Last week, we went back to 2013 to look at the Rudy Gay trade that set the Raptors up for the long haul and helped the Knicks secure their first championship in over 53 years. This week, we’ll go back a little further to look at a series of trades that saw Jonas Valančiūnas being traded twice before ever stepping foot on an NBA court.

This story begins on February 13 2009 when the Toronto Raptors finalized a deal to send Jamario Moon, Jermaine O’Neal, a 2011 first round pick and a 2010 second round pick to the Miami Heat for Marcus Banks and Shawn Marion.

Let’s break down this trade.

T

The Heat Side: Jamario Moon

Moon had a fascinating basketball career, prior to joining the NBA as a 27-year-old rookie, he bounced around a lot. And I mean a lot. After leaving college in 2000, Moon played for 10 different teams across seven different leagues and even had a brief stint with the Harlem Globetrotters. In 2007, the Raptors signed him to a two year contract after they threw together a three day mini-camp searching for players to fill out the roster and Moon thoroughly impressed the Raptors scouting department. Moon was solid in his season-and-a-half in Toronto, finishing 5th in Rookie of the Year voting. After he was shipped to the Heat, he played out the rest of that season and then signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers. After a season-and-a-half in Cleveland, Moon was once again traded, this time to the Los Angeles Clippers alongside Mo Williams for Baron Davis and a 2011 first round draft pick that miraculously jumped to 1st overall and was used to select Kyrie Irving (it was a slim chance for the jump to 1st, but man this looks so bad for the Clippers). That was pretty much the end of Moon’s NBA journey, he played just 19 games in Los Angeles, and spent some time with their D-League team before getting picked up by the Charlotte Hornets at the end of the 2012 season. For the next little while Moon bounced around a few more clubs, finishing his professional basketball career having played for 19 different teams. 

The Heat Side: Jermaine O’Neal

O’Neal was already near the end of his career when he came to Toronto, he had played the past 12 and a half seasons in Portland and Indiana and was 30 years old when he came to the Raptors. In Miami, O’Neal played out the rest of the year and one more before signing with the Boston Celtics in the 2010 offseason. He played in Boston for a couple of years before being waived. O’Neal finished his career with one season stints with the Phoenix Suns and the Golden State Warriors. 

As for the two picks that Toronto traded, the 2nd rounder became Da’Sean Butler who never really had an NBA career, and we’ll get to the first round pick shortly.

The Raptors side: Marcus Banks

Banks played just 31 games for Toronto over 3 seasons, and on November 20, 2010 was packaged alongside David Andersen and Jarrett Jack in a trade to the New Orleans Pelicans for Jerryd Bayless and Peja Stojaković .

Bayless played 91 games in Toronto over two seasons before signing with the Memphis Grizzlies on July 13, 2012. Stojaković played just two games in Toronto and was waived on January 20, 2011 (the Raptors really loved to trade for big names towards the end of their careers). He then signed with the Dallas Mavericks for the remainder of the season and played a role in their 2011 championship run.

The Raptors side: Shawn Marion

Marion only stayed with Toronto for the rest of the 2009 season, and on July 9, 2009 the Raptors traded him to the Mavericks as part of a 4-team trade involving the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic. I won’t go through every single piece of that trade, but essentially the Raptors traded Marion, Kris Humphries, Nathan Jawai, and a 2016 second round pick (that became Wang Zhelin) and in turn received Devean George, Antoine Wright, and Hedo Türkoğlu. Marion was also a member of the Mavericks championship run.

The Marion Branch: Devean George and Antoine Wright

George was only a member of the Raptors for 20 days, on July 29, 2009 he was traded to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Marco Belinelli. Belinelli was then a member of the Raptors for one season before being traded to the New Orleans Hornets for Julian Wright. The Raptors was Wright’s last stop in the NBA, he went on to play for various teams overseas.

Antoine Wright played one season in Toronto, and in the 2010 offseason signed with the Sacramento Kings who waived him in November of 2010.

The Marion Branch: Hedo Türkoğlu

Since for some reason no one stayed with the Raptors for long back in the early 2010s,Türkoğlu also spent just one season in Toronto, and on July 14, 2010 he was traded to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Leandro Barbosa and Dwayne Jones.

Barbosa actually stayed in Toronto for a season-and-a-half before he was traded to the Indiana Pacers for cash and a 2012 2nd round pick that became Tomislav Zubčić who never actually played for the Raptors but was traded in 2015 to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Luke Ridnour and cash, the Raptors waived Ridnour just 10 days later.

Jones was waived a month after being traded to the Raptors.

The second trade

Now at this point you’ve probably forgotten that we’re supposed to be talking about Valančiūnas … I did too. These trade trees are an endless rabbit hole on Basketball Reference, and truthfully it’s impossible to get from point A to point B without getting sucked in to the depths of NBA history. I’m dragging you all with me now, so buckle up because we’re now getting to the second piece of the Valančiūnas pick saga, his return north of the border.

In the summer of 2010, LeBron James made ‘the decision’ to leave his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat, while that had it’s own far-reaching impact on the league, the more relevant element in our story is that the Raptors’ franchise star, Chris Bosh was also heading to Miami to play alongside Dwyane Wade and James.

Since the Heat didn’t have the cap space to sign Bosh outright, the Raptors facilitated a sign-and-trade in which they received their own 2011 first round pick back, the Heat’s 2011 first round pick and a trade exception.

The Raptors traded the Heat’s first round pick to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for James Johnson, who spent two years in Toronto before the Raptors traded him to the Kings for a second round pick that became DeAndre Daniels (Johnson would later return to Toronto in 2014). Oh, and by the way that 2011 Heat pick became Norris Cole who was traded on draft night in 2011 to the Heat, so yet another full circle moment in this winding trade tree.

The Raptors own 2011 draft pick, which was traded to the Heat and then traded back to Toronto for Bosh, became the 5th overall pick that year and was used to select Jonas Valančiūnas. In a strange move that you would never see in the present day NBA, the Raptors left Valančiūnas in Lithuania to allow him to develop for another season before bringing him to the NBA. In 2012, he finally made his NBA debut, and went on to play 7 seasons in Toronto before the 2019 trade deadline saw him shipped to the Grizzlies alongside C.J. Miles and Delon Wright in exchange for Marc Gasol. We know how that story ends, Gasol was the final piece of the Raptors’ championship puzzle, and I truly believe that. They don’t win the series against the 76ers without Gasol.

All in all, essentially nothing from that original trade in 2009 stayed in Toronto for very long, the Raptors swapped various aging players in and out of their lineup over the years. The only piece that really ended up mattering, was the original pick that they traded away and only got back because Bosh wanted to leave. That 2011 pick came back to Toronto and gave them seven seasons of one of the franchise’s best centers and eventually became the missing piece of the franchise’s only championship. 

