Alright, I’d bet that if you asked a long-time Raptors fan who the biggest free agent signing in franchise history is, they’d probably mention names like Hedo Türkoglu or DeMarre Carroll — that’s actually something I looked into recently. But there’s one guy who might get overlooked in that conversation, and I’d argue he was a pretty noteworthy signing at the time. Considering Toronto’s limited appeal to free agents, grabbing Otto Porter Jr. seemed like a sleeper move; I remember being pretty excited to see a savvy veteran and a still-solid player (at least I thought so) join the Raptors.
Raptors signing Otto Porter looked like an underrated move (at the time)
People might forget, but Otto Porter Jr. was pretty much the Washington Wizards’ third guy behind a talented backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal. Drafted as a top-three pick in 2013, Porter Jr. might not have turned into a superstar, but he was a reliable player for what he brought to the table —solid wing defense and a pretty good three-point shot. In fact, during his 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons with the Wizards, he shot an impressive 43.4% and 44.1% from three, respectively.
Unfortunately, in the years that followed, Porter Jr. mostly struggled with injuries and wasn’t able to stay on the court for long stretches, which made it hard for him to make a real impact on his teams’ success. That changed when he joined the Warriors in 2022, where he proved to be a solid 3-and-D wing veteran on a championship-caliber Dubs squad that eventually lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy at the end of the season — definitely the highlight of the Georgetown alum’s career. And during that championship year, Porter Jr. also returned to a level of availability we hadn’t seen since his Wizards days, playing in 63 games during the 2021-22 season.
So, I, along with other Raptors fans, had every reason to believe that Porter Jr. was really stepping up in his NBA career. We thought he could bring valuable championship experience and veteran leadership to Toronto, which was still figuring out how to balance its rising young players with its established stars.
Porter Jr. deserves all the praise for outright choosing to take his talents to Toronto right after coming off a championship year, but it seemed that was really the peak of his NBA contributions, as his time with the Raptors turned out to be an absolute dud. Porter Jr. was not able to keep a healthy streak going, only playing in a total of 23 games in two flat seasons, which was a lackluster return for a two-year, $12.4 million contract.
On the bright side, the Raptors were able to use Otto Porter Jr.'s dead money in a sneaky 2024 trade deadline deal. That trade sent OPJ, along with recently acquired Kira Lewis Jr. and a 2024 first-round pick, in exchange for Canadian vet Kelly Olynyk and Ochai Agbaji. Olynyk ended up providing decent production and was later included in the Brandon Ingram trade, while Agbaji turned out to be a solid contributor in Toronto after a quiet first year.
Looking back, the Otto Porter Jr. experiment didn’t exactly end badly for Toronto, but it also wasn’t a huge win. It was more of an under-the-radar investment that didn’t quite pay off — Porter Jr. just rode out the final wave before ultimately retiring in March 2024.