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They don't need anything bold, just help at centre for ailing Jakob Poeltl.
Published Dec 19, 2025 • 4 minute read
Toronto Raptors general manager Bobby Webster.
Toronto Raptors general manager Bobby Webster is open to improving the roster. Photo by Jack Boland /Toronto Sun
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The path forward is only clear for one of Toronto’s three biggest teams: The Toronto Blue Jays, fresh off a near World Series victory, should keep on buying.
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As for the Maple Leafs and Raptors? Well, either could go in a number of ways. This corner doesn’t usually cover the Leafs, but our suggestion would be to treat this season as a “gap year” and sell off some veterans to try to restock the barren asset chest. That team will be hard-pressed to make the playoffs, let alone do any damage if they get there, so why not try to copy what the rival Boston Bruins did last year (at Toronto’s expense in one trade) and take a step back now to take a couple forward down the line?
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But we focus on the Raptors here, and general manager Bobby Webster and his staff have a few options. Let’s run through them:
BIG GAME HUNTING
We’re talking Giannis Antetokounmpo or Anthony Davis. Giannis is arguably the third-best player in the world and certainly in the top 5, where he’s resided for ages Masai Ujiri might have been one of his biggest fans and tried to make him a Raptor on multiple occasions unsuccessfully, but even though Ujiri’s gone, the former champion and MVP still has fans in the organization. That said, why would he want to come to the Raptors over teams closer to a title? And even if he could be convinced, could the Bucks? They’d surely ask for Scottie Barnes, who is seven years younger and already making a case as an All-NBA (ie. top 15 player). Would adding Antetokounmpo, who is currently injured, and losing Barnes and more make the Raptors a contender? Probably not, though they’d arguably be better than the current Bucks.
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Davis would on paper be a match made in heaven and would cost less, but he would make no sense. That’s because he’s always hurt, will need to sign a huge extension in the near future and doesn’t even like playing centre.
Point guards LaMelo Ball or Ja Morant aren’t worth the price tag or the inevitable headaches either.
Verdict: The Raptors should steer clear of the future Hall of Fame big men or out of favour point guards.
FILLING A NEED
As of Dec. 15, a large new batch of players became eligible to be dealt. It’s considered the unofficial start of trade season because most players signed in the off-season were ineligible to be moved until then (a handful of other become eligible in about a month).
You might have noticed us mentioning Toronto has one player (Jakob Poeltl) taller than 6-foot-9. Poeltl needs some help that doesn’t involve Barnes or rookie Collin-Murray Boyles or key floor spacing reserve Sandro Mamukelashvili manning the middle. All three are well-suited to playing power forward and should stay there, for the most part. The Raptors need, at the least, someone who can battle the NBA’s behemoths. In a perfect world they’d find a 7-footer who can take and make a few three-pointers. Those players don’t grow on trees though, so they might have to settle for a shorter and/or more limited centre. Of course if Poeltl’s back issues continue all season, simply adding a mediocre backup won’t move the needle much.
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Dallas has Daniel Gafford, an elite shot blocker and rim runner, but he would be more costly, both in terms of what would have to go the other way and in salary than some of the other options and even making a deal work is tough with Toronto’s available contracts.
Orlando’s Goga Bitadze would be an excellent addition and the Magic might soon have more big men than they need, but is there a deal to be made there?
Toronto’s been connected to Nick Richards, a 28-year-old, 6-foot-11veteran who has fallen out of favour in Phoenix but had some good years in Charlotte and can rebound and block shots a bit.
Paul Reed, an analytics darling who doesn’t play much in Detroit on a team loaded up front, is only 6-foot-9 and 30 pounds lighter than Richards, but is more of an offensive threat and is an active defender.
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Brooklyn’s Day-Ron Sharpe, a high school teammate of Barnes, makes some sense as well, as does oft-injured Robert Williams III of Portland (though his big contract impedes an easy match).
STANDING PAT?
There is little chance Webster does nothing. He said before the season he didn’t expect the roster to look the same come April as it did on Day 1 and that’s not just because they want to upgrade. The Raptors do not want to pay the NBA’s luxury tax (they’ve only done it twice in 30 years, one time to help win a title, the other when they couldn’t quite squeeze under when penalties were less severe) and they can duck under by cutting just a small amount. Toronto is less than $775,000 over the tax. The easiest pathway is to find something involving Ochai Agbaji for a centre. Agbaji for Richards with whatever filler is required could do the job, or Agbaji for Reed would work as of Jan. 15, for example. Something like Agbaji and Jonathan Mogbo for Sharpe would solve two problems for the Raptors.
Toronto will make a trade at some point. The only question is how big.
Verdict: They won’t sit on their hands.
@WolstatSun
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