The post The Jonas Valančiūnas Trade Tree: How a 2009 trade came full circle first appeared on Raptors Republic.

When Boucher left Toronto for the Boston Celtics last offseason, it marked the end of an era for the Raptors. He was the last remaining member of the team’s 2019 championship roster and one of the longest-tenured players in the organization.

It stung to see a fan favourite leave for a rival but as we all know, his time in Boston, didn’t last very long. Boucher appeared in just nine games for the Celtics before falling out of Joe Mazzulla’s rotation. 

It also didn’t help that Boston later acquired Nikola Vucevic from the Chicago Bulls at the trade deadline and converted rookie big man Amari Williams from a two-way contract to a standard deal, leaving even fewer opportunities for Boucher to crack the lineup. The Celtics eventually moved him to the Utah Jazz, who later waived him.

When Boucher became available, the idea of a reunion with the Raptors was immediately floated around. On paper, it made sense to bring back the Canadian. Toronto needed frontcourt depth and Boucher was already familiar with the organization. The timing of things, however, made things complicated to actually pull off.

Due to Boucher’s veteran minimum salary as a player with eight years of NBA experience, the Raptors would have had difficulty signing him while remaining below the luxury tax. Toronto likely would have needed to wait several weeks before a deal became financially feasible.

Even then, bringing in a veteran a couple of months into the playoffs wouldn’t have made much sense. The Raptors had already established their rotation and team chemistry, making a late-season addition difficult to integrate.

This offseason is a different story. Boucher remains unsigned and his value has likely never been lower. That could allow the Raptors to bring him back on a team-friendly deal with very little risk attached.

Despite being 33 years old, the last time he laced up for Toronto, he averaged 10.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game while leading the Raptors’ bench in scoring. He also knocked down 36.3 percent of his three-point attempts on nearly four shots per game and finished at an efficient 63.3 percent from inside the arc. Those are shooting numbers Toronto could definitely still use.

The Raptors struggled from deep for much of last season, finishing 26th in the NBA in three-pointers made and 21st in three-point percentage at 35.4 percent. Outside of Ja’Kobe Walter, who had a strong season shooting the ball, consistent perimeter shooting was often hard to find.

It’s important to note that Boucher isn’t going to solve all of Toronto’s shooting problems, but he would give the second unit another floor spacer while also providing energy, rebounding and defensive versatility. There’s also value in what he brings off the court.

The Raptors have one of the younger rosters in the league, and Boucher has seen just about everything during his NBA career. He knows the organization, understands what it takes to win and has already built relationships with many people within the franchise.

Boucher has also left a lasting mark during his time in the Six. He was named both the 2019 G League MVP and Defensive Player of the Year with Raptors 905, won an NBA championship in 2019 and ranks among the franchise leaders in categories such as blocks, offensive rebounds and games played.

A reunion may not be the Raptors’ biggest priority this offseason, but it’s an idea that makes more sense now than it did when Boucher first hit the open market. For a team looking for affordable depth, shooting and veteran leadership, bringing back a familiar face could be worth exploring.

The post Why the Raptors should bring back Chris Boucher first appeared on Raptors Republic.

Collin Murray-Boyles gets love in 2025 NBA re-draft

Bleacher Report‘s Grant Hughes recently revisited the 2025 NBA Draft and put together a 2025 re-draft based on what players have shown so far. One of the biggest risers was Raptors rookie Collin Murray-Boyles.

After being selected ninth overall by Toronto, Murray-Boyles moved up to sixth in Hughes’ re-draft. That spot originally belonged to Tre Johnson, who was taken by the Washington Wizards.

“Murray-Boyles moves up three spots here because original selection Tre Johnson mostly looked like an empty-calorie bench scorer (which was pretty much the low end of his projections), and CMB flashed the potential to become a game-changing multi-position defender on a playoff team,” Hughes wrote.

Four Raptors Crack The Ringer’s Top 100

The Raptors had four players make The Ringer’s latest Top 100 NBA players list, another sign of the talent Toronto has assembled heading into next season.

Here is the list and their rankings:

• Scottie Barnes (No. 17)
• Brandon Ingram (No. 67)
• RJ Barrett (No. 79)
• Collin Murray-Boyles (No. 93)

What the latest mock drafts are saying

ESPN’s latest mock draft from Jeremy Woo has the Raptors selecting Chris Cenac Jr.

Woo noted that “Cenac appears to have stabilized himself in the 14-to-22 range, where he is under consideration for every team looking for frontcourt help. Cenac is still developing his identity as a player and it will take time for him to become a contributor.”

In 37 games, Cenac averaged 9.5 points and 7.9 rebounds while shooting 48.5 percent from the field. You can read our lengthy draft profile on him here.

Domantas Sabonis trade rumours return

Domantas Sabonis’ name is once again being linked to the Raptors. Jake Fischer of The Stein Line recently reported that the Sacramento Kings have interest in Toronto’s No. 19 pick. 

Fischer mentioned that “the Kings also have interest in Toronto’s No. 19 selection, but it is unclear whether the Raptors, who showed trade interest in Sabonis before the league’s in-season trade deadline in February, will do so again.”

Sabonis appeared in just 19 games during the 2025-26 season before undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus. Prior to the injury, he averaged 15.8 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists.

He is set to earn $45.4 million next season and $48.6 million in 2027-28, making any potential move a significant one for Toronto.

The post Raptors Weekly Wrap-Up: Murray-Boyles praised, more first appeared on Raptors Republic.

Then, when it came time to test the true core of Quickley’s game in the unforgiving elements of the NBA playoffs, injury struck. This could have been the best learning opportunity of all for Quickley and the Raptors regarding his viability on a true contender. But it was lost to a strained right hamstring.  

It would have been particularly interesting to see how Quickley’s improved resilience playing off two feet in the middle of the floor would have translated to the hyper-physical realm of playoff basketball.  

I won’t go any further on his meaningful improvement from 2-point range and how that came to be, as Joe Wolfond already covered it in depth in a piece where he spoke to both Quickley and his skills trainer, David Lam.  

But the other area of Quickley’s offence that has left plenty to be desired since he joined the Raptors and his role shifted, was his ability to create opportunities for teammates off the dribble. It is one of a point guard’s primary duties, after all.  

His struggles getting downhill and tendency to kill advantages by picking up his dribble early have been well documented on Raptors Republic. Maybe the best example of this was a piece by Louis Zatzman from this time last year that revealed Quickley had only five halfcourt assists from the paint that led to rim attempts for teammates in 2024-25. Instead, much of his consecutive career-high assist numbers over the last two seasons have come as a result of Darko Rajaković’s pass-heavy system (the Raptors have been top three in assist percentage for the last two seasons). Quickley has often found players coming off of screens or initiated with a simple pass, with the scorer doing much of the work.  

