The 2024-2025 NBA season is here! We analyze the biggest questions, best- and worst-case scenarios, and fantasy prospects for all 30 teams. Enjoy!
TORONTO RAPTORS
End 2023-24
Off-season moves
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Additions: Ja’Kobe Walter, Jonathan Mogbo, Jamal Shead, Ulrich Chomche, Davion Mitchell, Branden Carlson
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Deductions: Gary Trent Jr., Jalen McDaniels, Javon Freeman-Liberty, Jordan Nwora, Malik Williams, Mouhamed Gueye, Jontay Porter
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Complete roster
The big question: Does Toronto already have a core worth building around?
The Raptors clearly feel good about the answer to that question. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have rushed to hand All-Star Scottie Barnes a full boat of up to five years as soon as they were allowed to do so, and they wouldn’t have followed that up by handing Immanuel Quickley, the prize they plucked from New York. York in the OG Anunoby deal, up to $175 million for the same five-year term.
There is reason for optimism. When the Raptors had Barnes, Quickley and RJ Barrett on the court with Jakob Poeltl at center, they outscored their opponents by 65 points in 234 minutes – a very healthy 10.8 points per 100 possessions. Your standard small sample size caveat applies, but in broad strokes Doing make some sense.
Barnes is a do-it-all player who can score inside, rebound, facilitate, guard multiple positions and generate steals, deflections and blocked shots, and who flirted with a league-high three-point accuracy on nearly five attempts per game. (Only five players averaged 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists per game last season: Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Dončić, Domantas Sabonis… and Barnes. Pretty good company!) If he’s able to perform as a true No. 1 By endangering defenses enough to create clean looks for teammates, he becomes one of the league’s most fascinating players.
Barrett hasn’t quite lived up to his “Maple Mamba” future stardom, but he’s a solid two-way player who turned in perhaps the best basketball of his career after the trade, working his way to 21.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game on .615 true shooting. Both he and Barnes have the size and strength to bully smaller defenders into the paint for direct looks; the Raptors took 38.5% of their shots at the rim in Barnes/Barrett/Quickley/Poeltl minutes, equaling Orlando’s share of the league as a season-long leader.
Quickley can work with both pairs in the two-man game, including as a screen setter on reverse pick-and-rolls, while taking good care of the ball (a top-10 assist-to-turnover ratio among players with moderate post-trade usage) and stretching the floor (39.5% from 3-point land on 7.1 attempts per game). Poeltl gives the playmakers a steady pick-and-roll partner, ranking in the top-20 in screen assists per game and shooting 68% as a roll man, while also serving as an interior deterrent for a defense that stops at a league-average clip with him on the back line.
However, there’s just one problem with having a solid top four: you need five guys to play and more than that to win.
A Raptors team that has said goodbye to all of Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Nick Nurse, Fred VanVleet, Trent and Precious Achiuwa over the past 18 months, leaving Chris Boucher on the court as the final link of the team that won the 2019 NBA Championship won – still has to figure out which type of players best suits the core four. That’s a recipe for head coach Darko Rajaković doing some experimenting … and, now that the Raptors have their own first-round pick in a 2025 NBA Draft that could feature several game-breakers, potentially a recipe for some player development-oriented pain.
The Raptors will have to see if Gradey Dick can solidify a starting spot by replicating the 39.5% 3-point shooting he put up in the final three months of his rookie season while also growing his game on both ends of the court. They need to take a longer look at whether Ochai Agbaji can make enough jumpers (only 21.7% after coming from Utah) to make a factual 3-and-D roleplayer. They have to see if newcomers like Mitchell, Walter and Shead can establish themselves as building blocks.
To the extent the Raptors’ veterans can help create the context for Toronto’s brass to learn these things, they’ll be kept around. When people like Boucher, Bruce Brown Jr. or Kelly Olynyk attract trade interest, however, expect them to be jettisoned for better-suited young talent or more draft capital.
“I would use the word ‘rebuild’. That is the right word,” Ujiri told reporters at media day. “I think we now have a clear path for the future.”
And therein lies the rub: Will this path lead to the Raptors resuming annual deep postseason runs? Or is Toronto, half a decade away from the top of the mountain, stuck on a road to nowhere?
At best
I see two possible answers here:
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Barnes makes another leap to All-NBA status. Quickley and Barrett flirt with All-Star berths, while Dick becomes a full-fledged high-volume marksman, giving Toronto the bones of an above-average offense. That, combined with an improvement on the other side of what Rajaković maintains will be more aggression at the point of attack, taking the Raps from play-in fodder to top six, meaningful spring basketball and a reason to get excited about what is to come. next.
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Barnes, Quickley and Barrett all look really good at times… while also missing enough games and being let down by insufficient backup play to fall out of the play-in picture and into the lottery, where the Raptors bring in another high-end prospect to develop alongside Barnes and – once again – give fans reason to get excited about what’s to come.
When everything falls apart
The BBQ is heating up and a full season together proves that Barnes, Barrett and Quickley are all better suited to life as complementary pieces rather than top options. None of the youngsters are popping in a way that projects future stardom. Yet the despicable nature of the soil of the East ensures that the Raps again ending up in the play-in tournament, with a low lottery pick that’s more tepid than transformative… and with the list of reasons to get excited getting shorter by the second.
Fantasy twist
The Raptors have an emerging talent on the horizon that will make some noise in fantasy. Starting with a stat stuffer in Barnes, he’s an easy second-round pick if you’re looking for a player who can contribute in any category. He is a very versatile fantasy player.
Then there’s Quickley. Since joining the Raptors last season, Quickley has averaged 19 points with five rebounds and seven assists per game. He only saw a 2% (22% to 20%) drop in usage while sharing the court with Barnes and Barrett, which is encouraging to see how much the Raptors system relies on sharing the ball. A fifth-round draft pick may feel rich, but it’s worth acquiring Quickley as he’s on the cusp of a breakout campaign.
Barrett is the ultimate player in the points league, though he has been a night-and-day performer since playing for his hometown Raptors. It’s hard to say if it was Barrett playing above expectations or if he figured his game out, but going from a 42% shooter to a 55% shooter, some regression seems imminent. His recent shoulder injury won’t help either. – Dan Titus
Schedule 2024-25
With all due respect to Mitchell and the rookies, I’m not sure the Raptors added “five more wins” of talent this summer; With all due respect to the Pistons, Wizards and Nets, I’m not sure that will matter. The dilapidated state of the bottom of the conference, combined with full and hopefully mostly healthy seasons for Barnes, Barrett and Quickley, should be enough to get Toronto at least into the 30s.
