Barrett, Quickley and Poeltl, and can effectively lead bench units with younger teammates, the Raptors could very well see themselves levelling up from last season’s 30-win total.
Of all the people eagerly awaiting Ingram’s return to the court, the most excited might be, as you’d expect, Ingram himself.
“I’m just excited to bring my skill level and make things easier for other guys — playmaking, scoring the basketball, defense, getting steals, going on the other end,” Ingram said. “Just having fun.”
