3 Things that scare us about the Toronto Raptors this Halloween

Halloween is a lot of people's favourite time of the year. There are plenty of reasons one can find to celebrate the season.

Many will choose to take advantage of the opportunity to dress up and don a different persona for a day. Others really enjoy carving pumpkins, handing out treats, and taking advantage of the cheap deals on candy at their local grocery store. This Halloween season offers an opportunity to explore some frightening facts about the Toronto Raptors.

It should be made clear that scary things can both be positive and negative. Perhaps there are certain aspects about the Raptors that make one quake in their boots for all the wrong reasons. On the other hand, seeing members of the team outperforming initial expectations can be the good kind of scary.

With that in mind, it feels worthwhile to explore some of those spooks and scares on this October 31st. There will be comfort in experiencing the frightening tales together.

Scary Bad: Early Injury Concerns

Down the stretch of last season, the Raptors had a tough time staying healthy. In particular, a lot of the key figures on the team struggled to share extended stretches on the court together. Unfortunately, that trend has carried over into the 2024-25 season.

RJ Barrett injured his shoulder during the preseason and missed a few games to start the year. Immanuel Quickley got hurt in the Raptors' season-opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers and has remained out. Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk have yet to dress this season.

Scottie Barnes is the most recent addition to the injury report. With the All-Star forward slated to miss a significant portion of time, there will certainly be moments when the on-court product might be scary to watch.

Scary Good: Gradey Dick's Improvement

There were times during the first half of Gradey Dick's rookie season that some Raptors fans began to lose hope and write him off. There were even some that questioned his elevation to the starting lineup for this season. It feels safe to say that Dick is making those people eat their words right about now. The second-year wing has looked tremendous to start the season.

It can be dangerous to put too much stock into a measly five-game sample size. However, that experiment feels much less dangerous when evaluating the encouraging strides in Dick's game.

Gradey is averaging 18.8 points per game to open the campaign. He scored a career-high 25 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves on October 26th. That benchmark would last only a few nights. Dick's 30-point effort against the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night quickly eclipsed his previous performance.

The all-around scoring arsenal is really coming together for him to start this season. His three-point shooting actually leaves the most room for improvement. Dick is shooting 34.4 percent from beyond the arc in the first five games. If that is the biggest area of concern, then the twenty-year-old is in good shape.

Scary Bad: The Defensive Woes

There is one statistic from the Raptors' start to the season that sticks out horrendously. They currently possess the worst defensive rating in the entire NBA. The Raptors' rating of 119.2 is dead last. They have surrendered over 120 points in three of their five games. This includes being lit up for over 130 points twice, against the Cavaliers and Hornets.

There are a few more concerning statistics to add into the mix here. The Raptors rank in the bottom ten when it comes to defensive rebounds per game. They average 31.6 in that category, placing them 23rd in the league.

The Raptors also own the worst mark in the league when it comes to opponent's points off turnovers. They have allowed 26.8 points in that category, noticeably worse than the second-to-last Hornets (22.5).

Finally, the Raptors rank bottom ten in points allowed in the paint as well. They have been beaten for 52.4 points down low, putting them 24th in the category. All of this is to say, when it comes to scary takeaways on this Halloween, the Raptors' defense undeniably falls under the bad type of scary.