The Toronto Raptors are likely done making major moves this offseason, barring any trades.
The roster appears to be set as Toronto has one more open roster spot to fill, which will likely be filled around Summer League.
Therefore, it’s not too early to start looking ahead to the 2024-25 season.
The Eastern Conference is weak outside of the top eight, so that will leave the door open for the Raptors to be in play-in contention.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks appeared on TSN’s OverDrive and he talked about the Raptors expectations for this upcoming season:
“I think as is…you’re probably in that range (30-40 wins), I think there’s some interesting decisions certainly, you know Bruce Brown they picked up his option and a $23 million trade asset to move if they want. They’re kinda like hedging their bets a little bit, they’re trying to kinda do what Indiana [Pacers] did a few years ago where you don’t want to bottom out completely, you still want to be competitive but you want to have the flexibility to add a player.”
Marks also mentioned that this season is probably the year teams want to bottom out considering the amount of talent in the 2025 NBA Draft class:
“But I’ll saying this, and I know Raptors fans probably don’t want to hear it, probably this upcoming year is the year you want to bottom out. I mean we’re looking at a star-studded, on paper, draft class of 5-6 impact players that we haven’t seen in a long time.”
If the Raptors are healthy it’s hard to envision the team being bad enough to bottom out. Unless injuries happen like last season, it’s unlikely Toronto will intentionally sit out players like Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley. Therefore, Toronto will most likely be in the play-in race.
The 2025 NBA Draft is said to be deep so even if the Raptors end up with a late lottery pick, that player will still be a good one.
It’ll be interesting to see what approach the Raptors ultimately take for this season, but right now the team isn’t good enough to compete and not bad enough to bottom out.
Where things stand for the Raptors in free agency
The Toronto Raptors weren’t expected to have a busy free agency this summer.
Toronto’s roster appears to be set. They took care of their most important moves, locking up Scottie Barnes to a five-year contract extension that could be worth up to $270 million and Immanuel Quickley to a five-year, $175 million deal.
Toronto also elected to pick up Bruce Brown’s $23 million team option and recently brought back veteran Garett Temple to a one-year deal.
This has given the Raptors 15 players on guaranteed deals for next year.
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