My biggest takeaway from the Toronto Raptors preseason opener against the Miami Heat was how alarmingly undermanned the dinos felt at the five. All offseason, there were conversations about whether Jakob Poeltl and Collin Murray-Boyles were enough at the five, and after one meaningless preseason game, the answer feels like no. Thankfully, Kevin O'Connor may have revealed the perfect big for Toronto to target: in a recent piece he published for Yahoo Sports, he mentioned that Kel’el Ware could be available.
O’Connor’s piece focused on how the Milwaukee Bucks have the chance to control the trade market this season in what is a transitional year for them post-Giannis. He touched on how well Ware could provide value to their rebuild; he could also be a valuable trade chip to flip this season. After the way Toronto started preseason, it feels like they should at least be looking into this.
Ware is a unique big who would provide a floor-spacing tool the Raptors don’t have in their frontcourt. He’d be on an affordable contract, is still just 22 years old, and could relieve a ton of pressure from the back of Jakob Poeltl.
Ware could be the frontcourt X-factor Toronto needs
In 2025-26, Ware appeared in 77 games, averaging 11.1 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks while shooting 39.5 percent from deep on 3.0 attempts per game.
I recently wrote about how the more bodies Toronto could add to their frontcourt, the better. In that same piece, I also mentioned how a floor-spacing five could help this team diversify their frontcourt and take on a real win-by-committee approach at the center spot. Adding a stretch five would also give Toronto three completely different center looks in Darko Rajakovic’s rotation. You’d have CMB as your small-ball switchable defensive five-man, Jak as your traditional post-up big, and Ware as your gigantic shot-blocking floor spacer.
We’ve long talked about the spacing concerns with Toronto’s roster, and that’s definitely something Ware could help address. Just the image of Scottie Barnes pushing the open floor and dumping the ball off to a trailing Ware for a three is so enticing to me.
Ware has had questions about his drive and motor, and if there is a place for him to really unlock that, what better team than one with a coach like Darko Rajakovic, who is so big on player empowerment?
In all honesty, I’m not sure the Raptors have the assets the Bucks would need to consider moving Ware, especially since he's not even a year removed from being a central piece in their return for Giannis. But if he has a slow start or gets off on the wrong foot with Taylor Jenkins and gets thrown on the trade block, Bobby Webster needs to get on the phone. He’s definitely not a sure thing, but the obvious shortcomings of a Jak and CMB frontcourt rotation are there, and if you can add another big to this team, especially one who can shoot, the ceiling skyrockets.
It’s definitely a perfect-world scenario where Toronto would actually end up adding Ware at some point this season, but it’s not something that couldn’t happen. If this team reaches a point where it feels it can legitimately contend for a title, adding someone with Ware’s tools and upside, if he can become fully unlocked, may be exactly what this team needs.
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