The vibes are officially back again. At least that's what it looked like when the Toronto Raptors opened their preseason with a 112-99 win over the Sacramento Kings.

Let's not mince words, though. The Raptors had a disastrous offseason. Nick Nurse was fired. They lost Fred VanVleet for nothing as he walked away and signed with the Houston Rockets in free agency. Masai Ujiri blew a chance on landing a real franchise-changer in Damian Lillard.

Despite all that, there is hope for Raptors fans to feel good about their team — and a lot has to do with their performance in their preseason opener against the Kings. Still, the Raptors still have a concern to iron out in preseason before the real games begin.

Early Raptors concern in preseason: Taking care of the ball

To get it out of the way, one noticeable concern for the Raptors during their first preseason outing was their high amount of turnovers. Toronto committed 29 giveaways during the game, which led to 24 points off turnovers for the Kings.

Gary Trent Jr. led the team with five turnovers. Jakob Poeltl had four, while Scottie Barnes and Malachi Flynn had three each. A handful of players had a couple of giveaways apiece.

It will take some time for the Raptors to get used to new head coach Darko Rajakovic's offense. So expect a high turnover rate for Toronto throughout the preseason and even into the first couple of weeks of the regular season as the players adjust to the new offensive system.

Nonetheless, there is a lot to be encouraged about the Raptors' first preseason game. The high turnovers were a result of an offense that looks more promising and more crisp. This should give Toronto fans a reason to be excited about their team this upcoming season.

While Toronto committed 29 turnovers, they did generate 30 assists throughout the night, with the starters combining for 18 of them. Dennis Schroder, who won a gold medal for Germany and took home the MVP award in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, looked comfortable running the offense with five assists.

Malachi Flynn, meanwhile, had five assists off the bench, which is a good sign that he may be ready to take the next step as a legitimate backup facilitator for this team this season.

There was noticeably a lot more movement and flow in the Raptors offense. The ball was fizzing around. People were constantly in motion. Less players were just standing around. The decisions were also quicker and more crisp. This led to easier looks and better shots within the flow of the offense.

How Raptors offense looked last season

That was not the case at all during the 2022-23 campaign. Sure, they committed the least turnovers in the league last season, which is great.

But that was a result of an offense was stagnant. This often led to bad shot attempts very late in the shot clock, which ranked 6th in frequency in the entire league.

The Raptors were in the bottom 10 of most assist-related categories. They ranked 10th in passes per game last season, but were just 23rd in the league in assists, averaging just 23.9 assists per game. As a result, they finished with the third-worst assists-to-pass percentage in the NBA. Nearly 43 percent of their made field goals were unassisted, which ranked 5th in the NBA. All of these stats suggest that most of the passes the Raptors  made were not productive and did not lead to generating easier shots for everyone on the floor.

With that said, Toronto generated a middling offense that ranked 13th in the NBA. They were 27th in true shooting percentage (55.5%) and field goal percentage (45.9%) and shot just 33.5 percent from beyond the arc as a team (28th in NBA). All of their offensive woes were a result of a standstill offense that didn't offer much ball and body movement.

Positives to draw from Raptors preseason opener

Comparing the stats above to the preseason opener, 76.9 percent of the Raptors' made field goals came off assists, which is nearly 20 percent more than their rate last season. They shot 52.0 percent from the field and had a 62.9 percent true shooting percentage in the game. They still had their shooting woes from beyond the arc (shot just 10-of-29) — which is still a weakness of their team. But majority of the looks they generated — all off assists — were clean.

It's just one game and it's fun to overreact, but their first preseason outing suggests the Raptors will be more watchable this 2023-24 NBA season than last year.