What to make of Raptors’ Jonathan Mogbo in Year 2
“Imagination is the beginning of creation.” — George Bernard Shaw
Among the many reasons why the NBA draft has always been a crapshoot is that the annual pageant of prospects has been dictated by whimsy and hope just as much as it’s been by analytics and data.
No amount of number-crunching or film breakdowns persuades coaches and general managers quite like that voice in the back of their minds. The depths of a person’s imagination can develop some pretty convincing reasons for just about anything, after all.
Maybe this player can do (insert skill/trait here) for our team (even if there’s little evidence to believe it)?
Yet what happens when you listen to that voice in your head, create what was imagined, but it wasn’t what you had hoped for?
Well, you could do what Tony Stark did when he inadvertently created an AI android hell-bent on destroying the world. The billionaire, Playboy and philanthropist turned Avenger doubled down on his failings with Ultron and developed something better — a more agreeable synthezoid — after learning from his mistakes. Or, there’s Victor Frankenstein’s approach. The mad scientist couldn’t stomach the monster he had formed from the figments of his imagination, so he did everything to get away from it and distance himself.
As for the Toronto Raptors? When it comes to Jonathan Mogbo, they’ve taken a hybrid approach to the forward’s sophomore season after tinkering plenty during his rookie year.
The 24-year-old made 63 appearances for Toronto in 2024-25, including 18 starts and was one of just two rookies to post a triple-double. Yet after doing all that, while playing over 20 minutes per game, Mogbo’s seen an NBA court just 23 times in Year 2. When he has played, Mogbo has averaged just 6.0 minutes per game — summarily iced out of the rotation besides the odd stint during injury-plagued or blowout circumstances.
Mogbo’s logged more than 10 minutes of action in just six contests this season and his last notable appearance was a month ago, when he put up three points, nine rebounds and a block in 23 minutes during a double-digit win over the Sacramento Kings.
So, how did it get to this point?
For starters, the Raptors — like Stark (A.K.A. Iron Man) — found a way to upgrade while still adhering to the vision of what they sought. In drafting Collin Murray-Boyles, the franchise welcomed yet another small-ball archetypal centre, but one who was more mobile and versatile as a defender, much more crafty and capable as a finisher and with a higher ceiling as a decision-maker. All of which came in a player who’s also four years younger.
It’s no secret that the Raptors have been enamoured with switchy, play-making and defensively-minded forward/bigs for quite some time, and in Murray-Boyles, they found what projects to be the idealized version of that — destined to terrorize NBA offences next to Scottie Barnes for years to come, without giving it all back by being a non-factor on the other end.
But weren’t the Raptors trying to convert Mogbo into a wing, anyway?
Around this time last year, I had done a video essay documenting the former 31st-overall pick’s month-long stint in the G League and how it was spent on Mogbo’s “wingification.”
It didn’t take long for the Raptors to recognize that the same springy forward who dunked everything on everyone in the NCAA simply wasn’t going to convert up close at a commensurate rate in the NBA, against bigger, faster and stronger defenders. Mogbo’s 12th-percentile finishing rate at the rim as a rookie made that point abundantly clear. (A trend that’s continued in his sparse opportunities at the NBA level as a sophomore.)
So, general manager Bobby Webster and head coach Darko Rajakovic opted to listen to that voice in their heads that said Mogbo — despite attempting a total of two three-pointers in college — could be developed into a passable offensive player on the perimeter. In the hopes of finding ways to utilize him further from the basket to alleviate his struggles up close, and keep him on the floor without clogging the paint — for less-than-stellar interior production — and long enough that he could make an impact defensively.
But just one season removed from Rajakovic saying he wanted Mogbo to play wing minutes “nonstop,” the franchise appears to have all but abandoned that pursuit.
In both the G League and NBA last season, Mogbo was asked to primarily play out of the corners — when not forced to fill in for an injury-riddled centre rotation — and shoot the ball come hell or high water. Yet the same player who took 91 combined triples between both levels in 2024-25 has attempted just 19 shots from beyond the arc this year, all of which have come with the Raptors 905.
Mogbo attempted more threes through 13 contests in just the G League last season (21) than he has at both levels combined in 2025-26. Now, maybe part of the reason for that dip is that he converted just 27.5 per cent of those near 100 shots from distance as a rookie. But it also appears as though the organization has shifted away from that being a focus. Like with Dr. Frankenstein, the Raptors seemingly saw what they had created, were unsatisfied with the results and chose to distance themselves from it.
