Toronto native AJ Lawson is bidding his hometown Raptors and the NBA farewell ... at least for now.
The 26-year-old swingman is reportedly moving his professional basketball career to Spain, where he will join Spanish club Baskonia on a two-season deal, as per an official team press release.
In the two seasons Lawson spent with Toronto, there were certainly glimpses into his potential as a key scoring threat to come off the Raptors bench. Lawson proved in his time with the Raptors 905 that he could be a focal point off the offense, and while a jump to the main roster wouldn't exactly offer the same scoring/touch opportunities — there was faith that he might carve out a serviceable role in the rotation. Although to be fair, when the Raptors wing spots quickly became logjammed, it definitely put a bit of a damper on some of Lawson's allure to the team construct.
He'd have to compete behind guys like Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett, and Ja'Kobe Walter, while having a bit of an internal battle against other youngsters fighting into the rotation like Jamison Battle or Gradey Dick.
The 2026 playoffs would present a bit of a silver lining for Lawson's Raptors journey, as injuries and a dire need to find hidden bench depth would put both himself and similarly, Jamison Batttle, at the forefront of conversations. However, Lawson wouldn't quite replicate the sudden playoff breakout that Battle showed, as outside of commendable effort on defense/hustle — he was largely ineffective on the court for what Toronto needed out of him.
Rewinding to the point I made earlier about Lawson’s window of opportunity slowly closing, or perhaps, the outlook not appearing as bright with the Raptors' roster becoming more crowded and his spot less secure — that sentiment still holds true as we look ahead to the 2026-27 season.
There wasn't a logical role for AJ Lawson with the Raptors going forward
The Raps added Allen Graves in the draft, Kyle Anderson in free agency, and should the deal go through, are expected to welcome Kawhi Leonard back to town. Depth-wise with those new additions in mind, we're looking at a chart of Kawhi Leonard, Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Collin Murray-Boyles, Ja'Kobe Walter, Jamal Shead, Jakob Poeltl, Allen Graves, Kyle Anderson, and maybe to a lesser degree, Jamison Battle and Alijah Martin.
That is about 10 players where it's hard to justify not playing them regular minutes, and it gets even tighter with those last two names I mentioned. The room for minutes in Toronto just got a whole lot tougher and expectations for them are high going forward. As promising and talented as a guy like AJ Lawson is, this version of the Toronto Raptors doesn't look like a reasonable destination where he could see ample opportunity, unless the team is gutted with injuries.
However, I did believe he could find a new NBA home to see that journey play out, but moving abroad shouldn't be seen as a demotion either. He can go be great for Baskonia as a key piece, and it could also serve as a pathway back to the NBA, elevating his sense of worth and attractiveness to teams in an evitable return.
So, good luck to AJ Lawson on this next chapter of his professional journey.
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