The Raptors are preparing for a crucial and tricky offseason. They will have to strike the right balance between building on this season’s success of making the playoffs and not overreacting by pushing in all their trade chips for the wrong player. They have to improve the scoring and offensive creation around Scottie Barnes without compromising their defensive identity too much.
Trades are the easiest pathway to adding new talent to this Raptors roster. But the Raptors will have to navigate a significant obstacle: the players they would like to hold on to increased their value, while the ones they would be happy to part ways with tanked theirs.
The Raptors’ season was full of breakouts and disappointments
Two of the most pleasant surprises of the 2025-26 season for the Raptors were Collin Murray-Boyles’s readiness to contribute to a winning team immediately and Scottie Barnes’s dominant playoff run. Both should be considered off the table in trade talks, though.
Murray-Boyles and Barnes weren’t the only players who impressed this season. Ja’Kobe Walter turned into a reliable 3-and-D wing in the second half of the season, shooting 47.8% from three on 4.7 attempts per game after the All-Star break. He didn’t make a ton of shots in the playoffs, but we should cut him some slack considering that it was his first postseason run and that he was pushed into a much bigger role than expected due to injuries to Immanuel Quickley and Brandon Ingram.
RJ Barrett had the opposite playoff experience. He stepped up big as the Raptors’ leading scorer and shot creator, writing a fairytale story for himself in the process. He carried the team he grew up watching to a Game 7 with a clutch 3-pointer in front of an adoring Toronto crowd.
Barrett and Walter are two players the Raptors would probably like to keep around, but if they decide to make a big trade, potential trade partners will be interested in either with Barnes and Murray-Boyles off the table. Jamal Shead falls into this category as well. He is a cheap backup point guard who perfectly embodies the team’s identity, but his ability to make winning plays in the playoffs made him a more interesting trade asset than he was just a few months ago.
Jakob Poeltl and Gradey Dick, meanwhile, are players the Raptors should be looking to move on from. Neither had a great 2025-26 campaign, though. Dick fell out of the rotation completely, and Poeltl dealt with a back injury that led to his worst season in years. While Dick is still an interesting trade target for teams looking for a low-risk high-reward swing, their trade values are not great after disappointing runs with the Raptors.
Brandon Ingram is another player who disappointed in the playoffs, much of which can be attributed to a heel injury that required him to have surgery. Still, teams won’t be eager to take on a massive contract for a player who just disappointed in the playoffs and dealt with another injury.
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