This season, I noticed quite a few more instances where Quickley touched the paint and dropped a dime inside. Certainly more than the five he had the previous season. So I decided to track them and see how many.  

He had 22 half-court assists for layups or dunks from inside the lane. Many of which were him beating his defender, getting the low man to step up, and gift-wrapping a bucket. It’s worth accounting for Quickley playing only 33 games the previous season, but he still averaged 0.31 halfcourt paint-to-rim assists this past season, up from 0.15 the previous season. This might seem like a negligible stride, but that’s a 100 percent increase. Like going from five assists per game to 10. 

A stat like rim assists provided by websites like databallr gets partway here. But the added contest is that many of Quickley’s “rim assists” came on plays where he passed to players in the mid-range, or even behind the 3-point line, and it was their elbow grease, not Quickley’s, that got them the rest of the way. Those 22 were the ones where he did the actual legwork to generate the advantage.  

These “home run” plays could still come more frequently, considering the amount of opportunity he had. (His 3.2 pick n’ roll ball-handler possessions per game was second on the Raptors after Brandon Ingram.) Yet it was a crucial improvement and provides promise for Quickley’s continued development as a playmaker.  

And strictly as a scorer, he managed to net a point per possession out of the pick n’ roll, the best mark on the team, and 85th percentile league wide. This was due in large part to his greater resilience playing off two feet in the paint, with a dash of pull-up 3s mixed in.  

Long-range pull-up shooting is probably Quickley’s greatest contribution to the Raptors. They are almost completely bereft of it — Toronto was last in pull-up 3s and attempts — and would be entirely without Quickley. His two pull-up 3s per game accounted for over 40 percent of their attempts in the regular season, and their league-low 4.9 attempts dipped to 3.9 in the playoffs. Toronto didn’t even make one until Game 3 against the Cleveland Cavaliers; it had only eight all series. 

All told, his overall shooting talent is far too valuable on a Raptors team that needs more shooting, not less, for him to be considered expendable.

Quickley dropped the most efficient 40-ball in NBA history against the Golden State Warriors in January (7-of-8 from deep, 112 percent true shooting!). Earlier that month he sank the Charlotte Hornets with a game-winning buzzer-beating triple.

He provided plenty of moving moments for the Raptors this past season, both big and small. Whether Quickley continues as Toronto’s lead guard, or his role shifts into something better suited to his skill set, he should have multiple avenues to continue doing so in the future. 

The post Raptors’ Immanuel Quickley took meaningful strides in a strange 2025-26 first appeared on Raptors Republic.

I never wanted to trade OG Anunoby. I believed that he fit perfectly within Scottie’s timeline and he would’ve easily been worth his next contract. I felt that as soon as the Raptors traded him, they would’ve immediately started looking for another player exactly like him. Lo and behold; he’s cemented himself in basketball history with the Knicks, and the Raptors find themselves scrambling to replace his consistent production on both ends of the floor.

Allen Graves is definitely no OG Anunoby, but at where the Raptors are picking in the draft, he could easily help solve some of the weaknesses the team has had since OG’s departure.

Allen Graves

Height: 6’9 | Wingspan: 7’0 | Weight: 226 | Age on Draft Day: 19
College: Santa Clara | NBA Position: PF/SF | Role: 3&D Forward

The Good (3&D, Connective Support)

Allen Graves is the analytical darling of the 2026 draft class. He’s a bit of an interesting story. Despite playing off the bench for mid-major Santa Clara, he became a consensus first-round pick thanks to his all-around game that checked a lot of advanced statistical boxes.

I’d like to get ahead of the “well he came off the bench so how good can he be?” narrative as well. Despite only starting 4 games for Santa Clara this past season (in part due to the surplus of forwards and wings on the team), Graves was 4th on the team in minutes per game.

Build-wise, Graves is already NBA ready. He’s strong, but there’s still room for him to get stronger to the point where he’ll just be a brick wall.

Graves is an efficient play finisher, having made more than 41% of his threes this season. He has no hesitation firing off pick-and-pops or as a trailer in transition. Though low on volume, he flashes signs of a 50/40/90 type of offensive output at his absolute potential peak.

Graves has excellent hands and a ridiculous motor. His steal and block numbers are striking for a player without elite athleticism and speak to his feel and anticipation. Between Graves’ block, steal and defensive rebounding percentages, he had a defensive usage rate of 30%. The steal (4.9% – 100th percentile!!!) and block (5% – 86th percentile) rates show just how impactful Graves was on the defensive end of the floor. Graves is an elite offensive rebounder, and tends to fight his way into good positioning to grab boards. He fights for loose balls and manages to get in the way of passing lanes constantly, getting his hands in position to poke for steals while also rarely fouling.

Graves projects as one of the better connective passers in the class. Capable of finding cutting players with simple passes from either hand. He doesn’t get flashy or creative with his passes, but he makes the right read more often than not and was Santa Clara’s best passer overall. He won’t be running an offence, but he keeps the ball moving and keeps his teammates engaged without turning the ball over.

Last but not least, he plays with a maturity to his game that is increasingly rare for other players his age.

The Bad (Speed, Competition Level)

Graves plays at his own pace. This can be a good thing, but he’s definitely one of the slowest and unathletic players in the class. He tested rather poorly at the combine, and despite his size only put up 12 dunks on the season. Faster players will likely be able to pick him apart in the NBA until he adjusts to pro-level game speed. His defensive instincts and positioning IQ can take him far enough to be serviceable, but for a player with his analytical output, that would be a disappointing outcome.

Footspeed aside, Graves’ shot is also rather slow and this will need to be a pretty immediate area of improvement for him if he wants to be an impactful shooter in the NBA, or else he’ll be pretty easy for opposing defenders to close out on. The shooting is encouraging, but the volume also has to increase if he’s to play his role effectively.

His production at the rim is encouraging, though his efficiency is definitely an area he’ll have to improve in the NBA. The touch is there, he just needs more reps.

Graves is not a shot creator or ball handler. Difficult to project him into anything other than a supporting offensive role.

The competition level is concerning. Graves has a small sample of good performances against decent college competition, but playing in a mid-major is enough to turn off some front offices. Without a tested resume, Graves is coming into the league relatively unproven.

The Fit

The college profiles of Collin Murray-Boyles, Ja’Kobe Walter, Gradey Dick, and Scottie Barnes suggest the Raptors scouts are shifting towards more analytics-friendly prospects in recent years, and Graves would continue that trend.

On the defensive end, Graves can immediately slot in as yet another productive defensive forward for the Raptors. I really feel like his cohesion with CMB would work well, with CMB being tasked with guarding faster players and with Graves lurking on the backline ready to pick off a passing lane or help defend the rim.

On the offensive end, Graves will help provide some much needed spacing and playmaking in the front court. The Raptors badly need more shooting depth, and Graves would provide more room for players like Scottie and Ingram to operate, while also serving as a ball-mover in Darko’s system.

