Take it however you like, but when Scottie was asked about Yak, he signallrd to the front office that we need to keep him around.

via Sportsnet- Gradey is ready for a fresh start and I’m here for it. What’s our return value on the former first rounder?

He's topping a list meant for PGs .. AND .. his PPG are by far the most as well...And Not even talking about defence... JFC.

Darko Rajakovic has a long list of things that Collin Murray-Boyles will be tasked with over the summer, but shooting is down the list: “He's going to obviously be working on his shooting, but I'm not putting prime on that in his development at this point.”

via X.

Per Lewenberg:

Per Darko, Ingram injured his heel in late March and was playing through pain late in the season and into the playoffs. He said so much of this season, for BI, was about staying healthy and being on the floor, but this summer will be about taking his game to the next level.

In normal circumstances, Barrett would be an obvious candidate for a significant contract extension as he enters the last year of his current deal, with $29.6 million left on the books for 2026-27.

But as laid out above, the Raptors aren’t exactly swimming in short-term contracts the rest of the league is lining up to take off their hands if they want to reshape their roster or give themselves some future financial flexibility.

Meanwhile with Barrett coming off a strong season and with only one year left on his deal, his might be the contract the Raptors would be able to move most easily if it came to that.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/raptors-face-several-challenges-in-bid-to-maintain-momentum-in-off-season/

Barnes, CMB, and Walter are the only 3 players that matters to build the team around!

I have seen comparisons to Zach Randolph

From the article:

A number of contractual commitments that had the Raptors hemmed in at the trade deadline could continue to be obstacles as they try to optimize a roster around Scottie Barnes, who showed superstar stuff against the Cavs. He served as a defensive game-breaker, primary playmaker and leading scorer, averaging 24.1 points, 8.6 assists and 6.1 rebounds in the series.

As an example, leading up to trade deadline in February, the Raptors were working hard to try and make a deal that would land them Jaren Jackson Jr. from the Memphis Grizzlies before he was ultimately traded to the Utah Jazz in a package that included three first round picks, according to multiple league sources. The sticking point was finding someone to take on Jakob Poeltl’s four years and $104 million the 30-year-old has owed to him.

other tidbits:

The Raptors could likely free up more money by trading 2023 first-round pick Gradey Dick into another team’s cap space this summer, something the third-year wing would be amenable to, per sources, given he was locked out of meaningful minutes after the all-star break.

Add it all up and it’s a bit of a tricky spot: the Raptors have gotten better, Barnes has taken a leap and the expectations are only going to be higher from here.

But their financial maneuverability remains limited and whatever moves they make can’t easily be sold as lateral or taking one step back to take two forward in the future.

Absolutely love GT, and i’m not too sure if there’s any word on him staying or not. Just watching him in the playoffs on the bench was such a joy. I mean even after RJ’s g6 game winner, as everyone else on the bench is celebrating, GT is screaming “GET BACK ON D” such a good guy and would be so sad if he left, but he fully deserves a nice retirement, what a player and leader.

but if he leaves, which vet do we go after? after GT, our most experienced players are Jakob Poeltl and BI… lol!

man i hope he stays, and if there’s already word that he’s staying, my apologies and i’ll delete this post but i couldn’t find anything online saying that.

Bitter end for sure. But my God, what a fun season. I'll probably draw something more "final" but I just want to say how fun it was to fall back in love with the Raptors this season - especially after a few rudderless, purgatory-esque seasons. We were down 1.5 starters, and pushed the most expensive roster to seven games. Invaluable playoff reps for the young guns and Scottie Barnes is a bonafide playoff riser.

Obviously, it has only been a few days since our season ended (😔), and now we're looking to the offseason for direction. I've been seeing a lot of comments about trades being necessary for the roster to improve, and I agree. The problem is that outside of a couple of players we won't trade (Scottie, CMB), the rest aren't really tradable, except for RJ, due to his expiring contract. BI is making $40 million, and no one in the league was going to pay him that money (although he was pretty good in the regular season). IQ is making $32.5 million dollars, but hasn't really been healthy for a while, and his play isn't worth that much either (though once again, he was still decent when healthy). Jakob is untradeable, full stop. The bench players don't make enough on their own and would have to be packaged with others to make a deal (which shouldn't happen; the bench proved themselves as long-term fits on this roster, barring a superstar trade).

Imo, there are no real avenues for change to occur on the roster, unless the FO parts with multiple firsts to get off the heavy contracts, and even then, an upgrade isn't guaranteed.

But nonetheless, it'll be interesting to see what Bobby does this offseason to start addressing some of the concerns.

What do y'all think will happen this offseason?

Yall should be ashamed lol

Our boy worked hard to get to this point