Grading all front office transactions from the 2024-25 season part 2
This is part 2 of a series that started last week. Check out part 1 here.
August 2, 2024: Signed Bruno Fernando.
The Raptors tried their hand at giving veteran big man Bruno Fernando a crack as Toronto became Fernando’s fourth team in six seasons. Not a great move as Fernando appeared in 17 games for the Raptors before being waived. This move gets a D.
August 19, 2024: Signed Jared Rhoden to an Exhibit 10 contract.
It was a bit surprising to see Jared Rhoden on here so early, as he actually ends up finishing the 2024/25 season with the Raptors, but you’ll see his name in a few more transactions down the road. Honestly, I liked his game a lot as he played pretty well down the stretch for Toronto, so I’m going to give this transaction a B.
September 26, 2024: Signed Jahmi’us Ramsey to an Exhibit 10 contract.
After finishing the 2023/24 season with Toronto, Ramsey got another crack at possibly being on the Raptors for another season. He, unfortunately, couldn’t win the coaching staff over and didn’t impress too much, so this move will get a D.
October 19, 2024: Signed Jamison Battle to a two-way contract. Waived Jared Rhoden. Waived Branden Carlson. Waived Jahmi’us Ramsey.
As I said before in part 1, the Battle find is a slam dunk A+ of a deal. Not a big fan of waiving Jared Rhoden as he had a good stint with the Raptors, so we’ll give that a D.
Branden Carlson is hard to grade right now, as the big man did win a championship with the Oklahoma City Thunder last season, but he didn’t play a part during the playoffs as he’s at the end of the roster for them now. However, like I said in part 1, Carlson is a stretch big who flashed some potential late in the regular season when he dropped a career high of 26 points on the New Orleans Pelicans. So for that reason, we’ll grade it at a C as we haven’t seen too much out of the big yet. Finally, waiving Jahmi’us Ramsey isn’t too big of a deal for me, so we’ll grade that at a B.
December 10, 2024: Waived D.J. Carton.
This one hurt for me as I had high expectations for Carton to potentially break out last season and become the backup point guard for the Raptors, but that was a terrible take. Toronto were loaded at the point guard position at the time with Immanuel Quickley, Davion Mitchell and Jamal Shead, so this didn’t hurt the club at all; therefore, we’ll give it an A.
December 11, 2024: Signed A.J. Lawson to a two-way contract.
Absolute steal for Toronto as the Raptors decided to give the Brampton native a shot in a rebuilding season. He had the best season of his young NBA career by far as he was finally given consistent minutes. The highlight of his season is easily the 32 points and 12 rebounds performance against the Washington Wizards on March 10, 2025, in a 119-104 win at home in the Scotiabank Arena, which made it even more special. A+.
January 7, 2025: Waived Bruno Fernando.
As I said before, an uninspiring 17 games from Bruno Fernando for the Toronto Raptors saw the big man getting waived. It was an inevitable move, and therefore, we’ll give it a B+.
January 18, 2025: Signed Orlando Robinson to a 10-day contract.
When the transaction first happened, I didn’t make much of it since I thought he would just be in and out of Toronto in 10 days, but he actually did a great job of sticking around and playing well. The 25-year-old big man has been a part of three organizations in three seasons, and he enjoyed a career year in Toronto, averaging 8.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game across 35 appearances, averaging just over 20 minutes per game. We’ll give this signing a B since there were definitely positives that came from this.
January 28, 2025: Signed Orlando Robinson to a 2nd 10-day contract.
Just like the first signing, this is a B.
