Jaden Bradley of the Toronto Raptors handles the ball during a Summer League game against the Denver Nuggets.
Jaden Bradley of the Toronto Raptors handles the ball during a Summer League game against the Denver Nuggets.
Kawhi Leonard is back with a contract extension soon to follow and, though that’s the headline with Toronto Raptors training camp now days away, minor tinkering of the roster was also recently completed.
The Raptors likely completed pre-camp business by signing guard Jaden Bradley, the 50th pick of June’s draft, to a standard contract on Monday and another guard, Malachi Smith, to a two-way deal.
Who is Jaden Bradley?
Bradley, 6-foot-3, turned 23 earlier this month. He spent four years in the NCAA, three at Arizona, most recently as a big part of a team that went 36-3 — second only to eventual NCAA champion Michigan, who beat the Wildcats in one of the semifinal games.
Bradley was named Big-12 player of the year and the MVP of the Big-12 tournament, as well as the conference’s all-defensive team. Bradley made the all-NCAA third team. He was a finalist for for the Bob Cousy Award as the NCAA’s best point guard,
Arizona went 87-25 in Bradley’s three seasons there and he often rose to the occasion in big games.
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That said, he struggled mightily in NBA Summer League play in July. Though that’s not the end of the world, it’s never a great sign. Still, the Raptors saw fit to sign him.
In a regular year, Bradley probably would have been offered a two-way deal (like what Smith got), but due to salary cap intricacies, a standard deal for Bradley (much of which will be unguaranteed in the future) was the play now.
When he met the media in July, Bradley described himself as a player as a “defensive presence, a point guard, just setting my teammates up. Score if I need to score. Definitely shooting is going to be a big key.”
Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman said on his own media call that Bradley is “a very accomplished player coming into the NBA. He’s seen it all. A bit of a seasoned veteran as a rookie and we’ve had a lot of success with those guys in the past.”
The Raptors don’t have a ton of point guard depth and struck gold with Jamal Shead at pick 45 a few years ago, but expectations should be kept in check. The vast majority of players taken late in the second round don’t ever make an NBA impact (only about 25% of picks 40-60 typically make any meaningful impact).
Who is Malachi Smith?
Smith, 6-foot-4 and 27 years old, went undrafted out of Gonzaga in 2023.
He was signed primarily for one reason: Toronto was one of the worst outside-shooting teams in the NBA last season and, though Leonard is a big upgrade over reluctant three-point shooter Brandon Ingram (and whoever plays instead of Gradey Dick will also be an upgrade since his shooting never panned out), shot-making remains a weakness.
Perhaps Smith can carve out a specialist role, similar to how the bigger Jamison Battle did last year.
Smith shot a scorching 43% from three-point range and 52% from the field overall in 39 NBA G League games last season and 38% from three in three seasons there. He also showed well in 15 games with the Brooklyn Nets, hitting 43.5% (20-for-46) of his three-point attempts.
In his year at Gonzaga, Smith nailed half of his 90 three-point attempts. Clearly there’s a theme.
He also takes care of the ball well for a shooting guard, with a high assist-to-turnover rate. At a minimum, he should be a key player for Raptors 905.
How does the roster project?
For the first time in years, the Raptors are being touted as legitimate contenders. Leonard was one of the seven best players in the NBA last season, while Scottie Barnes was — in our opinion — the third-best defensive player in the league and would have been a valid all-NBA third team selection. That’s a pretty good start up front.
Centre Jakob Poeltl is probably the biggest wildcard. Once an ironman (Poeltl only missed a handful of games each season from 2017-2023), the Austrian suited up for a career-low 46 games due mainly to back issues and only played in 57 and 50 games, respectively, in the two seasons before that.
On paper, those three would be formidable up front, even with Leonard the only shooter of the bunch.
Starting point guard Immanuel Quickley is another key, having missed the entire playoffs and much of the post-all-star break due to various injuries a year after suiting up only 33 times. Quickley’s pull-up jump shooting opens up all kinds of possibilities for a Leonard-led offence but, like Poeltl, he needs to stay on the court.
RJ Barrett will be the choice at shooting guard, though for the second season in a row will be asked to do less offensively (after leading the team in scoring his first two seasons with the club he gave way a bit to Brandon Ingram in the regular season and to Barnes in the playoffs. Now Leonard will be even more influential than Ingram was on offence).
This will be a fascinating season for Barrett, entering the final year of his deal. He wants to stay home and can adapt to what’s asked of him, but a looming cap crunch and the emerging Ja’Kobe Walter (probably the first guard or wing called by Darko Rajakovic off the bench in the games Leonard plays) make things interesting in terms of Barrett’s future. He’s also a potential trade chip to be used for help at centre should the Raptors decide Poeltl isn’t the answer.
Shead is the backup point guard and a key reserve, while sophomore Collin Murray-Boyles is the most likely player to take a major step forward, having exceeded expectations as a rookie. Murray-Boyles, like Poeltl and Quickley, has battled the injury bug a bit though.
Beyond those eight crucial rotation pieces, Rajakovic will choose from rookie forward Allen Graves (who general manager Bobby Webster has said will likely play plenty alongside Murray-Boyles), 12-year veteran forward and Leonard pal Kyle Anderson, the shooter Battle, last year’s second-round pick Alijah Martin, Bradley, tenacious guard Chucky Hepburn (injured most of his rookie campaign), Smith and centre Trayce Jackson-Davis.