The Raptors didn’t get the start to their first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers that the team and fans had hoped for. They suffered two consecutive losses on the road and didn’t always look like a team that stood a chance against a deeper, more experienced team in the playoffs—which wasn’t entirely unexpected given that the Raptors are a young, inexperienced team that’s still very much working through a rebuild.
While the series isn’t over yet and the Raptors have a chance to even the playing field at home, their first two outings are already fueling expectations that the Raptors will be very active in the offseason. Zach Lowe, for example, listed Toronto as an interesting offseason team to watch because of their current roster construction and assets.
“I think Toronto joins Miami and maybe Golden State as sort of a very interesting offseason team because they came into this playoffs thinking…this might be kind of all this group is,” Lowe noted on the latest episode of The Zach Lowe Show. “They just don’t add up to much more.”
He continued, “If they go into the playoffs, and they lose 4-1, and the games are like this, they have all their picks, they have all their swaps…They’ve always been a sneaky Giannis team to me. I think they’d become in play for a lot of stuff.”
The Brandon Ingram and Jakob Poeltl questions will dominate the Raptors' offseason
If the Raptors want to take this team to the next level, they will have to make some changes and upgrades. A lot of what they can do will depend on how they feel about Brandon Ingram and Jakob Poeltl after this first-round series (assuming they don’t advance).
Ingram was an effective number-one option pretty much all season long, but his first two playoff outings in a Raptors uniform were rather uninspiring. He only took nine shots in Game 1 and went 3-15 in Game 2. If he doesn’t figure things out quickly, it poses the question: Do the Raptors need a different go-to scoring option next to Scottie Barnes? Someone like Giannis Antetokounmpo, who led a title team before, maybe?
The Jakob Poeltl situation is much less complicated at the moment: the Raptors need an upgrade—or to at least move on from his massive contract, if they are confident in a frontcourt focused around Scottie Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles for the future.
After a very disappointing Game 1 performance, Poeltl only played nine minutes in Game 2, as Darko Rajaković went with rookie Collin Murray-Boyles and floor-spacer Sandro Mamukelashvili instead. If your veteran starting center is outplayed by a rookie in the playoffs, you don’t really need to see much else. The only problem is that it will be difficult to find a team willing to take on Poeltl’s contract.
Add us as a preferred source on Google