February 6, 2025: Traded Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, a 2026 1st round draft pick and a 2031 2nd round draft pick to the New Orleans Pelicans for Brandon Ingram. New Orleans also received a trade exception 2026 1st-rd pick is IND own 2031 2nd-rd pick is TOR own
As part of a 5-team trade, the Toronto Raptors traded Davion Mitchell to the Miami Heat; the Detroit Pistons traded K.J. Martin to the Utah Jazz; the Golden State Warriors traded Dennis Schroder, Lindy Waters III and a 2031 2nd round draft pick to the Detroit Pistons; the Golden State Warriors traded Kyle Anderson, Andrew Wiggins and a 2025 1st round draft pick (Kasparas Jakucionis was later selected) to the Miami Heat; the Miami Heat traded cash and Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors; the Miami Heat traded cash and a 2026 2nd round draft pick to the Toronto Raptors; the Miami Heat traded cash and Josh Richardson to the Utah Jazz; and the Utah Jazz traded P.J. Tucker to the Toronto Raptors. Golden State also received multiple trade exceptions 2031 2nd-rd pick is GSW own 2026 2nd-rd pick is LAL own Miami also received multiple trade exceptions protected 2025 1st-rd pick is GSW own Utah also received a trade exception
TRADE to the Indiana Pacers for cash and James Wiseman. Indiana received a trade exception
We made it to Masai’s last trade deadline as a Raptor, and honestly, he did pretty well. The Brandon Ingram trade is looking like an A, but the thing is, we haven’t seen him play yet. Anyways, he’s proven himself to be one of the great scorers in the NBA and should fit in well with Toronto. Hopefully, he stays healthy enough to lead the Raptors to the playoffs. Also, the fact that the Raptors gave up two veterans that were expendable and only one first-round pick is a home run in my opinion. A.
So this is an interesting one, as I just realized that the Davion Mitchell trade was actually a part of the Jimmy Butler trade. This one isn’t eye-popping, but we’ll have to wait and see what that second-round pick turns into. Also, it made sense to get rid of Mitchell as he was eating into Shead’s minutes, but the return isn’t great. So for now, we’ll give it a C.
The last trade of deadline day for Toronto came with the Indiana Pacers, as they took James Wiseman off their hands. Along with Wiseman, Toronto received cash for a top-55 protected second-round pick. Ok, I guess? A weird one, we’ll just give it a C-.
February 7, 2025: Converted Jamison Battle from a two-way contract to a regular contract. Signed Orlando Robinson to a two-way contract.
We’ve been over Battle quite a lot in this; we already know it’s an A+. Also, Robinson showed his best form of his young career, so he gets another B.
February 8, 2025: Waived James Wiseman.
Goodbye, sir, that was a very short-lived stint. It would’ve been interesting to see Wiseman with the Raptors, but he was out for the season, so we would have had to wait for the debut. Anyways, we’ll rate this at a B+ as it opened up a roster spot for someone down the road.
February 19, 2025: Signed Jared Rhoden to a 10-day contract.
Another appearance from Jared Rhoden as he’s back once again. Like I said earlier, he played great down the stretch for Toronto. This time, we bump this stint up to a B+ due to how well he finished the season.
February 28, 2025: Waived P.J. Tucker.
A quick “third stint” for P.J. Tucker as a Raptor. He came over in the Davion Mitchell trade, and everybody knew this was bound to happen. Again, it freed up a roster spot, which wasn’t as effective as the Jared Rhoden find, but it was still used decently; for that, we give it a C+.
March 4, 2025: Converted Orlando Robinson from a two-way contract to a regular contract. Signed Jared Rhoden to a two-way contract.
Again, B for Robinson’s Raptor stint and B+ for Rhoden.
March 6, 2025: Signed Colin Castleton to a 10-day contract.
Honestly, when Toronto first gave Castleton a shot, I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw, so for the first stint, we’ll give him a C.
March 16, 2025: Signed Colin Castleton to a 2nd 10-day contract.
Still a C, as this is considered a part of his first stint.
March 26, 2025: Signed Cole Swider to a 10-day contract.
Even less uninspiring than Castleton’s first stint as a Raptor. Swider is a “shooter” who shot 37.9 percent from the field and 35.7 percent beyond the arc, not great. I also get that you’re on a ten-day contract and you need to impress the organization, but sometimes it felt like he was chucking some really bad shots. This move gets a D-.
April 5, 2025: Signed Cole Swider.
Again, D- not much changed during Swider’s stint.
April 12, 2025: Converted A.J. Lawson from a two-way contract to a regular contract.
A.J. Lawson has also been on here a few times, and I already told you guys what I thought about him. Easy A+ find for Toronto.
April 13, 2025: Signed Colin Castleton.
The last transaction of the 2024/25 season, and honestly, Castleton finished strong. I didn’t think he did enough to get a second 10-day, and after that, he played five games for Philadelphia before returning to Toronto. Castleton is still around and trying to win a roster spot as he’s currently in Las Vegas with the Raptors summer league, so we’ll see if he sticks around. His first stint earned him a C, and I think with him finishing strong, the move can be bumped up to a B-.
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