The Toronto Raptors’ offseason has already rearranged the room. With most of the heavy lifting done and only the league’s investigation into Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers hanging over things, Toronto’s roster picture is starting to settle - and that means some people are walking into the season in much better shape than others.
At the top of the list is Darko Rajakovic, who just got a contract extension last month and now heads into his fourth season with a little more financial security. He also has something else working for him: momentum.
Rajakovic snapped the Raptors’ four-year playoff drought last season, and the offense looked as sharp as it had at any point under him. A big part of that came from the mix of personnel, but he still squeezed plenty out of the roster, including Collin Murray-Boyles and Sandro Mamukelashvili.
With expectations rising and a raise in hand, Toronto looks positioned to be in a better spot a year from now.
R.J. Barrett is in a very different place.
He has not landed a contract extension yet, even though he probably has earned one. Barrett became a hometown hero when he buried a game-winner in Game 6 against the Cleveland Cavaliers to keep the Raptors alive and force a Game 7, but Toronto dropped the finale and the series.
If the Raptors had pulled that off, maybe Barrett would already have a new deal. Instead, he’s still working with one year left on his contract, and that leaves him exposed.
One injury before an extension gets done could change everything, and there could still be negotiations between now and training camp for the Mississauga native to stay in Toronto longer.
Jakob Poeltl is another name with plenty riding on the coming season, but for different reasons. Toronto has had multiple chances to sort out his situation, and the answer hasn’t really come.
He was limited by a back injury to 46 games last season and averaged 10.7 points per game, his lowest mark since the 2020-21 season with the San Antonio Spurs. At age 31, he could be slipping, but the bigger issue is the contract: he’s owed $104 million over the next four seasons, all guaranteed.
The Raptors could have explored a trade, but that deal is difficult to move. They also could have brought in someone to push him for minutes, but that hasn’t really happened either.
Toronto needs Poeltl to deliver, and that pressure could end up defining the season.
Then there’s Brandon Ingram, who found a way to turn in one of the best years of his career after arriving from the New Orleans Pelicans. He made his first All-Star team in six years and established himself as one of the Eastern Conference’s top forwards.
Toronto rewarded that by including him in the trade to the Clippers for Kawhi Leonard, but the move still isn’t complete because of the league’s ongoing investigation into the Clippers. That leaves Ingram in an uncomfortable spot: he’s on a roster of a team that has made clear it does not want him, even after all he accomplished.
If the trade still hasn’t gone through by training camp next month, it would be awkward for him to show up in Toronto. The Raptors are expecting the deal to happen, but for now the investigation has left Ingram stuck in limbo, with the short end of the stick despite doing everything he could.
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DeMar DeRozan Reunion Hopes Just Hit A Serious Raptors Roadblock
DeMar DeRozans free-agent market keeps getting more crowded, and the latest buzz may matter to Raptors fans who have quietly kept one eye on a reunion. The six-time All-Star has been connected to several teams, with Washington and Miami in the mix, but Denver has also emerged as a serious suitor after its trade that sent Peyton Watson to Cleveland reshaped the Nuggets roster picture.
For Toronto, that adds another obstacle to any comeback narrative that already felt like a long shot. A return home has been floated as a possibility, but the latest interest from a contender out West only makes it harder to see how the Raptors could get back into the race unless the market changes in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]