Also like… man the Raptors just really badly need more 3&D players.

Conclusion

The pitch on Graves is simple: a young blueprint for an ideal 3&D player who already checks off some very encouraging analytical boxes. Is there a star here? Unlikely, but Graves does all the little things well and could easily provide instant value for a team looking to start contending in the near future. He will need to prove that his game can keep up against stronger competition, which is why he’ll be a mid-to-late first rounder instead of a lottery pick, but that’s one of the less-risky gambles to take at this point in the draft.

Consensus NBA Draft Range: 17-28

Brendan’s Ranking: 21st

Floor Projection: Provides 3&D value in a rotation role, but struggles to adjust to NBA competition and game doesn’t evolve much from where it currently is.

Ceiling Projection: Starter, high-level contributor for any serious contending team due to his valuable, intangible skillset. Increased strength and improved IQ results in one of the league’s best defenders.

The post 2026 NBA Draft: Allen Graves is the 3&D blueprint first appeared on Raptors Republic.

Honorable Mentions

Ja’Kobe Walter 2024

We start the list with a current Toronto Raptors player, as Ja’Kobe Walter is looking like a solid pick so far in his two-year NBA career. He finished the regular season strong and had a great playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and his three-point shot really improved this season.

Brandin Podziemski 2023

Podziemski has only completed three seasons in the league so far, but he’s shown some flashes of doing a bit of everything for the Golden State Warriors. Averaging 11.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists and even a steal per game so far. He was also a part of the 2023-24 All-Rookie first team.

Kevin Huerter 2018

An eight-year career so far with four teams, Huerter is one of the better three-point shooters in today’s NBA. He got started in Atlanta, earning second-team All-Rookie honours in 2018-19. Following his rookie season, he put up five straight seasons of 10.2+points per game.

Gary Harris 2013

Harris played for three teams over a 12-year career, as he’s had the biggest peak individually compared to the rest of the list so far, with five seasons of averaging more than 10.4 points per game with his first team, the Denver Nuggets. He had one more season with 11.1 points per game with his second team, the Orlando Magic. After that, there was a decline in scoring, which was one of his strong suits.

Dorell Wright 2004

The big brother of former Raptor Delon Wright, Dorell Wright, had an 11-year NBA career with 4 NBA teams. His most successful stint came with the Golden State Warriors, as he averaged back-to-back seasons of more than 10.3 points per game in just two seasons with them. He averaged 8.4 points per game for his career and is a one-time NBA champion with the Miami Heat in 2006.

John Paxson 1983

Paxson also had an 11-year NBA career, like Dorell Wright, with two seasons of 10+ points per game, but he only played for two teams. A three-point specialist who is mostly known for his time with the 90’s Chicago Bulls, Paxson was a part of the first three-peat. His biggest moment came in the 1993 finals when he knocked down the title-clinching shot in Phoenix.

The Hits

Saddiq Bey 2020

A five-year career with three teams, Bey was off to a fantastic start with the Detroit Pistons, making the Rookie first team in 2020-21, but after two and a half seasons with Detroit, he was off to Atlanta. His numbers dipped in Atlanta, but he’s never averaged fewer than 13.7 points per season, and after a season and a half with the Hawks, Bey missed the entire 2024-25 season with an injury before returning this season. He had his best season yet with the struggling Pelicans, averaging 17.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game across 72 appearances.

John Collins 2017

Collins has played in nine seasons so far for three teams and hasn’t had a season below 10.5 points per game, which came in his rookie season, where he played a career low amount of minutes. Still, it was enough for him to make the second All-Rookie team, which remains his sole accomplishment so far.

Malik Beasley 2016

Beasley played in nine seasons for six teams and, most recently, was a member of the Detroit Pistons in the 2024-25 season. He was blackballed last season due to gambling concerns and was just shy of the Sixth Man of the Year award as the runner-up prior to being investigated for gambling.

Tobias Harris 2011

A 15-year veteran who’s played for five organizations, Harris has had just one season of a non-double-digit scoring average in his rookie season with the Milwaukee Bucks, where he played just 11.4 minutes per game. He followed that up with an 11 points per game season for Orlando and Milwaukee as a sophomore and hasn’t looked back ever since.

Avery Bradley 2010

Another 12-year career, this time with 7 teams, Bradley also peaked early, like Gary Harris with his first team, the Boston Celtics, making two All-Defensive teams, one second and one first. He also had a span of five straight years averaging more than 13.9 points per game. He last played for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2021-22 season, when he was 31 years old.

Jeff Teague 2009

Teague joins the list as a part of one of the few NBA champions, as he got his fairytale ride off on the final season of his career with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2020-21. Prior to that, he had an All-Star appearance with the Atlanta Hawks in 2014-15 and averaged 12.2 points, 5.6 assists and 1.1 steals per game across his 12-year career.

Zach Randolph 2001

Randolph is one of the best 19th picks of all time, as he enjoyed a 17-year career with 5 teams that culminated in Sacramento during 2017-18. An old-school back-to-the-basket power forward, Randolph was a part of the infamous “Jailblazers” until 2006-27. He’s won the 2003-04 Most Improved Player of the Year award and is a two-time All-Star, along with an All-NBA third team appearance in 2010-11 with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Jamaal Magloire 2000

The Toronto native had a 12-year career with 8 teams and culminated his playing time with the Raptors in 2011-12. A one-time All-Star with the New Orleans Hornets in 2003-04, the big man averaged 7.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game across his career.

Rod Strickland 1988

Strickland had a 17-season career with 9 teams as the point guard has some impressive accolades, including being the 1997-98 assist champion, which earned him a berth to the All-Second NBA team. Also a part of the 1988-89 second rookie team, he played 15 games with the Raptors during the 2003-04 season prior to his last season in the NBA in 2004-05.

Nate Archibald 1970

Archibald is the most accomplished 19th pick of all time as the Hall of Famer is a six-time All-Star, 1972-73 scoring and assist champion, an NBA champion with the 1980-81 Boston Celtics, as well as the All-Star game MVP in the same year, plus he has five all-NBA appearances, three first teams and two second teams. He’s pretty much done it all across his 13-year career with four teams and is also a part of the NBA 75th anniversary team.

Bob Rule 1967

A one-time All-Star and a part of the 1967-68 All-Rookie team. He had a short eight-year career with four teams and averaged 17.4 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. After five straight years of averaging more than 15.1 points per game, he had a steep decline in the final three seasons of his career, averaging just 3.3 points per game.

Jerry Sloan 1964

Another Hall of Famer, Jerry Sloan, had a solid season with two All-Star appearances and six All-Defensive team appearances (four first teams and two second teams)across an 11-year career. After a disappointing rookie season for the Baltimore Bullets, he spent ten seasons with the Chicago Bulls and averaged 14 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game in his career.

