Eight things you probably forgot about the 2024-25 Raptors season
Bruno Fernando cut by Toronto Raptors
The veteran big man was a part of the opening night roster and was also in the rotation as he served as the backup to centre Jakob Poeltl. Playing in only 17 games with 2 starts, Fernando was out of Toronto by New Year’s Eve of 2024. He averaged just 8.6 minutes, 3.4 points, 3 rebounds and 0.5 blocks per game. His best performance as a Raptor came on November 25, 2024, when he played 14 minutes off the bench, posting nine points, five assists and four rebounds with a +13 rating over those 14 minutes. This was the eighth season of the big man’s career, and after being waived, he hasn’t featured in another NBA game.
D.J. Carton cut by Toronto Raptors
Carton was brought into Toronto on a two-way contract late in the 2023/24 season. He had two great seasons in the G-League for the Iowa Wolves ( Minnesota Timberwolves affiliate), where he averaged over 16 points per game in both seasons. There were high hopes for Carton, at least from me anyway, as during our roundtable for the 2024/25 season, by our own Adon Moss, that I thought he could become the backup point guard at the end of the season. Yikes.
Kelly Olynyk +39 performance against Orlando Magic
During the Raptors and Magic game that took place on January 21, 2025, Kelly Olynyk posted his career best plus minus with a +39 performance in 22 minutes. He posted 12 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists along with a steal and 4 blocks on the defensive end. The outing came against the Orlando Magic, who finished as the 7th seed via the play-in. Although they were without Cole Anthony, Jalen Suggs, Mo Wagner and Franz Wagner, this is still an unbelievable stat against a competitive team. Toronto ended up winning the game 109-93.
Gradey Dick’s hot start
Gradey Dick’s season came to a dissapointing finish when he was ruled out for the season during early February. He was struggling to fit in with BBQ and wasn’t getting to see the ball as much as he was early in the season, as Toronto had a ton of injuries early on, especially to key players like Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes. We saw a more agressive Gradey Dick early in the season as he was driving way more than we were used to seeing him do so during his rookie season. During October, November and December Toronto’s injuries were at it’s peek (until the late season resting fiasco started) and Dick was averaging over 17.7 points across all three months on just a bit over 14 shots per game. When the new year came around, Gradey was averaging just over 11.5 points, and his shots per game plummeted to 9.8 attempts. Dick will probably never see that many shot attempts in his career again and will need to get comfortable becoming a servicable 3 and D player.
Jakob Poeltl’s impressive November stretch
Poeltl enjoyed career highs in points, rebounds per game and his free throw percentage during the last season. During mid-November, Toronto played three games in four days, and during that stretch, Jakob was enjoying the form of his life as he was averaging 30 points, 15 rebounds while shooting just below 72 percent. It wasn’t just the three-game stretch, as Poeltl was only below 10 points in three outings out of fifteen and missed out on the 10 rebound mark in four of those games in the month of November.
Chris Boucher wins Darko Rajakovic back over
Boucher started a part of the Raptors rotation and began to fade away just after the turn of the calendar. It didn’t take long for him to win back Darko, as in four minutes of garbage time against the New York Knicks, he was able to put up a quick 10 points on a perfect shooting display from both the field and the line. After that, he was given another opportunity in the rotation, and he delivered 18.3 points per game over a three-game stretch where he was completely taking over games. The final game of that stretch came at home against the Golden State Warriors. He scored 17 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter and took Toronto over the finish line. Just like Poeltl, this was an insane three-game stretch, but it was still a great month of January for Montreal’s finest as he averaged 11.5 points, along with shooting 53.1 percent beyond the arc and 63.4 percent from the field.
Jonathan Mogbo’s triple-double against Charlotte Hornets
The 31st pick of the 2024 NBA Draft flashed his potential early on as he was just one rebound shy of a double-double during a win against the Philadelphia 76ers in game two. He had 12 points along with 5 assists. That’s as close as he got to a double-double for a long time until game 79 against the Brooklyn Nets came along. He was finally able to record his first double-double with a 17-point and 11-rebound performance in a Raptors win. He followed that performance up with his first career triple-double as he recorded 17 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in another win, this time over the Charlotte Hornets. He had the best month of his young NBA career by far as he averaged 10.4 points along with 8.6 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game. It was a short seven-game month of April, but Mogbo closed out the season with a bang.
Toronto’s disappointing but fun start to the season
The Raptors started the 2024/25 season with a disappointing loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers at home. After that, until around Christmas time, they were playing in some really exciting, close games for the most part. After the Cavs game, in 28 games, the Raptors were only a -4 in the point differential category despite only winning seven of those games. After the last game of the 28, which came against the Houston Rockets, Toronto ended up losing four more games at an average differential of over -31 points. The worst one of those came in the last of the four games against the Boston Celtics, where Toronto lost 125 to 71.
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