Jamison Battle appeared in 61 regular-season games in the 2025-26 campaign but only averaged 8.5 minutes per game. Despite his small regular-season role, he earned some playoff minutes, seeing the court for at least nine minutes in the last five games. He even had a big playoff hero moment when he went 4-4 from the 3-point line to seal the Raptors’ Game 3 victory.
He could be in for a steadier role next season, as The Athletic’s Es Baraheni and Sam Vecenie discussed on the July 18 episode of The Game Theory Podcast.
“He was in and out of the rotation all of last year, and I think they were prioritizing giving Gradey Dick some minutes,” Baraheni said about Battle. “But he needs to be a part of the rotation this year, like full stop. That’s a priority.”
Vecenie agreed and noted that he expects Battle to start the season ahead of first-round pick Allen Graves in the rotation, even if there’s a good chance that Graves leapfrogs him throughout the season.
The Raptors could use Battle’s 3-point shooting
Through his changing role with the Raptors—he averaged almost ten more minutes per game in his rookie season—one thing has stayed consistent: Battle’s 3-point accuracy. Battle shot 40.5% on 4.4 attempts in the 2024-25 season. His volume dropped notably as his role shrank, but he still shot 41.2%. The only Raptors player who shot a higher percentage was Alijah Martin, who appeared in just 23 games.
With Kawhi Leonard hopefully headed back to Toronto, the Raptors are bringing in a high-level 3-point shooter. However, the trade will also send Brandon Ingram, who was one of the Raptors’ best 3-point shooters last season, and Gradey Dick to LA. Moreover, Sandro Mamukelashvili left in free agency. Allen Graves is a promising 3-point prospect, but needs to prove himself at the NBA level first.
Either way, Battle’s 3-point shooting could make a real difference for the Raptors’ offense if he’s in the rotation consistently—especially considering that Leonard will have to miss a bunch of games for load management, so he can be ready for a deep playoff run and may even have to serve a suspension. A team hoping to contend for one of the top spots in the Eastern Conference needs better spacing than what the Raptors had last season, and Battle can help with that.
Assuming that Leonard wears a Raptors jersey next season, the top eight of the rotation is pretty much set. Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Leonard, Scottie Barnes, and Jakob Poeltl will likely start with Jamal Shead, Ja’Kobe Walter, and Collin Murray-Boyles as the main players off the bench. That leaves room for Battle to be ninth or tenth in the rotation, depending on the plans for Kyle Anderson and Graves and, of course, injuries. That’s a step up from last season, when there were at least ten players steadily in front of him in the regular-season rotation.
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