The post Who are the best players ever selected at 19th overall? first appeared on Raptors Republic.

VOTE MARINA MABREY AND BRITTNEY SYKES TO BE ALL-STARS: https://www.wnba.com/allstar/vote

The post Marina Mabrey Goes ALL-STAR Mode In GUTSY Tempo comeback vs. Sun | Full Game Recap + Analysis first appeared on Raptors Republic.

With a career-high 37 points, Marina Mabrey led the Tempo to a fierce fourth quarter 101-97 comeback win against the Sun.

With Kiki Rice, Brittney Sykes, and Nyara Sabally all sidelined with injury, Mabrey immediately took to her role as offensive spark plug. Half way through the first quarter she had already tallied eight points and set a gritty tempo for the rest of her teammates to follow.

The Tempo’s top scorer found life again in the fourth quarter. She had five threes and 21 points in the in the final frame alone. Her nine threes made also marks a career-high for the star. Mabrey finished the game with a career-high 37 points.

The Sun went on a 12-0 run in the second quarter that buried the Tempo. But it’s not as if Toronto didn’t have chances in that time, Connecticut’s success was helped by a Tempo group that struggled in the paint. There were four consecutive trips where Toronto put up layups and missed the easy shot.

Laura Juskaite maintained her spot in the starting lineup, but because Sykes is out, she moved to play as the 3-man. It is the first real experience Juskaite has as a guard since joining this team, despite it being the position she had been most comfortable in while playing overseas.

While the Sun depended on paint points to propel them, the Tempo lost the game in the paint. In the first half, the Sun had 28 points up-close to the Tempo’s 10. Brittney Griner was responsible for this push. She ended the game with 16 points and 9 rebounds.

Toronto also didn’t have the benefit of bench help. With the number of injuries Toronto has suffered, it has had to use the usual bench contributors to fill out its starting line, and as a result didn’t get as much help from secondary players. On the other end, Connecticut leaned heavily on its bench. In the first half the Sun had 24 bench points to the Tempo’s nine.

In the second half, Toronto came out strong with an 8-0 run and started to make a dent in the Sun’s double digit lead. The Tempo won the third quarter 27-22 but still finished the frame down by 10. It was in the fourth quarter that they turned the game with a shutdown 10 minutes from Mabrey and solid contributes from Temi Fagbenle and other across the floor.

With the loss, the Sun continue on a seven-game slide. The Tempo returned to .500 and are now 8-8. Next, the Tempo will face the Atlanta Dream on Monday.

Toronto Tempo

101 – 97

Connecticut Sun

A-	Isabelle Harrison 30 MIN, 15 PTS, 6 REB, 5 AST, 0 STL, 5-14 FG, 2-3 3FG, 3-3 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, 2 +/- Her size and ruthless presence in the paint was critical against a tall Sun lineup and her shooting from range was an added and necessary bonus.
B	Laura Juskaite 29 MIN, 4 PTS, 7 REB, 4 AST, 3 STL, 2-7 FG, 0-1 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 4 TO, 7 +/- A coast-to-coast play for an easy bucket started the second half strong for Juskaite. Her determination and growing confidence on offence has been an asset.
A-	Temi Fagbenle 32 MIN, 19 PTS, 9 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, 8-9 FG, 2-2 3FG, 1-2 FT, 1 BLK, 0 TO, 8 +/- Fagbenle was a strong defence rebounder for the Tempo who found her offensive spark in the second half.
A+	Marina Mabrey 33 MIN, 37 PTS, 4 REB, 4 AST, 0 STL, 14-24 FG, 9-12 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 6 TO, 21 +/- Immediately hot from the three, Mabrey knew the contributions she had to make and got to it early. She hit multiple personal milestones on Friday, and you could tell the fun she was having on her former court.
A	Julie Allemand 34 MIN, 4 PTS, 0 REB, 9 AST, 1 STL, 2-5 FG, 0-3 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 4 TO, 12 +/- Allemand was feisty on defence as she picked up her player early and piled on the pressure. On offence, her steady control of the ball earned her a team-high nine assists.
A-	Maria Conde 28 MIN, 19 PTS, 6 REB, 3 AST, 0 STL, 5-12 FG, 5-8 3FG, 4-4 FT, 1 BLK, 0 TO, 0 +/- Conde knocked down shots when it mattered. She did a good job of creating separation and getting solid looks.
C+	Teonni Key 3 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0-0 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -10 +/- Key needed to bring more on Friday night. She played only a few minutes and made little impact.
C+	Kia Nurse 5 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0-3 FG, 0-3 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -15 +/- Nurse missed her three-point attempts and didn’t make much impact with her few minutes.
Inc	Tima Pouye 6 MIN, 3 PTS, 1 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 1-2 FG, 1-2 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -5 +/- Pouye brought hustle from the moment she checked into the game. Her minutes were minimal, yet she jumped into action on both ends of the floor.
Inc	Sandy Brondello It was a slow start for the group, but Brondello made some good adjustments at halftime to get the team off to a better start in the third quarter. Her fourth quarter timeout was perfectly called to kickstart Mabrey’s rampage.

Things we saw

1. The impact of losing Brittney Sykes was painfully obvious despite the comeback.
2. The Tempo and Sun have proven a great match for each other so far this season. Tight games and even when either squad would go on a run, the other would find a way back.

The post Quick Reaction: Tempo 101, Sun 97 first appeared on Raptors Republic.

After being selected ninth overall by Toronto in the 2025 NBA Draft, Murray-Boyles moved up to sixth in Hughes’ re-draft. The spot originally belonged to Tre Johnson, who was taken by the Washington Wizards.

“Murray-Boyles moves up three spots here because original selection Tre Johnson mostly looked like an empty-calorie bench scorer (which was pretty much the low end of his projections), and CMB flashed the potential to become a game-changing multi-position defender on a playoff team,” Hughes wrote.

Murray-Boyles’ rookie season was interrupted by a thumb injury that forced him to miss 25 games, but when he was on the floor he showed why the Raptors were so high on him. He averaged 8.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 21.9 minutes per game during the regular season.

What’s even more impressive is that his play took another step forward in the playoffs. With a bigger role, CMB averaged 14.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.1 blocks and 1.3 steals in 27.1 minutes per game. He finished third on the team in playoff scoring and second in blocls per game. By the end of the year, Murray-Boyles had earned a spot on the NBA All-Rookie Second Team.

It’s obviously early and plenty can change over the next few years, but moving from ninth to sixth in a re-draft after just one season says a lot. The Raptors believed they were getting one of the steals of the draft when they selected Murray-Boyles, and so far that belief looks justified.

The post Raptors get vindication in Bleacher Report’s 2025 NBA re-draft first appeared on Raptors Republic.

Samson Folk is joined by J Kyle Mann of The Ringer to breakdown the NBA Draft.

From Brendan’s piece:

“The Fit (Please?)

