We The North or We The Tank? Toronto Raptors 2023-2024 NBA Season Preview

OG Anunoby (left), Gary Trent Jr. (middle), and Pascal Siakam (right) are all heading into contract years in the 2023/2024 NBA season with the Toronto Raptors.

After an offseason full of uncertainties, the upcoming 2023-2024 NBA season brings just as many questions for the Toronto Raptors.

How will the team look under new head coach Darko Rajakovic? How does this team function without former All-Star Point Guard Fred VanVleet? Why hasn’t Pascal Siakam received a new contract extension yet?

Those are just a handful of the things being asked by the NBA community. To understand how this is the destination this team has arrived at, you’d need to go back to late April.

Toronto was coming off an inconsistent 41-41 season where they couldn’t even make it out of the Play-In Tournament. Their first major story of the offseason was the firing of Nick Nurse.

Nurse was the man who coached Toronto to its first NBA Championship. He left the franchise with the best win percentage by a head coach in its history.

Their search for a new head coach took some time, but in early June the team finally settled on their man. Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic was given the job. Rajakovic made a strong impression at his introductory press conference, emphasizing player development.

One player who will not be around to see the changes implemented under Darko is Fred VanVleet. As free agency opened, VanVleet signed a 3-year, $130 million contract with the Houston Rockets.

New Toronto Raptors Starting Point Guard Dennis Schroder averaged 8 points, 5.8 assists and 0.5 a steal with the team during the preseason.

The Raptors moved quickly to replace him. Shortly after the news of VanVleet’s new contract, Dennis Schroder signed with Toronto on a 2-year, $26 million contract.

At the time, Schroder was coming off a season where he was a key player for the Los Angeles Lakers rotation. He averaged the 4th most minutes (30.1) for the team in the regular season and 5th most (26.1) in the playoffs. Schroder would also collect a FIBA MVP during the NBA offseason when playing at the FIBA World Cup for Germany.

There were a couple other notable player additions for Toronto. The Raptors selected Gradey Dick 13th overall pick in the NBA Draft. Dick was seen by outlets like The Sporting News as the best shooter in the draft.

The Raptors also brought in free agent forward Jalen McDaniels on a 2-year deal worth $9.3 million. McDaniels enjoyed a modest campaign last year, averaging 9.4 points, and 4.3 rebounds in 23.9 minutes per game.

Darko Rajakovic (left) is the 3rd head coach under Team President Masai Ujiri (right) during his tenure with the Toronto Raptors organization.

There were a couple of major what-if moments for the Raptors this offseason as well. The Raptors were reportedly very close to acquiring former Blazers superstar Damian Lillard.

They were so close, in fact, that NBA Insider Shams Charania thought the deal was done. Shams also clued the NBA community in to the fact that Raptors star Pascal Siakam was being floated in trade talks between themselves and the Atlanta Hawks.

Neither of those deals got done. After the offseason trade rumours and lack of contract extension, Team President Masai Ujiri faced some tough questions about Siakam at Media Day. Siakam joins teammates Gary Trent Jr. and OG Anunoby (player option) as key players entering their contract years.

Toronto did impress in their four preseason outings. They went undefeated with a 4-0 record. This was the first time in franchise history they accomplished that feat.

However, after undergoing some considerable changes in the offseason, many experts seem to believe the Raptors are not trending in the right direction.

CBS Sports was split on whether or not the Raptors are even a play-in team. ESPN had Toronto in the bottom five of the conference. Out of five NBA.com staff, only one picked them to make playoffs.

Toronto will play their first regular season game on Wednesday, October 25th, 2023. They will host the Minnesota Timberwolves at Scotiabank Arena for the home opener.