Six months after Masai Ujiri orchestrated the Toronto Raptors' trade for Brandon Ingram, the organization decided to part ways with him, promoting Bobby Webster to head of basketball operations. Want to know how that trade is playing out for the Raptors? Pretty good, considering Toronto is coming off its third win of the season over Cleveland, powered by Ingram's 37 points.
The Raptors are 13-5, second in the East. Ingram is averaging a team-high 21.6 points on 49/32/86 shooting splits. He's still trying to get acclimated to his new team since the February trade. He didn't play at all for Toronto before the 2025-26 season, and his final game with New Orleans was at the beginning of last December, when he injured his ankle.
The fact that he's in a place where he can drop 37 points in November is worth celebrating, even though it came on 30 shots. What matters is that on a night where the Raptors weren't shooting the ball well as a team, Ingram came through, leading Toronto to its eighth straight win. The team is still trying to figure things out, but considering this is where they are a month into the season, the vibes are high.
Brandon Ingram trade is already paying off for the Raptors
Toronto came out of nowhere when it traded for Ingram before the deadline, considering that at the previous deadline, the team traded star forward Pascal Siakam. That deal came a few weeks after the Raptors traded OG Anunoby to the Knicks.
Ujiri didn't call it a rebuild, but still, no one thought that Toronto would go in on Ingram, especially not when the team was sitting at the bottom of the league.
No one thought that through the first few weeks of the 2025-26 season, the Raptors would have the second-best record in the conference, either. If they can stay healthy (for the most part), imagine how they'll look in the second half of the season. Most importantly, how they'll look in the playoffs. Not that anyone needs the reminder, but Toronto hasn't won a playoff series since 2020.
When the Raptors traded for Ingram, no one knew that in the following season, the East would be without Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton. The Celtics are No. 10 in the conference with a 9-8 record, and the Pacers are 14th at 2-15. Toronto didn't trade for Ingram to take advantage of a weakened conference, but it has helped the team do just that.
There is still a lot of basketball left before the postseason starts, but if this is the kind of conversation we're having about Ingram and the Raptors 18 games into their season, that's a win in itself.