Imagine: the Raptors finally find a true successor for Kyle Lowry. Sure, Labaron isn’t as defensively inclined, but he would easily be the most talented offensive point guard the team has ever seen.

Being able to generate rim pressure and space the floor while also operating as the team’s floor general, Labaron would help take the reigns on the offensive end; providing a true scoring option beside Scottie Barnes. Labaron has flashed far more true point guard skills than Immanuel Quickley much earlier in his career, so his presence establishes a clear succession plan at point guard.

Defensively, Labaron has a positive wingspan and an engaged motor, but he’s simply a below average defender right now. I don’t have a lot of concerns about Labaron’s defence just because he plays the least important defensive position and his size and motor should still give him some developmental headroom. I would expect him to top out as at least an average defender before his career is over, but if he doesn’t… well, we just saw an elite offensive point guard with bad defence win finals MVP, so…

Toronto has more than enough personnel who can help mitigate Labaron’s defensive weaknesses on the court.

Conclusion

I understand that we’ve gone through most of the year with Philon as a presumptive lottery lock, but recent intel suggests that he may be falling throughout the pre-draft process, priming him to be a prospect in the Raptors’ crosshairs. Most recent mocks have him falling to 19, and scouts in the know (such as Sam Vecenie of The Athletic) seem to suggest that Philon’s perceived value is not as high as expected.

“He won’t be there when we pick”, I hear you, reader, and I’d be surprised if he falls to 19 as well, but it’s important to realize that very obviously talented players fall out of the lottery every year even if they shouldn’t (Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain, and Ja’Kobe Walter all immediately come to mind). With that in mind, I would be a fool to not cover the most ideal prospect in this class for the Raptors in Labaron.

I have Labaron Philon at 7th on my board, and honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if he continues to move up a couple more spots as we head closer to the draft. The Raptors should immediately call his name on draft night if he falls to the 19th pick.

Consensus NBA Draft Range: 10-19 (he won’t fall past Toronto)

Brendan’s Ranking: 7th

Floor Projection: High-quality backup guard capable of leading the bench and providing a sparkplug scoring presence, benefits from playing with more skilled scorers in the frontcourt.

Ceiling Projection: All-NBA three level scorer, a true offensive engine.”

Have a blessed day.

The post The Raptors HAVE to take these guys in the draft w/ J Kyle Mann first appeared on Raptors Republic.

First off it is important to note that this list takes playoff performances into consideration. Scottie Barnes led the way at No. 17, with Brandon Ingram coming in at No. 67, RJ Barrett at No. 79 and rookie Collin Murray-Boyles rounding things out at No. 93.

Barnes being the highest-ranked Raptor shouldn’t surprise anyone. The All-Star forward averaged 18.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.5 blocks per game this season while earning a spot on the NBA’s All-Defensive Second Team. There was even a case to be made he deserved First Team consideration as well.

The crazy thing about those numbers is that they improved in the post season. Barnes became much more aggressive offensively, doubling his drives, isolation possessions and free-throw attempts from the regular season. He took on a bigger playmaking role and created more of his own offense, averaging 24 points, nine assists and six rebounds per game in the postseason.

The next Raptor on the list was Ingram at No. 67. There’s an argument he could have been higher. Ingram earned an All-Star nod after averaging 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists across 77 games, the most games he has played since his rookie season with the Los Angeles Lakers.

What likely hurt his ranking was his first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Before a heel injury knocked him out of the final two games, Ingram struggled to get much going offensively, averaging just 12 points on 32.8 percent shooting through five games.

Barrett checked in at No. 79 after putting together one of the best seasons of his career. While Ingram struggled in the playoffs, Barrett seemed to embrace the moment. His biggest shot came in Game 6 against Cleveland when he buried the overtime winner to force a Game 7, but it wasn’t the only time he delivered. Barrett was one of Toronto’s most reliable players throughout the postseason and definitely earned his spot on the list.

Finally, the last Raptor to make the list is Murray-Boyles at No. 93.The rookie entered the season with plenty of question marks, but by the end of the year he looked like a player who may have outplayed his draft slot. 

CMB earned All-Rookie Second Team honours and became an important part of Toronto’s playoff rotation. More than anything, he showed why the Raptors were so high on him in the first place. His defensive versatility, physicality and feel for the game stood out all season, and he gave plenty of reasons to believe there’s still another level for him to reach.

The rankings themselves are always up for debate, but having four players in The Ringer’s Top 100 is a nice bit of recognition for a Raptors team that took a major step forward this season.

The post Four Raptors crack The Ringer’s top 100 NBA players list first appeared on Raptors Republic.

On one hand, plenty of events that unfold each spring and seem to reveal something definitive – about individual players, team-building paradigms, or playstyle trends – turn out to be red herrings, and every team needs to forge its own path rather than trying to follow someone else’s. On the other hand, watching the league’s best teams problem-solve their way through a grueling two-month gauntlet can help others understand their rosters better. 

We learned a lot about the Raptors over the course of just seven playoff games, and even after they were eliminated, there was plenty to be gleaned from watching the rest of the postseason through a Raptors lens. Here’s what became clear (or clearer) about where they’re situated in the league’s stylistic landscape, and what they do/don’t have in common with this year’s most successful playoff squads. 

They have most (but not all) of the right defensive ingredients

With a bedrock of Scottie Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles, Toronto has the defensive infrastructure to succeed in almost all the ways this postseason’s best defences did, with the ability to impose physicality, toggle schemes on the fly, and help aggressively without getting burned. The Raptors may never reach the same heights as the Thunder (whose depth of defensive talent is virtually unprecedented) or the Spurs (who have the most transformative defensive force in generations), but everything else should be within their grasp – which is heartening considering it was actually the Knicks who finished with the No. 1 defensive rating in the playoffs. 

Barnes and Murray-Boyles bring a level of collective court coverage, processing speed, and defensive playmaking that allow Toronto to execute the kind of shapeshifting, unpredictable tactics that define playoff basketball. That includes the ability to cross-match against opposing centres, which has become one of the most important defensive wrinkles of the last few years. We saw the Raptors tap into that in the playoffs by sliding RJ Barrett up the defensive positional spectrum, but it’s Murray-Boyles who’ll be taking on those assignments for years to come. With his freakish strength, length, low centre of gravity, and impeccable hands, he was basically designed in a lab to jam up skilled bigs like Victor Wembanyama, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Chet Holmgren, while freeing up Barnes (and/or a true centre) to be a rover behind the play. 

The Raptors should be able to build any kind of defence they want around that duo, and the defence Darko Rajakovic wants is one that pressures and scrambles like crazy, peel-switching behind the play and generating gobs of turnovers in the process. With hard-nosed backcourt disruptors Jamal Shead and Ja’Kobe Walter complementing their frontcourt demons, the Raptors forced turnovers on 17.5 percent of their defensive possessions against Cleveland. That was the third-highest for any team in any 2026 playoff series (bested only by the Lakers’ two opponents) and they did it against one of the regular season’s least turnover-prone teams. That style of defence is not a prerequisite for playoff success (the Knicks and Spurs both had relatively low-takeaway systems), but it can clearly still drive success in the age of possession obsession.

