As the beginning of September approaches, the 30 NBA rosters are rapidly nearing completion. Practically all the marquee names are out of the free agent market, outside of Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren, and it is now about finding the final player or two to provide a final spark to the team dynamic. Unfortunately for the Toronto Raptors, their roster completion still awaits the final verdict of the Kawhi Leonard investigation. He is still widely expected to be traded to Toronto, but in the case of his contract being voided, it would further complicate the situation as Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick would likely head back to the Raptors. 

Assuming the deal is completed normally before the season begins, the Raptors will have just two remaining roster spots in the 15-man lineup. Rumors continue to circulate around potential trades involving Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, and Jakob Poeltl, but with little substantial credibility, it would be reasonable to assume they will all continue to start for the franchise for the foreseeable future. That doesn’t mean that general manager Bobby Webster can’t find them some help, though. 

Point guard and center depth proved to be a problem in the Raptors’ first playoff series since 2022. In the seven-game first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, an injured Quickley left second-year backup Jamal Shead all alone as the only lead guard with playmaking abilities. This forced franchise cornerstone Scottie Barnes to do more as a primary ball-handler, which took him some adjusting to. 

Simultaneously, the lower back strain that forced Poeltl to miss 24 consecutive contests during the regular season severely limited his physicality and aggression as the season progressed. In the playoffs, he became virtually unplayable for this reason. Then rookie Collin Murray-Boyles was tasked with having enough of a paint presence to fend off Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen as a result, which proved to be too much without any help. 

Moving past these glaring issues, there were still parts of the game that the Raptors struggled in all year: half-court/fourth-quarter offense and outside shooting. The hope is that Leonard, a two-time Finals MVP coming off his career-high in points per game (27.9) for a season, will be the answer to the offensive issues. However, shooting still remains a real problem going into next season. Toronto ranked 21st in three-point shooting as a team last season, and had only four players who shot above the league average (36%) while attempting more than two threes per game. 

At this point, the team is projected to be even worse at shooting this year. Two of the four in Ingram and Sandro Mamukelashvili are no longer Raptors; the only above-average shooter they got in return is Leonard, who is coming off his worst shooting season (38.7%) since 2020. First-round pick Allen Graves shot 41.3% on 2.6 attempts, but several great shooters in college have not impressed at the deeper NBA line. 

It would be easy to propose more mock trades for the Raptors to acquire a shooter, but in the modern NBA, every team values shooting and defense. Finding the right trade without having to give up too much will be scarce; not to mention, the Raptors don’t typically target players that can’t play both ends. Of the top remaining free agents, some of the best shooters include Bruce Brown, Seth Curry, Kevin Love, Nick Smith Jr., Doug McDermott, etc. The bright side is that all of these players are expected to take a contract close to the minimum, but the dark side is that none of them are even considered average defenders. 

The answer for Webster and the Raptors may actually be sitting right in front of them. There is one player who may be able to improve the team’s shooting right away with more opportunity: Jamison Battle. He averaged just 8.5 minutes per game, but shot over 41% from distance. 

Battle is entering his third year with the team, and he saw his minutes get cut in half from his rookie to sophomore seasons. This is likely due to his lack of intensity on the defensive end, along with his subpar ability to put the ball on the floor. If he could improve on his defensive activity and ball-handling skills, he could find a similar progression to Ja’Kobe Walter, widely known as one of the Raptors’ most important players.