The 2024-25 NBA season is here! We’re breaking down the biggest questions, best- and worst-case scenarios, and fantasy outlooks for all 30 teams. Enjoy!
TORONTO RAPTORS
2023-24 finish
Offseason moves
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Additions: Ja’Kobe Walter, Jonathan Mogbo, Jamal Shead, Ulrich Chomche, Davion Mitchell, Branden Carlson
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Subtractions: Gary Trent Jr., Jalen McDaniels, Javon Freeman-Liberty, Jordan Nwora, Malik Williams, Mouhamed Gueye, Jontay Porter
The Big Question: Does Toronto already have a core worth building around?
The Raptors clearly feel pretty good about the answer to that question. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sprinted to hand All-Star Scottie Barnes a full-boat five-year max the second they were allowed to, and they wouldn’t have followed it up by handing Immanuel Quickley, the prize they plucked from New York in the OG Anunoby deal, up to $175 million for the same five-year term.
There’s reason for optimism. When the Raptors had Barnes, Quickley and RJ Barrett on the court with center Jakob Poeltl, they outscored opponents by 65 points in 234 minutes — a very healthy 10.8 points per 100 possessions. Your standard small-sample-size caveats apply, but the broad strokes do make some sense.
Barnes is a jack-of-all-trades who can score inside, rebound, facilitate, guard multiple positions and generate steals, deflections and blocked shots, and who flirted with league-average 3-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 capable of serving as a true No. 1, compromising the defense 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-star billing, but he’s a solid two-way player who turned in maybe the best basketball of his career after the trade, slicing 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 point-blank looks; the Raptors took 38.5% of their shots at the rim in Barnes/Barrett/Quickley/Poeltl minutes, equal to Orlando’s league-leading full-season share.
Quickley can pair with either in the two-man game, including as a screen-setter in inverted pick-and-rolls, while taking good care of the ball (a top-10 assist-to-turnover ratio among moderate-usage players following the trade) 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, finishing top-20 in screen assists per game and shooting 68% as a roll man, while also serving as the interior deterrent for a defense that got stops at a league-average clip with him on the back-line.
There’s just one problem with having a solid top four, though: You need five dudes to play and more than that to win.
A Raptors squad that has bid farewell to all of Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Nick Nurse, Fred VanVleet, Trent and Precious Achiuwa in the past 18 months — leaving Chris Boucher as the final on-court tether to the team that won the 2019 NBA championship — must still figure out what type of players fit best around the core four. That’s a recipe for head coach Darko Rajaković doing some experimenting … and, with the Raptors owning their own first-round pick in a 2025 NBA Draft that could feature multiple game-breakers, potentially a recipe for some player-development-focused pain.
The Raptors need to see if Gradey Dick can cement a starting spot by replicating the 39.5% 3-point shooting he put up over the final three months of his rookie season while also growing his game on both ends of the floor. They need a longer look at whether Ochai Agbaji can make enough jumpers (just 21.7% after coming over from Utah) to become an actual 3-and-D role player. They need to see if new arrivals like Mitchell, Walter and Shead can establish themselves as building blocks.
To the extent that the Raptors’ veterans can aid in creating the context in which Toronto’s brass can learn those things, they’ll be kept around. If the likes of Boucher, Bruce Brown Jr. or Kelly Olynyk draw trade interest, though, expect them to be jettisoned for better-fitting young talent or more draft capital.
“I would use the word ‘rebuilding.’ That’s the right word,” Ujiri told reporters on media day. “I think we have a clear path now going forward.”
And there’s the rub: Will this path lead to the Raptors resuming annual deep postseason runs? Or, a half-decade removed from the top of the mountain, is Toronto stuck on a road to nowhere?
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Best-case scenario
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 end behind what Rajaković insists will be more aggression at the point of attack, vaults the Raps from play-in fodder to top-six contention, meaningful springtime basketball and a reason to get excited about what’s coming 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 reserve play to fall out of the play-in picture and into the lottery, where the Raptors land another high-end prospect to develop alongside Barnes and — again — give the fans reason to get excited about what’s coming next.
If everything falls apart
BBQ flames out, with a full season together offering evidence that Barnes, Barrett and Quickley are all better-suited to life as complementary pieces than operating as top options. None of the youngsters pops in a way that projects to future stardom. Even so, the abject nature of the bottom of the East ensures that the Raps again finish in the play-in tournament, with a low-lottery pick that profiles more as tepid than transformational … and with the list of reasons to get excited growing shorter by the second.
Fantasy spin
The Raptors have some emerging talent on the horizon that will make some noise in fantasy. Starting with a stat stuffer in Barnes, he’s an easy pick in the second round if you’re looking for a player who can contribute to every category. He’s a very well-rounded fantasy player.
Then there’s Quickley. Since coming to the Raptors last season, Quickley averaged 19 points with five rebounds and seven assists per game. He only saw a 2% drop (22% to 20%) in usage while sharing the court with Barnes and Barrett, which is encouraging seeing how much the Raptors’ system is predicated on sharing the ball. A fifth-round draft pick might feel rich, but it’s worth buying into Quickley as he’s on the verge of a breakout campaign.
Barrett is the quintessential points-league player, although his efficiency has been night and day since playing for his hometown Raptors. It’s hard to tell if it was Barrett playing over expectations or if he figured out his game, but going from a 42% shooter to a 55% shooter says some regression is imminent. His recent shoulder injury won’t help, either. — Dan Titus
2024-25 schedule
With all due respect to Mitchell and the rookies, I’m not sure the Raptors added “five more wins” worth of talent this summer; with all due disrespect to the Pistons, Wizards and Nets, though, I’m not sure that’ll 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 to 30, at least.
