Raptors News: Latest evaluation has nothing exciting to say about their offseason

The Toronto Raptors had a relatively quiet offseason.

That wasn't all that surprising given the exciting and momentous activity of the trade deadline. Over the course of six weeks the Raptors pulled off four significant trades to remake the roster and move on from a number of key players.

They could have gone into the summer and continued the makeover, utilizing cap space to target free agents and trading veterans such as Jakob Poeltl. Instead, they made one minor trade to add Davion Mitchell and otherwise just agreed to new contracts with a few of their players and made four draft picks, none of them in the lottery.

Quiet summers aren't necessarily a bad thing, but they certainly don't engender much excitement. The Boston Celtics had a quiet offseason, just bringing back the band, but are poised as the title favorites heading into next season.

The Toronto Raptors don't get the same confidence from a quiet offseason, as they had a truly atrocious year last season, including a record losing streak, and their path out of it is not yet trod.

That's why Eric Pincus, writing for Bleacher Report, recently expressed a lack of enthusiasm when discussing Toronto's offseason. Pincus went through all 30 teams in the league and assigned a one-word summary of their offseason. His word for the Raptors?

"Mid"

The Raptors had a "Mid" offseason

Older fans may not be familiar with the Gen-Z term but can probably figure out what it means. The Raptors' offseason was not just quiet in the eyes of Pincus, it was entirely unexciting. What's more, the lack of exciting steps in one direction or the other may mean that the Raptors are trapped in the middle of the standings, not good enough to make any noise and not bad enough to land a top draft pick.

That "mid"dle of the standings is in some ways the worst place to be. Some teams land there on their way to something better; the Oklahoma City Thunder did two seasons ago, then last season had the most wins in the Western Conference.

Are the Raptors on an exciting path? It's not yet clear. Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley and even RJ Barrett are young and still have plenty of upside, and they barely got to play together as a group before Scottie Barnes fractured his hand. Could they grow together through this season and be the foundation of a longtime contender in the East? It's possible, if not likely, given the major unknowns and how hard it is to sustain success in the NBA.

This next season will answer a lot of questions, and will set the stage for a step up into the lights or another leap down into the abyss. It just might mean this year is not all that exciting. If Barnes explodes into a superstar and both Quickley and Barrett take leaps, the Raptors could be extremely exciting. More likely, they are good enough, the Raps win some games, and they make some decisions for next season.

This time next year, the Raptors will hope that Pincus looks at their team and concludes they had a glow up.

It just may not get the Raptors out of the middle this coming season.