It would be nice and neat if the Toronto Raptors could take their disappointing 2023-24 season, pack it up in a box marked "team failure" and put it up on the shelf, never to be thought of again. It would be merely a statistic in the record books, but otherwise have no other impact moving forward.
Unfortunately, that's not how the world works. The team's failure last season reflects poorly on those players who were a part of that failure, especially those players getting minutes during the moribund losing streak to end the year. Putting up bad numbers when your team is winning is often chalked up to circumstance, a decreased role, giving up touches to help the team, etc. Bad numbers when you are losing can tank a career.
Which players on the Raptors actively damaged their contract values last season? Let's look at four players who will be hitting free agency in the next two seasons and evaluate why they are likely to make less money after being party to the disaster that was the Raptors' 2023-24 season.
No. 4: Ochai Agbaji
The Toronto Raptors acquired second-year wing Ochai Agbaji at the Trade Deadline in February, buying low on a recent lottery pick who ostensibly fit the needs of their roster like a glove. Agbaji was billed as a 3-and-D wing with some shot creation juice who was a winner at the college level (national championship his final year at Kansas).
The reality was that Agbaji had a slow start to his career in Utah, and landing in Toronto things went from bad to worse. The ostensible shooter hit only 21.7 percent of his 3-point attempts and 61.1 percent of his free throws. He competed on defense but didn't show himself to be a difference-maker on that end.
By the start of next season the Raptors have to decide whether or not to exercise his fourth-year rookie option for 2025-26, and after his performance to close the season it's not unthinkable that they could decline that option and let Agbaji move on in a year.