Anytime you have a devout fanbase, in any sport for that matter, you will undoubtedly hold a certain level of belief and faith in that athlete's or team's success.
And it goes without question that Raptors fans are often more than willing to support the cause through and through. Whether it's ups or downs, you can bet there will be those hardcore Raptors faithful who will live and die by the sword — even if the team itself has a considerable number of flaws.
Well, I think I just summarized what this current era of Raptors basketball projects onto the general basketball community — whether it's their fans who often see no wrong or the more analytical pundits and critical watchers (I don't know if I want to label them 'fans' per se).
In one of my last pieces, I referenced comments made by NBA columnist Zach Lowe, who noted that the largely overpaid guard Immanuel Quickley's play is absolutely critical for the Raptors' future. And in that same edition of The Zach Lowe Show, he would further discuss the Raptors' overall costly starting five, which features next to no shooting and an inexperienced bench.
Raptors show a ton of promise, but also raise just as many questions
"That's a starting five that includes, arguably, depending on how [Immanuel] Quickley plays ... no good three-point shooters. I think [Immanuel] Quickley is a good three-point shooter, but I just don't I just fundamentally don't know how that lineup functions on offense. And by that I mean like I don't know who has the ball when, what combinations are used. I just don't I don't know how it works. And then it makes the bench like 'so all the guards I acquired via draft and trade are just on the bench.'"Zach Lowe, July 10, 2025
"All our shooting guards Gradey Dick, Ja'Kobe Walker [he meant to say Walter], [Ochai] Agbaji, Jamal Shead, who's not a shooting guard, he's a point guard, come off the bench along with [Collin] Murray-Boyles, who I like and they're very excited about. Jamison Battle's hanging there ... It's a bench of unproven, unremarkable, inexperienced and obviously they're going to stagger minutes extremely. Like two of those five guys, two of those four on ball guys will be on the floor at all times ... I just fundamentally look at those five guys in the starting five and I'm like I just don't know what this is. I don't know how it translates to functional NBA offense."Zach Lowe, July 10, 2025
Toronto is tapped into this core, which is just a no-brainer. Whether you think it's a core worth a million bucks or one that’s barely worth a hundred is up for debate. Although, I’ve also made it known in many of my other pieces that I don’t necessarily agree with some of Toronto’s recent decisions, primarily the selection of Collin Murray-Boyles in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Now, I think Lowe's comments are really striking because they largely say the quiet part out loud — that Toronto's roster is really odd for what they strive to achieve. Like he mentions, as talented as some of the young guys are, having a bench of many works-in-progress is not going to elevate your ceiling much (even if a couple of them experience a jump in production).
I think it's so easy for the optimistic Raptors watcher to just hope things play out, and I’ll give it to those thinkers — it definitely puts a ton of ease on the heart to not stress out. But when we have columnists and analysts looking at the Raptors as a whole, it’s not hard to see why they might not be drinking the Kool-Aid when it comes to this "watch out, they’ll surprise you" type of core.
Then again, I get that it's just Summer League, but look at how the young Raptors studs are tearing it up down in Vegas. From that perspective, it seems like Toronto has it all figured out. We really just need to sit tight and wait until we can actually witness a full regular season with this core locked in.