Raptors: the offseason so far
the record
The desk keeps a day-by-day record of everything that happens to the Toronto Raptors: results with the players who decided them, injury changes, roster moves, reports, milestones and the schedule ahead. The story of the offseason is written from that record every week; the timeline below is the record itself, each line linked to the page that proves it.
The projection
all 30 teams →The season depends most on Scottie Barnes (8.7 wins without him), Jamal Shead (6.3 wins without him) and RJ Barrett (3.8 wins without him): on/off from 2025-26, details under Injuries. Computed Thu, Sep 10; the method is on the methods page.
Day by day
1 days on the recordThe franchise today
Updated 2026-09-09Now
Darko Rajakovic begins his fourth season as head coach of a roster built around Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes. Ingram arrived from New Orleans on February 6, 2025, in a trade that sent out Kelly Olynyk, Bruce Brown, a 2026 first-round pick and a 2031 second-rounder. Barnes, Toronto's No. 4 pick in 2021, plays alongside RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley, both acquired in the December 2023 trade that sent OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn to New York. Jakob Poeltl starts at center, with Jamal Shead, Malachi Smith and Collin Murray-Boyles rounding out the rotation. Last season Toronto went 46-36, with a net rating of plus-2.9 (11th in the league) built on a defense that ranked 5th while the offense ranked only 14th. At the 2026 trade deadline the team added Chris Paul, who retired soon after. Bobby Webster now runs basketball operations after Masai Ujiri was not re-signed following the 2025 Finals. The payroll sits at $202.7 million, above the $200.4 million luxury tax line, led by Barnes ($41.8M), Ingram ($40.0M), Quickley ($32.5M) and Barrett ($29.6M). Toronto owns its first-round picks through 2030 and a 2027 first-round swap, owing only a 2030 second-rounder to the Clippers. The talk of the summer is a trade agreed to on June 30, 2026 to bring Kawhi Leonard back from the Clippers, still unfinished amid a dispute over his endorsement arrangements.
Identity and rivalries
Toronto has carried the We The North identity since the 2015 rebrand, a defiant, chip-on-the-shoulder stance built around being the only NBA team based outside the United States. That identity still drives the fan base, from Jurassic Park viewing parties outside the arena to a program that treats every deep playoff run as validation of the outsider label. The rivalries that matter run through the Atlantic Division. The Knicks matchup carries extra weight now that Barrett and Quickley, both acquired from New York, face their former team every year. The older rivalry is with the Nets, dating back to when the franchise played in New Jersey, with the two sides fighting every year for playoff position within the same division, a rivalry that predates almost everything else in franchise history.
Home, owners and numbers
The Raptors play at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, with team business run by MLSE and practices held at the OVO Athletic Centre in Exhibition Place. Two numbers hang from the rafters: Bill Russell's No. 6, retired by every NBA team in 2022, and Kyle Lowry's No. 7, set to go up during the 2026-27 season for the point guard who ran Toronto through its championship years. The franchise's Hall of Fame ties include Chris Bosh, inducted as a player and as a member of the 2008 Olympic team, and Lenny Wilkens, inducted three times over, as player, coach and member of the 1992 Olympic team.
What they are chasing
Toronto is chasing a longer playoff run than last spring, when a seven-game first-round series against Cleveland ended the season. The open question hanging over the roster is whether the Kawhi Leonard trade actually gets finalized before camp opens, and how a rotation already built around Ingram, Barnes, Barrett and Quickley makes room for him if it does. Fans are split on two things: whether ownership pushes payroll even higher to fit Leonard in, and whether this group even needs him to get past the kind of Game 7 exit that ended last season.
The Raptors were founded in 1995 as an NBA expansion team alongside the Vancouver Grizzlies, and have been the league's only Canadian club since the 2001-02 season, when the Grizzlies relocated to Memphis. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference at Scotiabank Arena, shared with the Maple Leafs of the NHL. A group led by John Bitove paid a $125 million expansion fee in 1993, with partners Allan Slaight, the Bank of Nova Scotia, David Peterson and Phil Granovsky. The name Toronto Raptors was picked in 1994 from a fan contest, influenced by the film Jurassic Park, with colors of red, purple, black and "Naismith" silver, honoring basketball inventor James Naismith. Isiah Thomas was the first general manager.
The team went 21-61 in its debut season under point guard Damon Stoudamire, the seventh pick in 1995 and Rookie of the Year. Marcus Camby arrived as the second overall pick in 1996. In 1998, Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. (later Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment) bought the franchise for $467 million, and general manager Glen Grunwald traded Antawn Jamison for Vince Carter, who won Rookie of the Year in 1998-99.
Carter led Toronto to the playoffs in 2000, 2001 and 2002, including the franchise's first playoff series win in 2001 and a trip to the Eastern Conference semifinals. He was traded to the New Jersey Nets in 2004.
Chris Bosh then became the team's leader. Under general manager Bryan Colangelo, hired for 2006-07, and with 2006 first overall pick Andrea Bargnani, the Raptors won the Atlantic Division and reached the playoffs in 2007-08. Bosh left for the Miami Heat as a free agent in July 2010.
Masai Ujiri took over as general manager in 2013 and built a consistent playoff team around guards DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, winning five Division titles and posting the franchise's best regular season in 2018. After that year's playoffs, Ujiri fired coach Dwane Casey and traded DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, later adding Marc Gasol at the deadline. Forward Pascal Siakam, the 27th pick in 2016, won the Most Improved Player award. In 2019, the Raptors won their first Eastern Conference title and their first NBA championship, beating the Golden State Warriors in the Finals.
Leonard left in free agency after the title, Lowry was traded in 2021, and Siakam was dealt to the Indiana Pacers in 2024, leaving Scottie Barnes as the new face of the franchise.