The vibes in Toronto are off—teams don't get rattled by a nine-year-old girl when things are going super well. Even if the Raptors salvaged some of their pride by finishing 41-41 and sneaking into the play-in tournament, their 109-105 season-ending loss to the Chicago Bulls was a fitting denouement to a season that's carried the stench of a team that's reached its expiration date. Accordingly, the Raptors face a pivotal free agency period and offseason this summer. In particular, it seems like the relationship between the Raptors and longtime point guard Fred VanVleet has grown especially frosty as VanVleet weighs whether to opt-out of his current deal and hit free agency this offseason.

“Talent by itself is just not good enough,” VanVleet told Heavy Sports in the run-up to the play-in tournament. “You know, you’ve still got to do everything right every single day. You’ve got to be able to play as a team. You have to be able to execute and close out games.”

“Like, there’s so many other things that go into it,” VanVleet elaborated. “We could have no talent, so let’s start there. We could be in a situation where we don’t have talent. But like I said, we’ve just got to continue to find ways to be better as a group and do something with the talent that we have.”
For the most part, VanVleet is fairly sanguine and self-aware about the whole situation. Teams have a natural life cycle; it's just how the NBA works.
“First, you’ve just got to be a student of the game and understand that the situation that we’re in is not unheard of,” VanVleet said. “It’s not uncommon that some teams that go and compete for a championship kind of put all their chips in for the ‘chip, so to speak. You’ve got to try to put it back together after the fact, and I think that some of what we’re going through now is you’re seeing some of the residue from going all-in and trying to put it back together. But we do have talent and promise and opportunity.”
Related Toronto Raptors NewsArticle continues below
Collin Murray-Boyles, Noa Essengue, Khaman Maluach in the middle, Head coach Darko Rajakovic, and GM Bobby Webster around them, Toronto Raptors wallpaper in the background
Toronto Raptors’ 3 best options for No. 9 pick in 2025 NBA Draft
Toronto Raptors Vice-Chairman and Team President Masai Ujiri speaks to the media during media day at Scotiabank Area.
Raptors president Masai Ujiri’s ‘crazy’ realization after Mavericks land No. 1 pick
To wit, the most frustrating part of the Raptors' struggles this season is that they weren't even that bad. In another world, the Raptors build on last year's playoff berth and win 50 games. All the pieces of a good team were in place.
Ultimately, the Raptors season was undone by the team's collective struggle to determine an overarching identity and inability to decide whether to build around prime-aged vets like Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam or reorient the team around the 21 year-old Scottie Barnes. Torn between whether to commit to winning now or winning later, the Raptors forgot to, you know, ever actually win at all. As such, the Raptors found themselves in the classic Catch-22 that's common amongst aimless teams. They couldn't win if they gave their young players any real responsibility; their young players couldn't find enough playing time to meaningfully improve if the Raptors were trying to win.
“I think that at a certain point you can’t make anybody grow up,” Fred VanVleet explained. “It’s going to happen at their own pace and their own speed, and that’s the frustrating part about maturity and just the development stage is that you can harp on it all you want to.”