As of February 11, 2025, the Toronto Raptors (17-37), who are looking to progress in their 1 year-old rebuild, signed former All-Star Brandon Ingram to a 3 year $120M contract with a player option in his third year. Despite the Raptors being one of the least covered teams in the NBA landscape due to “market size” and “talent”, the move will shake the entire league to its core.
To understand why this move would be so influential in the future of the Toronto Raptors and the NBA as a whole, the Raptors themselves need to be put into context. Since winning their first and only championship in 2019, the Toronto Raptors have been gutted, especially evident in that the only player remaining from the championship season is Chris Boucher, whose name was floated around in trade talks this trade deadline. The departure of the championship core has brought the franchise multiple picks and players like that of franchise star Scottie Barnes, who after being drafted out of Florida State with the 4th overall pick has ascended to be the leader and focus of the team’s efforts to build a winning culture.
Along with Scottie Barnes also saw the arrival of multiple picks from other teams like Portland, Indiana, and Sacramento which netted exciting young talent like Jamal Shead out of the University of Houston, Jonathan Mogbo out of University of San Francisco, Ja’Kobe Walter out of Baylor University, Ulrich Chomche out of Bafang, Cameroon and the NBA Africa Academy, and finally Jamison Battle out of the University of Minnesota. All of these prospects, despite varying in age and experience prior to the NBA have all shown immense growth and promise through the carefully vetted and experienced Raptors development staff. This does not include second or third year players like Gradey Dick, who is second in 2023 draft class scoring and their contributions to the teams “success” and growth.
All of this is paired with a collection of comparatively older players like 29 year old Jakob Poeltl, 24 year old RJ Barrett, and 25 year old Immanuel Quickley who have all shown growth themselves, along with a couple of other names. With a young core that has been named the potential “OKC of the East” and veterans who have grown and lifted up their teammates, the acquisition of Brandon Ingram to the team who is “supposed to” be tanking for Cooper Flagg and a slew of other prospects in the highly talented 2025 draft has raised eyebrows. The addition of a very talented wing and former all star on a questionable $40M per-year contract is the last thing an NBA team should be doing when trying to lose games to obtain a good pick, but what the general media and NBA fanbase doesn’t see is the future implications that this move has on the teams rebuild back to contention.
Brandon Ingram is currently out with a left ankle sprain and does not have a proper time table to return to action with many estimating 1-2 months till a possible debut for the sporting club. This allows the Raptors to continue to give their younger pieces, who have displayed great promise and skill, playing time that WOULD be consumed by Brandon Ingram that is used by rookies NOW as he is out. As the rookies get hefty minutes, winning will remain few and far between as the team continues to tumble through the season in the race to “Capture the Flagg” and obtain the first overall pick to draft projected number one pick Cooper Flagg out of Duke. The Raptors will certainly be one of the worst teams this year and get a high lottery pick in the 2025 draft. What lots of people don’t understand is that talent can be found anywhere in any draft with players like Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (both of whom are MVP front runners) being drafted late in the first and second rounds of their respective draft classes. The 2025 draft is filled with talent that the Raptors or any team could instantly use, and when drafted and paired with a team who has shown competitiveness with some of the best teams like OKC and Denver this year, will make an instant impact. Because the Raptors are good at drafting (Knock on wood), assuming they get “the guy” who can develop into a star or very good player will already be paired with one of the youngest and hard-working teams in the league. Add that young star and one of the most technically gifted wings in Brandon Ingram to a sharing, winning, and development focused team and you can watch the Raptors blossom in the standings of a “weaker” Eastern Conference in a fight for contention starting around 2028.
Of course it may seem too good to be true and maybe too optimistic, but there is a real shot here. It simply cannot be put into words the talent and potential that Scottie Barnes and these rookies have. All I can recommend is just catching this team at the right time and the vision is very apparent, even now. Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster who are the commanders in management of this team are well aware of how long this project will take, and they clearly feel that in a “weak” Eastern conference, they can couple their great drafting skills with the addition of a former All-Star to a team with a bonafide star in Scottie Barnes and very good core to create contenders, and pull off one of the quickest rebuilds in NBA history.