What Toronto most noticeably lacked compared to other successful playoff defences was primary rim protection. Barnes is one of the best secondary rim protectors in the game, but the Raptors couldn’t funnel the action toward a final boss at the basket, or execute a one-man zone, the way some other teams did. Between Jakob Poeltl’s ineffectiveness and how frequently they had to play small as a result, they allowed the Cavs to shoot over 72 percent inside the restricted area. The only team to advance past the first round while allowing anything even close to that was the Lakers, who beat a dysfunctional Rockets team and then got swept by OKC in part because they got completely shredded at the rim. 

Almost every team that played beyond the first round had a rim-protecting centre ranging from good to elite. The Knicks were arguably the big exception, as Karl-Anthony Towns historically hasn’t belonged in that group. And yet, they romped to the title with a defensive rating that was two points per 100 possessions better than OKC’s league-best regular-season mark, and held the Spurs to just 58 percent at the rim in the Finals. That was partly because Towns levelled up in a major way, and partly because of how the rest of the Knicks, especially their wings, were able to insulate him: with perimeter pressure, high gap help, and aggressive tags. The Raptors did a lot of the same things, just less successfully – and without a centre even the calibre of Towns at defending the rim. 

It’s worth noting that Towns is also a tremendous rebounder, and New York as a team ranked third in the playoffs in defensive rebounding rate, while Toronto ranked dead last. Plus, the Knicks had a hulking interior defender in Mitchell Robinson coming off the bench, rather than Sandro Mamukelashvili. So, while that team could ostensibly offer a promising roadmap for how to paper over the lack of traditional rim protection, it had a couple important ingredients that the Raptors currently don’t. 

Scottie and CMB can’t do everything  

Part of the reason Toronto was so vulnerable on the interior against the Cavs was that Barnes and Murray-Boyles frequently had to take on the toughest perimeter assignments instead of patrolling the back line, largely because Barrett and Brandon Ingram struggled when matched up against Cleveland’s guards. In other words, the Raptors were often forced to use their only real rim-deterrents up at the top of the defence. 

Shead starting in place of Immanuel Quickley helped provide some cover, but contrasting the Raptors with the Knicks highlighted that it’s easier to have strong defensive wings protect a defensively vulnerable guard than it is to have a strong defensive guard protect defensively challenged wings. You can also argue that Jalen Brunson – who did terrific hedge-and-recover work to counter mismatch-hunting throughout the postseason – wasn’t actually all that vulnerable. He plays with a level of defensive physicality that some members of Toronto’s rotation, namely Quickley and Ingram, do not. But the more pertinent takeaway was that the Knicks could hide Brunson, have OG Anunoby guard at the point of attack, and still have Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges to help Towns out on the back side. 

Barrett defended well by his standards in the playoffs, but he did so while mostly guarding big men; his limitations on the perimeter (in on-ball containment, off-ball attentiveness, and turnover creation) are still problematic. Ingram made important strides as a team defender this season, but he ultimately remained frustratingly inconsistent and is unlikely to ever be a playoff positive  on that side of the ball due to his slight build and lack of horizontal burst. Walter has the outline of a quality 3-and-D wing, but his offensive game outside of stationary 3-point shooting has a long way to go, and his size makes him better equipped to defend guards. 

The lack of two-way wing play has undercut the Cavs in the playoffs time after time, and it could prove to be the Raptors’ undoing as well if they don’t find a way to address it. But every team wants two-way wings, and they aren’t easy to acquire. The Knicks traded a first-round pick to get Hart, two of their top-six rotation players to get Anunoby, and five first-rounders to get Bridges. Identifying a need for this type of player and actually addressing that need are two very different things. 

The other key distinction is that the Knicks were able to comfortably play a 7-footer next to all those wings because of that 7-footer’s outlier ball skill and shooting ability. The Raptors as currently constructed do not have that same luxury, nor does it feel realistic for them to have it anytime soon. Towns is one of the three best offensive centres in the league; players like him don’t grow on trees. 

Toronto’s challenge, then, will be shoring up these defensive soft spots without kneecapping its ability to build a functional playoff offence. And while the oft-romanticized way to do that is finding a centre who can jive with Barnes and Murray-Boyles offensively, this postseason didn’t paint the most encouraging picture of that possibility. 

The notion of a stretch-5 saviour is more pipe dream than panacea 

The challenge of building around Barnes and Murray-Boyles as a 3/4 tandem, rather than as the 4/5 tandem they operated as for most of the 2025-26 season, will be finding a centre who can fit well next to them. It would make intuitive sense for that centre to not only be a strong rim protector but also fit the mold of a stretch five on offence, so as to avoid cramping the paint with three non-shooters in the frontcourt. (To that point, Toronto only risked playing the two of them alongside Poeltl for 24 minutes in the regular season and playoffs, and their offensive rating was an anemic 89.6 in those minutes.) 

Here’s what I wrote about this during the season: 

“Unfortunately, that theoretical big man is an exceedingly rare archetype. Chet Holmgren ain’t walking through that door. 

The notion of that cure-all centre feels even more farfetched after watching the playoffs, and particularly the Western Conference finals, where the guy I presented as the platonic ideal of this archetype failed to even access the skill that contributes so significantly to his offensive value. Holmgren attempted just 11 threes across seven games against the Spurs, making only three of them. 

It’s not like Holmgren was pulling Wemby out of the paint with his gravity, either; he was primarily being guarded by Spurs wings. He just didn’t have a quick enough trigger, or enough strength, or the breadth of post skills, to counter the cross-matches. Those limitations equally apply to most if not all of the stretch bigs who’d be attainable for the Raptors. Which is a problem, because any stretch centre playing next to Barnes and Murray-Boyles is going to see those same coverages while opponents put their own centres on CMB. 

Rare is the big man who can space the floor and mash smaller defenders inside the arc; the Finals highlighted that crucial separator between Holmgren and Towns, but even KAT eventually got stymied by the Spurs’ cross-matching. Even rarer is the big man who can do both of those things while also locking down the paint at the other end. To revise my previous sentiment, 2019 Brook Lopez ain’t walking through that door. 

Don’t get me wrong; if there’s an opportunity for the Raptors to get Holmgren without giving up one of their two cornerstones (there’s almost certainly not), they should leap at the chance. And given that they reportedly pursued Jaren Jackson this year, I’m certain that they would. You’d be able to live with the poor screening, rebounding, and playmaking from those guys not just because they can shoot, but because they’d offer the missing ingredient that most other elite playoff defences possess. 

