https://www.raptorsrepublic.com/2025/07/23/this-era-toronto-raptors-depends-massively-brandon-ingram/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitterAn innovative head coach of the Toronto Raptors is trying to win around the edges by hacking the possession game. The front office turns roster imbalance into a supposed strength, doubling down on length and strength and defensive structure while shrugging at the need for individual creation. The point guard is a shooting specialist who perhaps is limited at driving and creating for others, at least when compared to other starting point guards around the league. Positions 2-4 are versatile defenders yet limited when it comes to shooting. There is certainly no shooting from the center spot.
If this description reminds you of either the current Raptors, led by Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes, or the last era of the Raptors, led by Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam, you’re right. The Raptors are innovating backwards, in the big picture rebuilding the last iteration of the team. Not in the details, but certainly in the strengths and weaknesses.
If there is one lesson from Toronto’s 2025 Summer League performance, it is this: The youths of this team can win, and win big, through defence, but they still lack half-court creators. Just like the big club.
As a result, the wins looked dominant and the loss somewhat flat. Toronto’s offence just couldn’t punch hard enough without a few dozen chances in transition.
Just like the big club.
Thus in many ways the entirety of the success of this team’s core rests on the shoulders of Brandon Ingram. From this perspective, he is bearing in many ways the same load as Siakam did before him. I am suspicious of whether Ingram can out-perform Siakam in the same role.
To be fair, he has been to the playoffs before. (Not including his awful 2023-24 performance which came on the heels of sitting out 12 consecutive games for injury, returning for the final regular-season game to play 20 minutes, then suiting up in the playoffs clearly not healthy for a sweep.) But in 2021-22, Ingram was spectacular. He scored 27 points a game without seeing a drop from his regular-season efficiency, all while averaging over a point per possessions on isolations, including ones that didn’t result in a shot, turnover, or assist. That has long been his strength; he’s averaged over a point per possession on all such possessions including isolations in the regular seasons of 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25. His possessions on which he’s run a pick and roll have similarly averaged over a point per in the regular seasons of 2022-23 and 2023-24.
His initiation has been quite consistent and efficient in the regular season and in his one healthy stint in the playoffs. He’s used to playing alongside oodles of wings, as he will alongside Barnes, RJ Barrett, and others; in New Orleans, from 2021-22 all the way to 2024-25, Ingram had a higher net rating when alongside both of Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III (plus-6.5) than he did alongside either one individually, or without either. (In fact, the trio all on the court was better than any other permutation of the three.) With CJ McCollum on, the four were even better. Ingram should be ready for the lineup quirks (lots of wings all playing together without a traditional initiating point guard) waiting for him in Toronto.
