The Raptors pride themselves on their defensive identity. They have size, length, and defensive tenacity all across the board, spearheaded by Scottie Barnes, who made the All-Defensive Second Team this year, and leaned on that to fuel their playoff run. The Raptors were a middling offensive team, finishing the regular season fifteenth in offensive rating, but they made up for it with the fifth-best defense, which allowed them to force a ton of turnovers and lead the league in fastbreak points.
The only Eastern Conference teams that sported a better defensive rating than the Raptors were the Pistons and Celtics. With Giannis Antetokounmpo headed to Miami in a blockbuster trade that sent Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, and several draft picks to Milwaukee, the Raptors have new competition when it comes to the top defenses in the Eastern Conference.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is a former Defensive Player of the Year and has four consecutive All-Defensive First Team selections on his resume. Scoring against him and Bam Adebayo, who was named to the All-Defensive Second Team this year and finished third in DPOY voting just two years ago, will be incredibly difficult. Moreover, Miami also has some good perimeter defenders, like Davion Mitchell, with whom the Raptors are very familiar after he played 44 games for them in the 2024-25 season.
Miami will look to enter the playoff race next season
It has only been a few years since the Heat made the 2023 NBA Finals despite entering the playoffs as the eighth seed. They took down the Bucks, Knicks, and Celtics before falling to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in five games. And yet, a lot has changed since then.
The only key players from that team who were still on the roster this past season were Adebayo and Herro, and the Heat missed the playoffs for the first time since 2019. They finished tenth in the Eastern Conference with a 43-39 record and lost a one-point overtime game to the Hornets in the play-in tournament.
After trading for a superstar like Antetokounmpo, the Heat will be desperate to achieve more than that and compete for a spot at the top of the Eastern Conference—or at least substantial playoff success. While injuries could derail those plans—Antetokounmpo has only played 70 or more games once in the last five seasons, including 36 games in 2025-26—the Raptors should be prepared for a new team to worry about as they try to build on this year’s success of making the playoffs.
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