Raptors offseason primer: Fred VanVleet's free agency, Pascal Siakam extension potential, more

Toronto zagged pretty hard at the trade deadline when everyone else thought they would zig. Instead of moving some of their best players for future assets, they traded future assets for another good player. This suggests that the Raptors’ front office believes they are close to contending with this group and any sort of rebuild is not on the table. But after missing the playoffs for the second time in four seasons, time on this core could be running out.

This Raptors team is arguably better than the results it put out this season when considering it contains mostly the same group that won seven more games last year. And more continuity with Jakob Poeltl heading into 2023-24 and perhaps a new head coach, if all the smoke surrounding Nick Nurse is real, should help. But with the East getting stronger at the top, they may be closer to being a No. 5 seed again than they are contending for titles.

Here is a preview of the 2023 offseason for the Raptors.