Was Raptors’ offseason a failure after Otto Porter Jr. injury?

The Toronto Raptors appeared to have nailed the 2022 NBA offseason after a 48-win campaign in the prior season. Despite very rarely being a free agent hotbed, the signing of Otto Porter Jr. seemed to signal that Toronto was a very attractive destination for potential ring-chasers.

In addition to Porter coming to town, Chris Boucher was brought back on a frontloaded three-year contract, and Thad Young signed an incentive-heavy two-year deal. Juancho Hernangomez was also signed late on a cheaper deal. The team leaned into their “Vision 6-9” identity as much as possible.

Not only have many of the signings not lived up to billing, but Porter has been ruled out for the remainder of the season after playing in just eight games. The Raptors have seen their win-loss record impacted as a result, as the team currently has the seventh-best odds at Victor Wembanyama halfway through the year.

With the offseason in the rear-view mirror and Toronto starting to speed towards selling off some of their more important players, is it fair for the organization to look back at the offseason and admit that they failed to build a winner?

Did Masai Ujiri and the Toronto Raptors fail in the 2022 offseason?

While Boucher started the season hot and helped lead the Raptors to consecutive wins against the Hornets, he fell out of the rotation for a brief spell, earning some criticism from Nick Nurse along the way. He can be aggregated in trades after January 15, and Ujiri will likely ask around the league about him.

Young went from being out of the rotation earlier in the year to an occasional starter before once again being sidelined. The fact that Toronto gave up a first-round pick to acquire him and signed a reasonably lucrative deal is starting to look even more questionable by the day.

The one saving grace of the offseason has been Christian Koloko, who has emerged as one of the two best second-round picks from this draft class in conjunction with Andrew Nembhard. Koloko’s 3.9 points per game, as impressive as they may be, aren’t enough to salvage a successful summer.

Ujiri and Bobby Webster have obviously built up enough equity with the franchise and fanbase to get a few more spins at the free agent wheel, but it’s clear that the team is lacking in certain key areas that went unaddressed at the time. Ujiri likely wishes he could press an undo button and get one more crack at the 2022 offseason.