New-look Raptors enter season with championship aspirations

TORONTO — Timing is every thing within the NBA. 

For the Toronto Raptors, the overwhelming query is whether or not their time is now. 

For all involved, the hope is the large wager they made on the 2026-27 season will hit and switch the clock again to 2018-19 — or at the very least 18-19 adjoining. 

Plenty of things have been weighed when Raptors basic supervisor Bobby Webster, newly minted five-year contract in hand, pulled the set off on the commerce that repatriated Kawhi Leonard. 

• Seven years after main the Raptors to the 2019 NBA championship within the best one-and-done displaying in league historical past, Leonard stays an all-NBA expertise and arguably one of the best participant accessible in what was an action-packed low season for participant motion. 

• The Raptors have been going to should do one thing with Brandon Ingram, who was heading right into a stroll 12 months on his contract. The drawback was that even after top-of-the-line seasons of his profession, it was clear that Ingram’s match alongside Scottie Barnes remained a query mark, as was Ingram’s capability to excel within the post-season. The Raptors ended up buying and selling him (together with Gradey Dick) to the Los Angeles Clippers within the Leonard deal.

• Even because the Raptors had exceeded expectations with a 46-win season backed up by a robust displaying within the playoffs final 12 months, the Eastern Conference wasn’t standing nonetheless. If the Raptors didn’t transfer, they have been liable to falling again into the pack, erasing any progress.

But maybe the first motive for the Raptors to go big-name searching, and take the possibility on Leonard at age 35, was that the clock was ticking. The hourglass representing one of the best probabilities to win with Barnes because the fulcrum of their group had already flipped over, with the sand trickling within the unsuitable route.

Not that Barnes’ capability was diminishing. Quite the other. Part of the Raptors’ calculation was that at age 25 and in his sixth season, Barnes is on the cusp of delivering all-NBA degree play for years to come back. 

Because the NBA is actually a hard-capped league with regard to the higher restrict of group salaries, one of the best likelihood a group has to construct an elite roster comes when your star participant continues to be on his first massive contract, which usually counts as 25 per cent of the wage cap. Barnes is within the second 12 months of his five-year deal value about $224 million and is locked in at about 25 per cent of the cap over its time period for 3 extra years after this one.

Frittering away these years with out giving him the right help could be unhealthy enterprise, bordering on malpractice. With his soar to all-defence standing final season and the leap he took within the playoffs suggesting all-NBA honours could possibly be subsequent, the time to pair Barnes with a co-star had arrived, one thing Webster broadly hinted at following the seven-game playoff loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

According to a number of sources, the Raptors had conversations with Boston about buying Jaylen Brown, an all-NBA participant at age 29 who was finally traded to Philadelphia. But when Leonard turned accessible and the previous Clippers star signalled he was curious about a reunion, he turned their focus. 

If it’s not an all-in transfer, it’s shut, given the Raptors surrendered — amongst different property — two future unprotected first-round picks and signed Leonard to a two-year contract extension value $115 million, bringing the group’s whole obligation to $165 million over three years. 

The Raptors’ aggressive timeline took a leap, and Barnes is right here for it: 

“(He’s) pretty good,” stated Barnes about his new teammate, his understatement undone by an enormous smile Tuesday as he held court docket after the Raptors’ last observe earlier than internet hosting the Chicago Bulls for his or her season opener on Wednesday night time (Sportsnet, Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet+, 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT) at Scotiabank Arena.

But getting extra critical, Barnes stated: “We have the highest level of expectations. We want to win the championship here and that’s our expectation every time we step on the floor, but this is about how we can build on that throughout every game. You just can’t get there overnight. You’ve got to go through the season and focus on these games first in order to get to the playoffs and get to a championship.”

But is the remainder of the roster prepared?

The Raptors don’t have any alternative however to hope it’s. 

If time have been extra fluid, you could possibly think about a situation the place you could possibly freeze-frame final season’s model of Leonard — 27.9 factors and 1.9 steals per sport with a real taking pictures proportion of 62.9 — with what the Raptors are hoping can be a career-best 12 months from Barnes. Add in one other 12 months of growth from the likes of Ja’Kobe Walter, Collin Murray-Boyles and Jamal Shead, and it’s simple to see the Raptors reaching the NBA Finals for simply the second time in franchise historical past if every thing comes collectively.

