Toronto

Raptors ROSTER

To fill in their front court with Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka gone, the Raptors picked up Alize Johnson and Yuta Watanabe from the waiver wire.

A former member of the Memphis Grizzlies, Watanabe can provide an extra option for head coach Nick Nurse. Johnson was waived prior to the season beginning.

The last major signing for the Raptors were Aron Baynes and Alex Lin.

After losing both Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol, who both went to LA (Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers, respectively), the Raptors needed to fill in the huge hole in their frontcourt. They added Aron Baynes from the Phoenix Suns, who will potentially be starting for them, as well as a back-up big in Alex Len from the Sacramento Kings. Although Baynes and Len aren't as prolific as Ibaka and Gasol, these two were the best options available for the Raptors during the transfer window.

Instead of picking up huge names, the Raptors chose to focus on prioritizing their core with Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet - Toronto's current big three in terms of their salaries. They also re-signed Chris Boucher, who is a promising candidate for some decent playing time this season. All of these moves suggest that the Raptors are happy to develop their core and hopefully improve on last season's second-round playoff exit.

After signing Baynes and Len, the Raptors had little to no choice but to settle with smaller names like Alize Johnson and Yuta Watanabe, who they both picked up as free agents. Johnson was waived prior to the regular season.

The 2019-20 season was rather silent in terms of trade talks, which means that the most recent trade made by the Raptors was back at the 2019 trade deadline when they acquired Marc Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies for a package headlined by C.J. Miles, Jonas Valančiūnas, Delon Wright. Gasol played a vital role on the Raptors’ championship run that season.

The award for the best Toronto Raptors roster would have to go to the 2019 NBA champions. The 2018-2019 Toronto Raptors were one of the most complete rosters the franchise has ever put together, and they have President of Basketball Operations Masai Ujiri to thank for it.

Everyone had doubts when Ujiri decided to move on from DeMar DeRozan and bring in Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green from the San Antonio Spurs. But once things got rolling, it became clear it was the best move in their short franchise history.

First-year head coach Nick Nurse stepped in and made all of the pieces work together perfectly. Leonard and Green thrived in Nurse's defensive system and helped the rest of the core get to the next level. Kyle Lowry emerged as one of the main leaders of the team and a young Pascal Siakam also broke out. Ujiri made one last move before the playoffs, completing their championship unit when he opted to trade a few pieces of the Raptors’ lineup to acquire Marc Gasol.

After a few jittery moments to start the 2019 playoffs, the Raps took care of business against the Orlando Magic in the first round and moved on to face a highly-touted Philadelphia 76ers team. This series went all the way down to the final milliseconds of Game 7 when Leonard ended up making one of the biggest shots in franchise history to push them to the ECF. From there, it seemed that no challenge could stop the Raptors from achieving their ultimate goal. They fell 0-2 against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, but won four consecutive games to move on to the NBA Finals. In the Finals, they dethroned the Golden State Warriors in six games to bring home their first NBA title to Toronto.

The Toronto Raptors' current Salary Cap for the 2020-21 season is $130,516,066 (via Spotrac), which exceeds the league's $109 million salary cap max. The team is paying the big bucks to three members of the starting unit, with Pascal Siakam ($30 million), Kyle Lowry ($30 million) and Fred VanVleet ($21 million) accounting for around 60% of their total cap space.

Norman Powell was the first man off Nick Nurse's bench last season. Though the 27-year old has been forced to start a lot of games for the Raps as well, he was a key weapon off the bench and has solidified his importance in Toronto's lineup. Powell provides energy and shooting off the bench and has been a huge help for the Raps' starting unit when they need a breather.

Powell had a career year last season with 16 points per game while shooting at an efficient 49.5% shooting clip and knocking down 2.1 threes per game. Powell ended up starting 26 games in the regular season and had key contributions off the bench in the playoffs. When he ended up starting, it was Serge Ibaka filling in as the main 6th man of the squad.

Powell figures to be the Raptors’ primary 6th man once again in 2020-21.

The Raptors switched things up quite a few times when it came to their starting lineup last season, but the five they started most games with was arguably their strongest starting unit. They had Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet in the backcourt, OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam on the wings, and finally Marc Gasol manning the paint. With Gasol in Los Angeles in 2020-21, Aron Baynes figures to start in his place with the other four.