While Mogbo does start out of similar areas on a handful of possessions a game this season, he’s largely been a non-factor in those pockets. Instead, floating in the dunker-spot or up the floor to set a variety of screens for those around him.
And for what it’s worth, he’s gotten much better as a scrap-collector as part of that transition, specifically at the G League level. Mogbo led the 905 in average rebounding through the Tip-off Tournament (6.8) and sits third during the regular season (7.9), while leading the team on the offensive glass with 3.2 o-boards per game. His 12.2 per cent offensive rebound rate is also top 30 in the G League.
Hence why it’s also no coincidence the University of San Francisco product leads the 905 in second-chance points per game (4.0) and points in the paint (12.7) this year, and in two of his highest-scoring performances — a season-best 35-point outing vs. the Cleveland Charge and his 24-7-6-7 game against the Capital City Go-Go — he was among the game leaders for rebounds on both ends. Patrolling into the paint and sniffing out boards for the vast majority of his minutes these days.
All of which is well and good, as it’s the type of assertiveness 905 head coach Drew Jones has asked of Mogbo going back to last season, when encouraging the uber-athlete to unleash his “inner monster” more regularly.
“We’re empowering him to be more aggressive, attack the paint, use your length, your physicality and be disruptive. And when he does that, whether the ball goes in or out for him, he’s impactful,” the 905 bench boss told me last season.
Mogbo echoed that sentiment when I asked him in December what his goals were for Year 2.
“Just doing everything. Downhills, attacking closeouts, point-five decisions,” he explained. “I feel like that’s what I really have been working on … not holding the ball too long, making the right reads, going out there having fun and just playing my game. Having confidence. That’s the most important thing. So, when I do that, you know, then all my intangibles come into play.
And in some capacity, he’s checked those boxes.
The forward’s increased activity around the basket has subsequently led to an uptick in finishing up close as well, as he leads the junior dinos with an 80 per cent conversion rate on shots inside the restricted area. A near-10 per cent increase from last season. And to his credit, while his touch at the basket remains largely unrefined, it has gotten a smidge more tactful and the difference is noticeable. More scoops into finger-rolls, softer bounces off backboards and the occasional high-arcing teardrop.
But that’s also come in conjunction with his efficiency tanking literally everywhere else on the court, from a sub-optimal 32.6 per cent on non-restricted area shots last year to a woeful 24.0 per cent this season. Mogbo’s been taking and making fewer shots from everywhere but at the rim. Again, not exactly the markers of a wing-player in the making.
As for his work on defence, Mogbo still makes positive use of his plus wingspan and strength to be a disruptor on that end. His 2.0 steals per game are first on the 905 during the regular season and his 1.2 blocks are second. The long-limbed sophomore is by no means a shutdown rim-deterrent, but he’s been willing to commit to vertical contests more often than not and can rack up stocks in a hurry against the right opponent.
In his season-best outing vs. the Charge, Mogbo also collected four steals and three blocks. A performance that was undoubtedly a single-game culmination of his upside on both ends of the floor.
So, where does all this leave Mogbo and the Raptors moving forward?
All that can be guaranteed is that there are few certainties in the partnership when looking ahead, even if lots can change through the final third of the 2025-26 season. Which, in many ways, is par for the course amongst second-rounders in the fickle beast that is the NBA.
The Raptors have a $2.3 million club option for Mogbo next season on a roster that’ll be spending approximately 98.4 per cent of the salary cap on just its projected starting five, assuming RJ Barrett is still on the team. One that’ll be looking to continue its ascent after hopefully making the playoffs for just the first time since 2022 and will surely be eyeing upgrades up and down the lineup.
While Mogbo has shown inklings of improvement, with dwindling cap room to flesh out a team without going into the luxury tax — not to mention Webster’s unwillingness to part with draft capital thus far, signalling a desire to take as many kicks at the can in hopes of filling out future lineups with rookie-scale contracts — there seems to be less and less room for one-note, gadget-type players to occupy a roster spot.
It goes without saying that Mogbo has plenty of runway left in the pros, still years from his physical prime and hopefully his developmental ceiling. His story isn’t done being written yet by any means, but it’s unclear how many of those future chapters will be set in Toronto. At the very least, it’ll require some more convincing from that little voice in the back.
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The post What to make of Raptors’ Jonathan Mogbo in Year 2 first appeared on Raptors Republic.