Alijah Martin is heading into his second Raptors season with a clear idea of what gets him on the floor: defense first.
After spending the 2025-26 season on a two-way contract and appearing in just 23 regular-season games, Martin has now earned a standard deal with Toronto. That alone changes the shape of his year, but it doesn’t change the math in front of him. If he wants real minutes, he’ll have to carve them out the hard way.
Martin did show one promising offensive card in the G League, where he hit 38.4% of his 3-pointers. If that kind of shooting translates to the NBA, it would give the Raptors another off-ball weapon on a roster that badly needs more perimeter scoring.
But in Darko Rajakovic’s world, making shots only gets you part of the way there. The coach wants everyone to survive on defense, at minimum.
Martin sounds ready for that test.
“I want to be really a high-level defender,” Martin said in an interview with Locked on Raptors. “That’s what I’ve been focusing on.
That’s where I feel like that I can help the team the most. We have a bunch of guys that are high-level defenders.
I need to get on their level.”
That attitude fits the moment, because playing time is not going to be handed out freely. The Raptors’ top eight rotation appears mostly set with Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Kawhi Leonard, Scottie Barnes, Jakob Poeltl, Collin Murray-Boyles, Ja’Kobe Walter, and Jamal Shead expected to soak up the bulk of the minutes.
Jamison Battle is also in the mix after two NBA seasons as a strong 3-point shooter and a summer that seems to have brought defensive progress. Kyle Anderson and rookie Allen Graves could also press for a role.
That leaves a crowded fight for whatever scraps remain, especially at the guard spots where several players overlap. Jaden Bradley, Toronto’s second-round pick in this year’s draft, is in the same lane as Martin. Bradley initially signed a two-way contract before the Raptors converted it to a standard deal, and the team’s financial crunch after the Kawhi Leonard trade meant he was the only player they could realistically promote that way.
The challenge gets even steeper when you factor in the expectations around Kawhi Leonard’s first season back in Toronto. For Martin, that means the bar is high and the margin is thin. Still, even if his minutes are limited, a full season of practices and game reps with the Raptors should give him a real chance to grow.
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