As has become an annual tradition, the Toronto Raptors were considered a potential seller this summer, with OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, and pretty much anyone not named Scottie Barnes popping up in trade rumors. However, to this point the Raptors have done what the Raptors have done every time there’s talk of them tearing it down, which is double down on their current path.
The result is a team that is coming off of the 9-seed and a loss in the first Play-In game looking mostly the same, with one major exception, as Fred VanVleet (understandably) bolted for Houston’s max money. While there are still rumblings of a possible Siakam deal, it seems as though he will be there for the start of camp and the Raptors will give this group one more chance to try and recapture the magic of the past before finally, maybe shifting gears towards the future at the deadline or next summer.
Here we’ll grade out the Raptors offseason moves in the Draft, free agency and contract extensions, and the trade market.
Draft: A-
The Raptors started their offseason by landing Gradey Dick with the 13th overall pick in this year’s Draft, a strong value as there were many who expected him to be off the board by the time Toronto was on the clock. The sharpshooting wing out of Kansas not only fit the mold of being one of the best players available at 13, but he also fit a major need for Toronto, as they desperately needed to add more floor spacing options. Our Brad Rowland gave them an A- on Draft night, explaining that grade as follows:
This is a good value and a good fit. Dick is one of the best shooters in the class with good size for a wing and the ability to move off the ball and shoot on the move. Defensively, he probably won’t be a big plus, but Dick improved as the season went along, and Toronto’s roster could use the infusion of floor spacing.
Free Agency/Contract Extensions: C
Re-signing Jakob Poeltl on a 4-year, $80 million contract is a perfectly good deal, especially given how thin the center market was this summer. Poeltl is a terrific defender as well as providing value as a rebounder and roll man, and $20 million per year is certainly fair value for his skillset. Getting Gary Trent Jr. to pick up his player option likewise is a nice get for the Raptors, as he’s the best shooter on their roster and losing him in free agency would’ve made it very difficult to find a replacement. The bigger issue with the Raptors summer is that they worked very hard to try and run it back, hoping they can have a Miami-like surge at some point, but they lost their most important free agent in VanVleet.
Toronto, by all accounts, was willing to go to 4 years, $120 million on VanVleet, which allowed him to push Houston into offering the 3-year max. That’s just good business by VanVleet and his agent, but it left Toronto with a sizable hole that they quickly tried patching over with the signing of Dennis Schröder on a 2-year, $26 million deal. Schröder’s ability to replicate VanVleet as a point of attack pest on defense is helpful for keeping up the defensive pressure they’re accustomed to on opponents, but it’s a fairly significant step down on the offensive end where Toronto already had its issues. Schröder is an even worse three-point shooter and far less of a threat to let them fly (last year he took 4.1 threes per 36 minutes compared to VanVleet’s 8.6 attempts per 36). For a Raptors team already short on spacing options, VanVleet’s willingness to bomb away from deep provided value on its own, even in a down year (that, again, was better than Schröder’s career three-point percentage).
On top of that, Schröder is not as good of a facilitator as VanVleet, which presents real concerns for an offense that already was prone to getting bogged down and was 23rd in the NBA in assists. Schröder isn’t a bad pivot considering the options available, but he’s just not as good as VanVleet in a number of areas the Raptors don’t have clear alternatives to help fill those holes.
Their other offseason acquisition was Jalen McDaniels, who is a nice player and a perfectly fine signing, but it did make me chuckle that the Raptors added another 6’9 wing with defensive versatility and questionable shooting ability. That’s as on-brand a signing as the Raptors could have, but I can’t see how that’s really going to help them take a stride forward. All told, that’s the issue with this summer. In a vacuum, they haven’t made any bad signings, but they also seemingly have gotten worse as a team. When you were already the 9-seed hoping for internal improvement under a new coach to vault you into playoff contention, taking a step back as a roster is a bad start to achieving your goals.
Trades: INC
My colleague Katie Heindl suggested I give the Raptors a grade of WTF, which could also stand in for the INC here. That is because, again, it’s not clear what the plan is in Toronto beyond “don’t ever do a trade that doesn’t win you the press conference.” Masai Ujiri built his reputation on shrewd signings and trades, but it seems from the outside like he has gotten to a point where he’s so aware of that reputation that he’s determined to only build on it or do nothing out of fear of ever being the one to “lose” the trade in the immediate reaction — we call this “the Danny Ainge.”
The league seems determined to temper the cost of stars on the trade market after last summer saw 10 first round picks get traded for three players (7 of those going to Ainge himself), which means the Raptors are having a hard time finding suitors to meet their demands for Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby. The other problem is, they’ve built a roster with so many redundancies that there’s not a clear path to winning at a high level, and teams seem willing to wait them out until they’re the ones desperate enough to make changes. As a result, the Raptors find themselves in something of basketball purgatory. They are a team that clearly has high end talent, but it’s not complementary talent, which seemingly puts a ceiling on how high they can go. They have a front office that doesn’t want to pivot towards a rebuild, but results keep telling them they should at least reassess their roster building strategy. Now we wait to see if this is finally the year they relent, or if they will keep hammering away in hopes that, through some miracle, that ceiling is removed.