MIAMI, FL – APRIL 12: Bruce Brown #11 of the Toronto Raptors attacks the ball with a dribble. … (+)
Getty Images
Toronto’s injury problems have gotten even worse this season, with All-Star forward Scottie Barnes suffering an ankle injury that will keep him sidelined for several weeks.
Burns, who played in just 14 games this year, looks to have improved considerably so far, averaging 20.6 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in an unfortunately small sample size.
He’s not the only one missing out on time. Immanuel Quickley, who signed a five-year contract worth $175 million in July, has appeared in just three games.
Barnes, Quickley and RJ Barrett have never played together this season as Barrett also missed the beginning of the year.
Then there’s Bruce Brown, who hasn’t even played at all this season due to a knee injury, but he could have provided the Raptors with a two-way bench presence.
In short, it’s been a bad year for Toronto from a health perspective.
But in a way, the silver lining to all of this is pretty big considering the development of the players who have had to take on the responsibility of the offense.
Grady Dick and Jacob Pertl were both outstanding. Dick, a second-year shooting guard from Kansas State, is scoring 17.9 points per game on a wide variety of shots.
Although his efficiency isn’t very high (41.3% from the field and 55.5% from live-action pedestrian shots), his work requires some context.
With Barnes and Quickley both sidelined, Dick has had to take on a more prominent role this season than he was originally supposed to. If anything, the 6-foot-6 guard was supposed to be the fourth or fifth scorer this year, so in many ways he can be forgiven for not living up to first-option expectations.
We’ve covered Peltl before, but he just stepped up. Armed with strong inside defense, he recorded 15.9 points and 11.6 rebounds, proving himself to be a major player.
Both developments bode very well for Toronto with everyone back healthy. The starting lineup of Pertl, Barnes, Barrett, Dick, and Quickley looks very strong, and with Brown coming off the bench as the primary bench scorer and playmaker, the Raptors have something.
And all are previous, including Ochai Agbaji (11.2 points, 4.2 rebounds) and Jonathan Mogbo (5.6 points, 4.4 rebounds), who have proven to be legitimate rotation players.
Brown will likely end his days in Toronto soon as a trade chip at the trade deadline, but the Raptors have plenty of reason to be optimistic heading into the 2025 offseason.
They are currently projected to have the No. 4 pick in the draft, which should be a strong class and could give them an incredibly strong foothold heading into next season.
So how should the Raptors proceed with the rest of this season?
It doesn’t make much sense to sacrifice positioning for a draft pick. And with both Quickley and Barnes out, that probably won’t be a problem.
Perhaps it’s time to focus on salary cap optimization.
As previously mentioned, Brown’s $23 million salary is set to expire, so he could be used as a trade chip before the Feb. 6 trade deadline.
With Barnes’ contract extension starting next season, the Raptors won’t have any money to spend since they also paid Barrett and Quickley a lot of money.
Losing Brown’s salary slot isn’t necessarily an asset to them. So trading him for someone on a longer-term contract (with a pending signing of a player who can help them) wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
Of course, the luxury tax has to be managed, but that’s a summer problem.
For now, the Raptors should focus on giving them flexibility for future trades rather than rushing players back on the court. After all, they may be better off doing so.
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are taken from NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass, or Basketball-Reference. All salary information is provided via Spotrac. All odds are provided by FanDuel Sportsbook.