That was the pondering in giving Leonard a multi-year extension, no small factor given he’s on the unsuitable facet of 35 and has missed 44 per cent of his group’s video games over the previous 9 seasons with a variety of leg accidents.

Unlike his final tour by Toronto, the plan is that Leonard sticks round for some time, giving the Raptors a three-year window to win a second title throughout what needs to be Barnes’ absolute prime.

It’s not like getting superstar-level play from athletes of their late 30s is unprecedented. LeBron James has a transferring van’s value of profession accomplishments at this stage, however of all his seemingly untouchable milestones, incomes all-NBA honours for six straight seasons from his age-35 season on — a streak that ended final 12 months when he was merely an all-star at age 41 — is a feat which will by no means be repeated. 

But others have proven that the best-before dates for elite expertise can lengthen far past the norm. Kevin Durant has rattled off two all-NBA seasons and an all-star-worthy marketing campaign at ages 35, 36 and 37. Steph Curry was an all-NBA participant at ages 35 and 36. Over the years, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Tim Duncan and Chris Paul every made a number of all-NBA groups at age 35 or older. 

The Raptors don’t have any alternative however to hope Leonard will comply with go well with, on condition that his deal will rely for 30.5 per cent of the cap this season and 32.5 per cent subsequent 12 months and the 12 months after that. Lucrative long-term offers for Immanuel Quickley and Jakob Poeltl make the margin for error even slimmer. 

Complicating issues is an Eastern Conference that has primarily been in an arms race since final season, with nearly each related group making strikes that may moderately be anticipated to make them higher — on paper — than a 12 months in the past. 

• The Detroit Pistons, a 60-win group and the No. 1 seed final season, are powered by three all-league-level gamers 25 or youthful and have surrounded MVP candidate Cade Cunningham with six completely different gamers which have shot 40 per cent from three in latest seasons. 

• The Boston Celtics have traded Brown, however will offset that with a full season of Jayson Tatum, and have added Paul George — nonetheless an elite shooter and, when wholesome, one of many NBA’s finest two-way gamers — and Mitchell Robinson, one of many NBA’s finest rebounders. 

• The Cavaliers, perpetually lacking athleticism on the wing spot, have added Peyton Watson, a 24-year-old, six-foot-seven wing who shot 41 per cent from three for Denver final season, to spherical out their beginning lineup higher than ever earlier than. Remember, this group has averaged 54 wins for the previous 4 seasons.

• The New York Knicks might have misplaced Robinson to Boston in free company, however given they went 16-3 within the playoffs with a web score of 15.5 — which might characterize an NBA file in opposition to regular-season competitors — the reigning champs needs to be OK. 

Those are the 4 groups the Raptors are attempting to catch, based mostly on final season’s standings. 

The Raptors’ 46-36 file was good for fifth, however among the many groups that completed inside three video games of them within the standings, the Atlanta Hawks (46 wins) added Lu Dort and Aaron Wiggins and their championship expertise from the Oklahoma City Thunder; the Philadelphia 76ers (45 wins) added Brown and James, together with essential depth items; and the Miami Heat acquired two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Further down the ladder, the Indiana Pacers — only one season faraway from Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals — have added one of many NBA’s finest centres in Ivica Zubac whereas getting former all-NBA level guard Tyrese Haliburton again after lacking all of 2025-26 with a torn Achilles.

Whatever the Raptors do accomplish this season, it received’t be simple. 

“I love the pressure,” stated Darko Rajakovic, who in his fourth season as an NBA head coach will lastly be tasked with main a group the place the expectation is to win, versus undergo a rebuild. “That’s the whole point of professional sports. You want to compete … you want to test yourself against the best in the world …” 

That’s what the Raptors signed themselves up for once they traded for Leonard in an effort to leverage what needs to be one of the best years of Barnes’ profession. 

For the primary time in a very long time in Toronto, it’s successful time.