Raptors Head into Offseason With Plenty of Questions Following Loss to Heat

The Toronto Raptors wrapped up a disappointing season Sunday afternoon with a loss to the Miami Heat and will now head into an offseason with plenty of questions to answer

Apr 14, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Toronto Raptors forward Bruce Brown (11) and Miami Heat guard / Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports

Well, that wasn’t particularly fun.

It’s been a while since the Toronto Raptors had a season this disappointing. Not only did the Raptors finish the year 25-57 with a 118-103 loss to the Miami Heat, their worst record since 2010-11, but there’s no guarantee Toronto even keeps its first-round pick this year.

But enough negativity.

There are reasons to be optimistic about the future.

For one, Toronto has a direction. The future is about Scottie Barnes who took the kind of leap forward this season the organization could have only dreamed of. A step forward of any kind would have been good enough for Barnes after a stagnant sophomore season, but the 22-year-old forward leapt into the All-Star Game and finished the year averaging 19.9 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 6.1 assists while shooting 34.1% from three-point range.

By his side, Toronto has replaced OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam with a pair of younger, better fitting guards in Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett to lead the organization into a new era.

Quickley will need to be re-signed but there’s really no reason to think that won’t happen. He’ll be locked up as the point guard of the future and finished the season averaging 18.6 points and 6.8 assists while shooting 39.5% from behind the arc in 38 games with the Raptors.

Barrett looked so much better with Toronto. His defense does need work, but his offensive efficiency has been off the charts with the Raptors. He ended up leading the organization in scoring, averaging 21.8 points per game across 32 games as a Raptor.

Rookie first-round pick Gradey Dick looks like a valuable rotation player too. He bounced back from a rough start to the year and became one of the league’s best corner three-point shooters. At the very least, he’ll be able to space the floor for Toronto, having finished the year with a 36.5% three-point stroke.

But there seems to be more to Dick’s game too. He showed he’s a high IQ player who makes good passes and can beat over aggressive closeouts with some on-ball creativity when necessary. He had 14 points against the Heat, including a pair of mid-range jumpers off tidy curls near the hoop. The hope will be Toronto can continue working with Dick to improve his defense and grow out his game with some improved conditioning.

Toronto has some flexibility with the rest of its roster. Save for Kelly Olynyk, Jakob Poeltl, and Barrett, nobody else is on long-term contracts, and the Raptors can open up nearly $30 million in cap space this summer to use in free agency.

To do that, though, Toronto will have to part ways with Gary Trent Jr. and Bruce Brown.

With Trent, it’ll come down to his unrestricted free agency and which teams decide to pursue the 25-year-old sharpshooter. He’s never quite developed into the player Toronto had hoped he’d become, but he’s shown he can be a lights-out shooter whose defense fluctuates from disappointing to adequate depending on his engagement level.

Brown’s situation is a little more complicated. He’s owed $23 million on a team option for next season and doesn’t make a ton of sense with the organization moving forward. It probably makes more sense to trade him at some point this summer or decline his option in order to create cap space.

The two make the most sense as sort of a packaged deal for the Raptors. Either re-sign Trent and keep or trade Brown while acting as an over-the-cap team or let the two guards walk and use the extra money to dip into the free agency pool.

Who else sticks around is kind of hard to tell.

Javon Freeman-Liberty is on a partially guaranteed deal and will probably make it to training camp next year. Ochai Agbaji is going to have to do a ton of work to improve his offense, but he should be back at least for next year. Jalen McDaniels and Chris Boucher are both signed to deals though next season, but struggled to make the rotation this year and it wouldn’t be surprising if Toronto opted to move on from the two forwards.

What's clear, though, is Toronto has work to do. This season showed how far the Raptors are from contention but also how quickly things can change. Toronto had 30 different players suit up for the organization this year and the hope is there are building blocks here to help stabilize a strong future.

Up Next: Locker Clean Out

The Raptors will return home for locker cleanout day Monday.