The Toronto Raptors have a couple of glaring needs as they try to build out their core over the next couple of seasons.
Scottie Barnes is entrenched as their No. 1 player, the cornerstone to the foundation they are building in Toronto. Immanuel Quickley signed a five-year contract to grow alongside him. RJ Barrett is for now the third member of the core, and young wings Gradey Dick and Ja'Kobe Walter are going to compete to prove they belong in that core.
The Raptors need another forward
What the Raptors need moving forward is help at the forward positions; Barrett, Dick and Walter are all best deployed as 2s, so if the Raptors could find another true forward to add to the core their lineup balance and versatility would be unlocked.
More so, with Barnes growing as an on-ball playmaker and both Quickley and Barrett comfortable with the ball, the Raptors need a difference-maker who can thrive without the ball as a shooter, cutter, screener, etc. Someone who is versatile enough to defend multiple positions at a high level and play a variety of schemes would be maximize Barnes' ability to do the same.
Finding such a player is extremely difficult; trade targets like Brandon Ingram and Jerami Grant don't quite move the needle. One possibility looms in the 2025 NBA Draft, a dream too good to hope for: the presumptive No. 1 overall pick, Cooper Flagg.
Cooper Flagg would transform the Raptors
It may seem outlandish to think that the Raptors will be bad enough to land the No. 1 pick, but the worst team in the league is statistically unlikely to get the top pick; the flattened lottery odds mean that nearly all of the teams in the lottery have a shot at leaping up, and being "bad" only keeps you from falling too far.
Last year, the Atlanta Hawks had the 10th-best odds to win the lottery at 3 percent, but then leapt up to take the top spot and drafted French wing Zaccherie Risacher. The team that wins the lottery in 2025 will have a much more valuable prize.
For some positions, having an entrenched starter means you get significantly diminishing returns by adding a second player at the same position. Drafting an elite point guard means either he or Immanuel Quickley would be underutilized, or the Raptors would try to play a lineup that doesn't fit perfectly together because two pure point guards are jammed into it.
That's not the case at forward, where the mantra is essentially "the more, the merrier". Modern lineups are unlocked when you have multiple forward-sized players. Currently, the Raptors have just one true forward worthy of rotation minutes in Scottie Barnes, with combo bigs like Kelly Olynyk and Chris Boucher or 2-guards like RJ Barrett and Gradey Dick being asked to stretch a position one way or the other.
Cooper Flagg and Scottie Barnes would give Toronto a potent combination at the forward positions, two players with size and skill who could crossmatch defensively and flourish together offensively. Flagg is the rare superstar who doesn't need the ball in his hands, instead doing everything from cutting and rebounding to spacing up and playmaking on the roll.
On defense, Flagg is an elite talent, with instinctual movement and explosive athleticism. Together he and Barnes would form the foundation of a Top-10 unit on their own, and together have the size and strength to play some minutes at the 4 and 5. At other times, the Raptors can put in a traditional center like Jakob Poeltl and have unparalleled size on the front line.
The odds of the Raptors landing Flagg are low, but that doesn't mean they are impossible, and adding a killer like Flagg would put together a truly dangerous core in Toronto. He and Barnes would be the combination required to take the Raptors from a scrappy team on the rise to a group with the talent necessary to win it all.