Post-Mortem: 2022-23 Toronto Raptors

[ElectricMayhem]

The first team to be played out this year.

Here is the data from previous years' Post-Mortems:
2020-21:

Spoiler:

Post-Mortem Results I: GM Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results II: Coaching Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results III: Performance Compared to Expectations
Post-Mortem Results IV: Rising/Treadmill/Waning

2021-22:
2021-22 Post Mortem Final Summary

Team Name: Toronto Raptors
Record at Time of Death: 41-41 (.500) (Play-in Loss)
Head of Front Office: Masai Ujiri (2013-)
Coach: Nick Nurse (2018-)

Offensive Rating: 13th
Defensive Rating: 11th
Rebound %: 15th
Turnover %: 1st

Front Office: Change or keep?
Coach: Change or keep?
Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year?
Rising, falling, or treadmill?
If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason?

Notes:
Players under contract next year:
Pascal Siakam ($38m)
OG Anunoby ($19m)
Chris Boucher ($12m)
Thad Young ($8m) (Partially Guaranteed)
Scottie Barnes ($8m)
Precious Achiuwa ($4m)
Malachi Flynn ($4m)
Christian Koloko ($2m)
Joe Wieskamp$2m) (Partially Guaranteed)

Team Options:

Player Options:
Fred VanVleet ($23m)
Gary Trent Jr. ($19m)
Otto Porter Jr. ($6m)

Free Agents:
Jakob Poeltl
Dalano Banton
Will Barton
Ron Harper Jr.
Jeff Dowtin

Dead Money:

Previous Post-Mortems:
30. Houston Rockets
29. San Antonio Spurs
28. Detroit Pistons
27. Charlotte Hornets
26. Portland Trail Blazers
25. Indiana Pacers
24. Washington Wizards
23. Orlando Magic
22. Utah Jazz
21. Toronto Raptors

[knicksNOTslick]

The Raptors need to just trade away their players and rebuild. Their problem is that they ask for too much even though, as we've seen, their "stars" are overrated af. Can't be asking multiple first rounders for players that can't even make the real playoffs

[ratul]

Raps need a backup PG and Trent out. Lots of potential with this team, but the minutes situation is insane.

[Milenkovic]

I'd love the Spurs to bring back Poeltl

[Pachinko_]

I think the roster and coach are better than this, not sure what happened TBH
They just seem to have lost their momentum

[TheAlchemist]

Stats post trade deadline show this team is decent/good.

To me, the roster and playing style , with coaching needs to be figured out. I love Nurse, so i'm not inclined on firing him, but they need to do better. There seems to be chemistry issues, Raptors have Scottie Barnes about to break out, and a lot of really good piece that can be valued well on the trade market.

Shooting is perhaps the biggest issue after team chemistry issues. Then it would be playmaking.

Fred Van Vleet, as shown in the play-in game, can't defend a lit candle. The selfish stagnant offensive halfcourt sets are horrible, and once the team gets in a drought, it can be exploited to last the whole game. As a ball dominant guard, many times, it seems like he's the problem. But the team itself needs to do better.

The roster construction needs to focus on balancing the roster out with good guards, playmakers, shooters, and team cohesive players.

Need to get a bit younger too.

[celticfan42487]

Trent and FVV are free agents right?


Time to rewind the thread where 99.9% said the Poeltl trade was stupid for the Raptors and they should have been trading for picks, not trading them away with this trash team.

[Saints14]

Might be the treadmilliest team in the league right now. Not sure a full rebuild is necessary, but they need to at least retool

[baldur]

Trade everyone and rebuild. Nurse and fvv are gone and they waste their picks for someone like Jacob poeltl. Ridiculous.

[thelead]

They traded next year's 1st round pick (top 6 protected) for Poeltl. I doubt they let him walk and start tanking. Masai will likely try, and fail, to rebuild on the fly.

[djsunyc]

masai's biggest offseason for the raptors.

[djsunyc]

They traded next year's 1st round pick (top 6 protected) for Poeltl. I doubt they let him walk and start tanking. Masai will likely try, and fail, to rebuild on the fly.

my guess is that we had a deal of og at the deadline that's still available this summer involving a 2024 pick coming back - hence the light protection on yak.

[nikster]

Might be the treadmilliest team in the league right now. Not sure a full rebuild is necessary, but they need to at least retool

Wizards have been trying to compete the last 5 years and have only made the playoffs once in that time

[Mr Puddles]

Roster definitely needs a retouling. Outside of the Mavericks, this is probably the most talented roster to miss the playoffs this year.

At the same time, If all of those reports circling about the player asking price are correct, Ujiri needs to start getting realistic about the trade value of his players as well.

[bwgood77]

Now they gotta pull for CHI and OKC to get 8 seeds so they can move up 2 lotto spots

[Johnny Tomala]

Keep, fire, as expected, waning.

[jbk1234]

There was a look of relief on Nurse's face to end that game. Like when the doctor says it's time to start thinking about hospice and making the patient comfortable.

[Roger Murdock]

They performed as they should have it’s just everyone else viewed this team as fools gold going into this season.

Quick anecdote - I do retail analytics for my company. Last year we gained a TON of market share. This year we are still doing great, but lost share? Why? Because our competitors struggled a lot worse with COVID/Supply chain issues than we did, and people who needed the type of products we offered either had to buy ours or buy nobodies. It’s hard to say ‘we didn’t deserve last years smashing success’ but that’s what happened and people at my company don’t want to hear it even though it’s overwhelmingly and obviously true

Last year the Raptors were the Largest beneficiary from COvId in the NBA. I made many posts detailing this with lots od stats and numbers to back up my argument and I was just told by Raptors fans I was wrong and a hater. “OG missed 30 games, all of our starters missed 10-12” ignoring that the average starter missed 17 games last year and that the Raptors had their 7 best players log 80% of the trams minutes (most in the league) and all 7 of their 7 best players finished in the top 150 of the league in minute played. Their 4 best players all finished in the top 25…


Anyhow the Raptors were my ‘under’ lock for the season for those reasons. They were the 15th ish best team last year and finished with a better record due to Covid. They were the 15th ish best team this year and finished as such.



Nobody should have been surprised.

[giberish]

They need more and better guards, but the biggest offseason issue is what to do about their forwards.

OG/Barnes/Siakam are all good players, but they are a poor fit as a triumvirate. It would be great if you could have the three of them just cover all 96 forward minutes with two on the court together but I don't think that's very realistic.

So which one to move? IMO the worst on-court fit between two of them are Barnes and Siakam (that is, OG/Barnes and OG/Siakam fit together better than Barnes/Siakam). So there's some arguement for keeping OG and trading Barnes or Siakam. However they probably aren't good enough to justify a win-now push centered around a Barnes trade. Meanwhile Siakam is a clear favorite of Masai, making the most win-later trade option of moving Siakam awkward.

[Marvin Martian]

The Raptors need to just trade away their players and rebuild. Their problem is that they ask for too much even though, as we've seen, their "stars" are overrated af. Can't be asking multiple first rounders for players that can't even make the real playoffs

This. 3 first round picks for OG is nuts