Conversely, I don’t know how much Toronto would be helped by some other garden-variety stretch big who doesn’t bring the same level of rim protection or all-around defensive versatility. That type of player can be a super helpful backup – which is why I’m hopeful that the Raptors can re-sign the one they already have – but probably isn’t solving any major structural problems. 

One way or another, the Raptors need more offensive talent

One of my most positive Raptors takeaways from the playoffs was this: I came away feeling like the offensive strengths that helped them survive to Game 7 against the Cavs would’ve continued to play up if they’d advanced. When defensive intensity and physicality ratchets up even further, and teams go to greater lengths to take away the middle of the floor, Toronto’s level of interior passing and cutting ability can be a salve. Barnes was the first-round leader in rim assists by a country mile, and he, Barrett, and Murray-Boyles showed tremendous resilience when it came to smashing through a packed paint to get to the basket. 

At the same time, we saw that those abilities on their own aren’t enough. They should be attributes that make a team’s offensive structure more dynamic, rather than the materials that the whole plane is made out of. 

Something Darko Rajakovic told me a couple years ago, after his chaotic first season coaching the Raptors, has always stuck in my mind. 

“When I watch the NBA playoffs, I know what I see every single year,” he said. “All of those teams in the first round, they run, I don’t know, 20-30 plays. Then that gets cut down to 15, cut down to 10, then you watch the NBA Finals and it looks like they’re not running plays, they’re just running very simple actions. Why? Because their players are so good in those situations that it’s still so hard to guard. And my goal is to develop our guys, not just over the summer but the full next season and in the future, to become really hard to handle in one-on-one situations.”

Barnes made major strides in that department during the 2026 postseason, and the Raptors did succeed at points by running very simple actions for him (my personal favourite: giving him inbounds passes and having him dribble down the court really fast), but this is very much a work still in progress. Elite talent is the most obvious thing the Raptors need more of in order to compete with the big boys, and without that, no amount of roster streamlining or tactical chicanery will get them into the inner circle of contention. 

With apologies to Barnes, who is an All-NBAer in quality if not in name, the Raptors can’t expect him or anyone else on their team to ever rise to the level of Wembanyama, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, or other title-team carriers of the 2020s. But they can take heart in the fact that there have been numerous examples this decade of teams winning their conference or even the championship – this year’s Knicks, last year’s Pacers, the ‘20 and ‘23 Heat, the ‘21 Suns – led by stars who sit a rung or two lower on the totem pole. 

Those stars were and are outstanding in their own right, and even getting to their level will be an extremely tall task for Barnes. But we’re in an age where having a top-five player no longer feels like a requirement to win a title, and if he can nudge himself into top-10 territory (which his performance against the Cavs suggested is possible), it’s not inconceivable that he can one day be the best player on a championship-calibre team. That will depend, of course, on the roster around him. Teams like the Knicks, Pacers, and Celtics built near-perfect architecture around their stars, designed to optimize those players’ strengths and mask their weaknesses. 

The big difference between Barnes and the leaders of the last five teams to emerge from the East – Brunson, Tyrese Haliburton, Jayson Tatum, and Jimmy Butler – is that those guys do (or did) more as shooters and/or halfcourt creators than Barnes currently can. So, unless he can significantly improve those aspects of his game, the Raptors will need to find that level of shot creation elsewhere. 

Guards make the world go round   

To that point, the teams that played beyond the first round were almost all led by elite lead guards: Brunson, Gilgeous-Alexander, Cade Cunningham, Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Maxey, Donovan Mitchell, and James Harden. It should go without saying that no Toronto guard belongs in that group, and that would’ve been true even if Quickley had been healthy. 

As such, the Raptors were the lowest-volume pull-up 3-point shooting team in both the regular season and playoffs; they hit just eight threes off the dribble in the first round compared to Cleveland’s 39. They were also starved for players who could drive to score, a notable deficiency given that the four conference finalists reached that round as the top four postseason teams in terms of field-goal percentage on drives. The Raptors drove a lot against the Cavs but finished those drives at the third-worst rate among playoff teams. 

This postseason also wasn’t just about the quality of a team’s lead guard, but the quantity of playoff-resilient guards all the way down the roster. The Spurs’ three-headed backcourt of Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, and De’Aaron Fox didn’t boast an individual superstar (yet), but made up for that with its sheer volume of dribble-drive capability. The Knicks had Brunson leading the dance but also needed the pops of shooting and secondary creation they got from Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado, Deuce McBride, and even Jordan Clarkson at various points during their championship run.  

While the Thunder had the reigning two-time MVP running point, what kept their offence functional – even with Jalen Williams injured – was having guards like Ajay Mitchell, Alex Caruso, Jared McCain, and Cason Wallace making plays when SGA got swarmed. When Mitchell joined Williams on the sidelines it proved too much to overcome, but the Thunder’s depth of guard play still sustained them all the way to Game 7 of the West finals, where they finally succumbed to a San Antonio team that got vital contributions from all three of its main guards.  

Conversely, the Pistons fizzled out largely because they didn’t have enough supplemental creation to take pressure off of Cunningham. Ditto for Edwards and the Wolves, who unsurprisingly looked a lot more dangerous when Donte DiVincenzo and Ayo Dosunmu were healthy and rounding out the backcourt rotation. 

Bottom line: playoff offences need at least one guy capable of creating advantages at an elite level, as well as quality secondary and tertiary ball-handlers who can keep the chain moving after that primary creator puts the defence in scramble mode. They need to be able to pull a defence out of its shell and punish bigs for sitting in one-man zones, the way the Knicks were ultimately able to do against the Spurs and Wembanyama. And they need to be able to use guards as screeners and have those guards actually threaten when the defence sends two to the ball. The Cavs were usually very comfortable ignoring the Raptors’ guards when they popped out of inverted ball screens for Barnes.

Though San Antonio’s guards besides Harper ultimately faded in the Finals, the team wouldn’t have gotten where it did without the quantum leap in backcourt play from last year to this year. You could see the impact in how much more effective the Spurs were at supplying Wembanyama with interior looks. His average shot distance went from 17.8 feet in 2024-25, to 12.8 feet this season, to 11.9 feet in these playoffs.

Barnes obviously isn’t Wemby, but that helps illustrate how much easier his life could be on offence with the right pieces around him. He can dribble himself to the basket in a way few guys his size or taller can, and that’s a great weapon for the Raptors to have in their arsenal, but he wasn’t even a top-20 rim scorer among forwards this season. Give him an elite halfcourt advantage creator to play off of, and you can be sure that will change. 

All of this to say: more than trying to find the ideal stretch-five, or a killer two-way wing, or some other fanciful roster fix, improving the Raptors’ guard play is likely their easiest path to contention. 

The post What lessons should the Raptors take from the 2026 NBA playoffs? first appeared on Raptors Republic.