With the finals almost over and all but two teams sitting at home, the NBA world is heating up with trade chatter and free agency speculations. The Raptors are expected to be active to ensure that they can build on this season’s success after a top-five finish in the Eastern Conference and a return to the playoffs.
So is much of their competition in the Eastern Conference, though. The Detroit Pistons, in general, seem determined to improve their offense this offseason. Marc Stein linked them to two 3-point shooters in just his June 12 edition of The Stein Line: Dallas’ Kyrie Irving and the Pelicans’ Trey Murphy.
“That’s two shooters by the way, for those of you scoring at home, who have been connected to the Pistons in this piece,” Stein wrote. “After a 60-win season that ended in the second round of the playoffs, Detroit clearly knows what it needs.”
So, it seems that the Pistons are doing exactly what the Raptors should be doing this offseason: chasing 3-point shooters and offensive contributors. The Raptors need those things just as much as the Pistons, but they have primarily been linked to Knicks center Mitchell Robinson and Kings big man Domantas Sabonis (by official sources, not what fans would like them to do), and are known to be looking for a center upgrade.
The Raptors need offensive help
The Pistons and Raptors follow a very similar blueprint. Both were top-five defensive teams in the regular season, but middling offensive teams—although the Pistons are a few steps ahead with a top-ten offensive rating and an MVP candidate in Cade Cunningham. Both teams struggled immensely from behind the arc. The Raptors finished 21st in 3-point percentage across the league, and the Pistons 17th.
The Pistons seem determined to change that, and the Raptors should be, too. Irving and Murphy would also be great additions in Toronto, but Irving doesn’t even seem to be available right now, according to Stein’s reporting, and the Pelicans are asking a lot for Murphy.
Those are not the only options, though, and the Raptors have to explore any avenue they have to add 3-point shooting in the draft, with what limited resources they have in free agency, or on the trade market. Otherwise, they will enter the new season with the same issues that bothered them this season—a lack of spacing and trouble creating offense in the halfcourt—and, perhaps, even with the same ceiling.
Landing an upgrade at the center position would be nice, but the Raptors shouldn’t undervalue how much perimeter play and floor spacing matter.
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