The Raptors’ season left fans excited about the future and daydreaming about the moves the front office could make this summer, at the next trade deadline, and in the following offseasons to transform the Raptors from a young team that exceeded expectations to a legitimate title contender.
However, the Raptors face one notable obstacle: Money. They have a ton of it committed to Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram, Immanuel Quickley, and Jakob Poeltl on long-term deals. RJ Barrett is extension-eligible, and Sandro Mamukelashvili is widely expected to decline his player option and hit free agency for a bigger payout. Keeping all of them will be incredibly difficult—not that the Raptors should want to keep all of them—and their options this offseason are limited outside of trades that send out significant salary.
Barrett isn’t at the top of the list of players the Raptors should want to move on from, but his contract situation makes his future in Toronto all but certain. A willingness to take a pay cut on his next deal to ensure that he gets to stay a Raptor could help with that, as Sam Vecenie suggested on the Raptors Offseason episode of the Game Theory Podcast. Vecenie suggested three years for 75 million for Barrett and trades that send out Brandon Ingram and/or Jakob Poeltl.
RJ Barrett wants to be in Toronto—and maybe that will help the Raptors
RJ Barrett had a phenomenal playoff run. He averaged 24.1 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1.3 steals, stepping up big when Immanuel Quickley had to sit out with a hamstring issue and Brandon Ingram really struggled before missing the last few games with a heel injury. He made a strong case to be considered part of the Raptors’ core alongside Scottie Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles.
The Raptors would not have pushed the Cavaliers to seven games without Barrett—literally. He hit a clutch three to force Game 7. That 3-pointer firmly established Barrett as a hometown hero in Toronto. Barrett, who grew up watching the Raptors, was adamant in his end-of-season interview that he wanted to stay in Toronto. He is still under contract for the 2026-27 season, but the Raptors will have to make a decision on his future soon. While they don’t necessarily have to extend him this summer, they have to decide whether they consider him a part of the team’s future or a trade chip.
Maybe, they can use his desire to stay with the franchise to negotiate a new contract that would give them some financial flexibility instead of locking in yet another massive, long-term contract.
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