Raptors off-season – With a multi-year extension for head coach Darko Rajakovic expected early this week, the Toronto Raptors have cleared the feel-good part of their off-season. Now comes the harder question: how they move a 46-win team into the contending class while staying nea
The easy part is already finishing for the Toronto Raptors.
Early this week, the franchise is expected to announce a multi-year contract extension for head coach Darko Rajakovic. It’s being framed as both reward and commitment: a show of faith in the way Rajakovic has developed a young team. and a bet that he can keep pushing that growth as Toronto tries to move from “pretty good” to “actually good” over the length of the deal.
It also comes with a backdrop that matters inside the Raptors’ building: the executive decision-making is already being locked in. Bobby Webster’s new contract. which kicks in for 2026-27 and runs five years. adds continuity to a front office that now carries the same long-term timeline as Rajakovic. The timing is particularly notable because it lines up with what figures to be the prime of Scottie Barnes’ career.
Rajakovic’s case for the extension doesn’t need much explaining. Toronto improved from 30 to 46 wins, and in the Eastern Conference it jumped from 11th place to fifth. The Raptors’ identity under Rajakovic—hard playing, ball-hawking, and built to defend—showed up in the numbers too. Toronto posted the NBA’s fifth-rated defence. even while centre Jakob Poeltl played only 46 games. hampered in many more by a back problem.
But that defensive grit only gets you so far in the postseason. The low-hanging fruit is gone, and the Raptors know it. With Webster and Rajakovic now positioned as part of the future, the pace of the off-season is shifting from rewarding stability to testing it.
The timing is brutal in a practical way. The NBA draft is set for Tuesday and Wednesday night. followed by the related league-wide roster shuffling that comes with it. The Raptors can’t treat this like a reset. Their question—how to leave the league’s “mushy middle” and land more firmly in the contending class—has to be answered in a tight window.
Financial reality is part of the pressure. The salary owed to the five projected starters takes up 98.9 per cent of the salary cap. and the current payroll leaves Toronto roughly $6.7 million under the luxury tax threshold. In other words: major flexibility is limited, which makes every roster move feel heavier than it would on paper.
Webster laid out that mindset when he spoke after news of his contract extension earlier this month. He pointed to internal growth after a season that included the Raptors being the youngest team in the playoffs. and he suggested the next phase may mean “start to push some chips into the middle.” He also compared the way championship teams are built—citing that the Knicks were constructed primarily through trades and free agency. while San Antonio was constructed from the draft—and said Toronto is studying how different routes can lead to the same end.
So the Raptors’ off-season test begins the moment they start shuffling actual rotation players, not just contracts.
The most likely development as the draft and roster chaos unfold involves Gradey Dick. The fourth-year wing, who was leapfrogged in the rotation by Ja’Kobe Walter, Jamison Battle and A.J. Lawson in the final weeks of the season, is expected to be the subject of a new chapter. Per sources. Dick would be open to a move. looking for a fresh start and an opportunity to build on his promising second season.
His numbers there were clear: 14.4 points per game with 54 starts. Year 3 went the other direction. He averaged six points per game with one start.
Toronto’s view on Dick fits a broader theme: whether rebuilding teams can be convinced to take another run at unlocking his potential. He is 22 years old and a former lottery pick. and he has one year and $7.1 million left on his rookie deal. The remaining salary is the type that can be added to a bigger deal—or. potentially. moved into cap space with the Chicago Bulls. who have $55 million in space. and the Brooklyn Nets. who have $33 million in space. for the price of something like a second-round pick.
But trading Dick for cap space would also offer a more direct benefit for Toronto: room to retain Sandro Mamukelashvili. Mamukelashvili had a breakout season in his first chance at meaningful minutes—11.2 points and 4.9 rebounds while shooting 38.9 per cent from three on nearly four attempts per game.
He has a player option on the second year of his contract, set for $2.8 million, which he will almost certainly decline, turning him into a free agent. The Raptors may struggle to keep him with their current flexibility if they don’t reshape their payroll.
If Dick ends up being traded into another team’s cap space. Toronto could offer a deal for Mamukelashvili that starts at about $10 million; the logic is that it might be enough to keep him. but nothing is assured in a market where floor-spreading bigs are always in demand. Mamukelashvili, at 27, is also likely to command more than Toronto can currently offer without risking tipping over the luxury-tax threshold.
