With Kawhi Leonard officially in the fold, the Raptors’ roster picture looks a lot clearer - and that’s exactly why the RJ Barrett conversation needs to change.
For a lot of fans, the instinct is to treat Barrett as a piece Toronto should move in order to find a better starting shooting guard. But that’s the wrong lens.
The Raptors already have plenty of ball-handling and shot creation with Immanuel Quickley, Scottie Barnes, and Leonard, which makes Barrett’s role feel crowded. What they need around that core is an off-ball guard who can defend, create turnovers, and stay out of the way offensively.
After the year Ja’Kobe Walter just had, Toronto may already have that player on a team-friendly deal.
That’s why the real value in a Barrett trade isn’t about replacing him with a more talented scorer. It’s about using his near-$30 million salary to improve the rest of the roster.
The Raptors need more shooting, more size, and more balance. Barrett can be the mechanism that gets them there while Walter moves into the starting lineup.
And that matters because Toronto’s biggest flaws are pretty plain: floor spacing and a lack of size down low. If the Raptors can turn Barrett into a floor-spacing wing and a solid center, that would fit the roster far better than chasing another high-end name. The idea is to strengthen the supporting cast, not to launch into a Desmond Bane-sized swing for a direct Barrett upgrade.
One example floated was a deal with the Pistons in which Detroit gets Barrett and Toronto gets Paul Reed and Duncan Robinson. It’s not a perfect match, especially since Detroit is thin at center, but it shows the type of return Toronto should be hunting. In that kind of deal, the Raptors would add a shooter who can hit from 40 or near 40 percent from three and a big who can help ease the burden on Collin Murray-Boyles in a win-by-committee center setup alongside Jakob Poeltl.
Walter’s 40.9 percent three-point shooting last season is part of why this makes sense. If Toronto can clear the lane for him, he can step in as a starter while the roster around him gets better in the areas it actually needs help.
Barrett’s market should still be strong. He’s coming off a playoff run where he was Toronto’s No. 2 option and averaged 24.1 points while shooting 38.6 percent from three.
And with the way the NBA Draft lottery is set up, middle-of-the-pack teams have more incentive than ever to chase established players instead of waiting on picks. That could put teams like the Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings, Brooklyn Nets, and Chicago Bulls in the mix.
The key point is simple: trading Jakob Poeltl or Immanuel Quickley would be about upgrading a starting spot. Trading Barrett should be about reshaping the roster. For Toronto, that means turning one big salary into multiple pieces that fill holes, rather than using him as the centerpiece of a search for another star.
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Konchar gives New York a one-year commitment, while Eubanks is joining on a camp deal, and both would have fit obvious needs for Toronto. Konchar had been on the Raptors radar, and Eubanks had been viewed as a possible third-string center, the kind of low-drama insurance a team can use over the long season. Instead, theyll be fighting for places with the defending NBA champions, leaving Toronto to keep searching for similarly practical fits. [Read more 🡒]
Kawhi Leonard's Return Puts One Huge Raptors Question Front And Center
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The bigger question now is not whether Leonard can matter, but how fully he is willing to buy into what the Raptors have already established. His choice points toward a legacy-driven decision, and it also suggests Toronto can sell more than just basketball minutes when it comes to keeping a player of his stature engaged. What remains to be seen is how that commitment will look once the on-court grind starts and the expectations around him begin to settle in. [Read more 🡒]
Former Raptors Wing Ochai Agbaji Just Got Another NBA Chance
Ochai Agbaji is getting another shot to stick in the NBA after landing with the New York Knicks on an Exhibit 9 contract. For Raptors fans, he is still a familiar name from the wing depth Toronto once had in hand before he was traded to the Brooklyn Nets, and now he is heading into a situation where every practice rep matters.
The move gives Agbaji a chance to join training camp and fight for a roster spot, but he is hardly alone in that chase. New York is filling out its camp group with several Exhibit 9 signings while carrying just two open roster spots, so the competition around him is already crowded and the margin for error is thin. [Read more 🡒]