And then there’s the Raptors’ other most valuable trade chip: RJ Barrett.
The 26-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., is coming off his best all-around season in Toronto. He averaged 19.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists, with a career-high 58.5 true shooting. In the playoffs, his line was 24.1/7.0/4.0/56.3.
Barrett has been a productive player for Toronto and a solid locker-room leader, but the roster crunch is real. He is eligible for a four-year contract extension worth as much as $185.6 million. and given the Raptors’ financial constraints. he could become a casualty of the team needing to make room for other priorities—especially if the goal is to keep Mamukelashvili.
This is where the off-season becomes unforgiving for Toronto’s front office. The Raptors coming off their first playoff appearance since 2021-22 can’t afford to idle or step backward. Their starters aren’t in a position where Toronto can quietly “wait and see.” Barnes is entering his sixth season and the prime of his career. Barrett is heading into Year 8. For Quickley, it will be Year 7. Ingram and Poeltl are set to begin Year 11.
Any moves have to improve the team near term. Completing a trade is one thing. Improving a 46-win team while staying under the luxury tax is another.
Toronto does have other contracts it can use. Immanuel Quickley is tied to four years and $130 million. Poeltl has four years and $103.5 million, though only $81.3 million is guaranteed.
The problem is obvious: appetite to add long-term commitments for players who may not significantly outperform expectations in a more restrictive salary-cap environment appears as low as it has ever been.
Quickley is at least easier to justify as an asset—a solid NBA point guard who can play well off the ball. a fit around Barnes and Ingram. Poeltl’s deal is the obstacle. He is 30. and he comes with a season that didn’t match the expectation of a move-up piece. capped by a similarly underwhelming playoff showing.
That’s why names start to surface.
League sources have suggested the Raptors could be interested in Bucks centre Myles Turner if Milwaukee goes into fire-sale mode after a potential Antetokounmpo trade. Turner is 30 and coming off a down year. He has three years and $83.8 million remaining on his deal.
Whether Turner is an upgrade on Poeltl is debated on fit and impact. But the profile of floor-stretching rim protection aligns better with what Toronto has needed. Over the past four seasons, Turner averaged 1.9 blocks and 1.8 threes per game while shooting 38.3 per cent from deep.
The spacing argument matters after what happened with the Cavaliers in the playoffs. Cleveland refused to guard Poeltl outside 10 feet, and the result was spacing issues for players like Barnes and Ingram.
A deal built around Poeltl and Dick could work financially. If Milwaukee is rebuilding, the Bucks would likely want first-round picks as compensation for absorbing an extra year of Poeltl’s contract. How many would be the question.
Another name has also appeared in connection with Toronto: Sacramento Kings big man Domantas Sabonis. Those rumours were also prevalent at the trade deadline. and in previous reporting there was a strong sense that Sabonis’s camp was driving part of the conversation. trying to get the 30-year-old out of Sacramento’s rebuilding situation.
Objectively, Sabonis’s skill set could fit Toronto’s offence. Prior to an injury-plagued 2025-26 season, he averaged 19.2 points, 13.3 rebounds and 7.2 assists on 62.5 per cent shooting with the Kings.
But there are questions that come with the cost. His defence and rim protection would be difficult to absorb, and Toronto would also have to deal with the money—he has $45.5 million and $48.6 million remaining on the last two years of his contract.
A deal built around Poeltl and Barrett for Sabonis works financially, and the Kings are often connected to the Raptors because general manager Scott Perry drafted Barrett third overall when he ran the New York Knicks.
Still, the likely reality is blunt: fewer moves than more. The Raptors’ most significant transactions may end up being about moving on from Dick as part of an effort to retain Mamukelashvili. As the NBA transaction cycle heads into overdrive in the coming 10 days. the door remains open—because in a league as fluid as this one. a pathway to a bigger deal can appear quickly.
For Toronto, though, the larger point is already in front of them. Rajakovic will be extended. Webster will be set. Now the club has to prove it can turn that stability into the kind of roster that wins when the games tighten up.
Toronto Raptors Darko Rajakovic Bobby Webster Scottie Barnes Gradey Dick RJ Barrett Sandro Mamukelashvili Jakob Poeltl Myles Turner Domantas Sabonis Immanuel Quickley NBA draft