Raptors Roundup: Playoff prep, Quick and Jak, and what’s next for Gradey Dick?

Welcome to Raptors Roundup! A weekly recap of everything going on in the world of the Toronto Raptors.

There are only 22 games left in the Raptors’ 2025-26 regular season. Currently the Raptors sit at the five seed and are 3.5 games ahead of the play-in tournament. While they still need to win their games, now is the time for the Raptors to begin their playoff preparations too. That means whittling down the rotation (more on that shortly), getting guys healthy, and working through kinks in the offense (particularly in the fourth quarter).

Jakob Poeltl’s return to health has certainly improved things, and ensuring he can maintain a high level in the playoffs is key to the Raptors chances of winning a playoff series. Offensively he raises the floor of the team, his powerful screens single-handedly create advantages, both in getting players downhill towards the rim and in creating space for shooters (Raptors need all the help they can get). Outside of Poeltl, ensuring that Scottie Barnes (Quad) and Collin Murray-Boyles (Thumb) can rest their lingering injuries is top priority.

The rotation is slowly starting to figure itself out, and over the past week Gradey Dick has played just 6 minutes total, including two DNP-CD in the Raptors’ last two games. It’s been a slow spiral to this point for Dick, as he’s averaging just 6.3 points on 30.8% from deep while his minutes have slowly dwindled in favour of Ja’Kobe Walter and Jamison Battle. Coach Darko spoke on the third year wing after the Spurs game:

“Obviously, what he experienced in the first two years in the NBA is pretty different than what he’s going through this season,” said Rajakovic. “He’s in the process of learning how to be a professional, how to embrace that role, how to learn to play that role. And he had games where he did very well and he had games that, you know, did not do great. So he has to live with the process. I still believe in him, we still believe in him, and we look at this as a long-term process with him, not just something that’s game-to-game.”

• Darko Rajakovic via Michael Grange

That reads to me as though Dick will likely see limited minutes the rest of the season, and from that point he’ll have major improvements to make this off-season to fight his way back in to the rotation. Next season is the last year of Dick’s rookie contract, and since he didn’t sign an extension with Toronto, he could hit the open market upon the conclusion of next season. That would be shocking to say the least, it’s not often that lottery picks hit the open market so quickly, and I think the Raptors would sooner package him in a trade. Whether his shooting struggles are due to a change in mechanics or a mental block, there’s still something there with Dick, and whether it’s with Toronto or not, he will have at least one more chance to prove himself. For now, he’ll likely sit out of any playoff action the Raptors see this year.

Game Recaps

Raptors nearly complete improbable comeback amid game of wild runs | Final: 107-116

Basketball is a game of runs? The second half was a game of four-minute miles. Long-distance wind sprints.  

In the third, the Raptors fell apart. The Thunder romped to a 26-7 run as triples poured down from the heavens unabated – four of them from a scorching-hot Isaiah Joe. Oklahoma City did its thing, aggressively battering the gaps and stopping all drives short of the rim while the Raptors failed to make reads under the mounting pressure. The Thunder led by as much as 25 with 14 minutes of game time remaining. It was over.  

But in the famous words of Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over until it’s over.” The Raptors proceeded to orchestrate a 30-5 stretch over 10 minutes, and a Jamal Shead pull-up 3 tied the game at 101 with 4:06 left on the clock.

• Ian Finlayson

Top Performers:

1. Scottie Barnes – 15 PTS, 3 REB, 7 AST, 3 STL, 4 BLK, 7-17 FG, 0-3 3FG, 1-1 FT +18 +/-
2. Ja’Kobe Walter – 17 PTS, 4 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 6-9 FG, 5-7 3FG, -9 +/-
3. RJ Barrett – 21 PTS, 8 REB, 4 AST, 1 BLK, 1 STL, 8-15 FG, 4-6 3FG, 1-2 FT -1 +/-

Raptors pull Spurs into defensive gauntlet, lose regardless | Final: 107-110

Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov once played a chess match in a race to six wins. Draws didn’t count. The 1985 chess world championship lasted for almost half a year, with 40 draws, before the tournament organizer simply called the thing. Karpov reportedly lost more than 20 pounds with the stress of the extended contest. It was a match between heavyweights, positional geniuses, with neither willing to extend himself and risk a loss. Kasparov was the better open-board player, the more dynamic attacker, but he was just as comfortable in the mud. So Karpov had to take him into the grime where he had a chance..

So too the Toronto Raptors found themselves pulling the San Antonio Spurs into the mud of a positional war. The Spurs entered the game at 41-16, the third-best record in the lead and only 3.0 games behind first overall. With the most dynamic player in the league in Victor Wembenyama, they were this game’s Kasparov. The Raptors are no slouch, certainly a strong team, but they are not the caliber of the Spurs. Their only chance was to play a defensive grudge match. Both teams are similar defensively — both within the league’s top six on that end — while the Spurs are offensively far more capable. 

So defence, and the grime, is where it had to be for the Raptors for them to have any chance. 

• Louis Zatzman

Top Performers:

1. Jakob Poeltl – 15 PTS, 7 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, 3 BLK 5-11 FG, 5-5 FT +18 +/-
2. Immanuel Quickley – 20 PTS, 4 REB, 6-12 FG, 3-5 3FG, 5-7 FT, +4 +/-
3. Brandon Ingram – 20 PTS, 11 REB, 4 AST, 9-22 FG, 0-2 3FG, 2-2 FT +1 +/-

Poeltl, Quickley & Ingram lead Raptors to professional win | Final: 134-125

The Raptors have built themselves into a collective defensive stopper through effort and attention to detail. They’re generally pretty good at picking up on and defending other teams pet actions. Scripted plays to start games get blown up. Things like that. When the Raptors are close to a team or better, in terms of talent, they typically carve out a game plan that allows them to come out on the other side with a win. Typically.

Of course, this team did lose to the lowly Wizards earlier in the season, but it’s fair to label that one as an aberration. An NBA season is long enough and wending enough to allow for such things. You can only let it happen once, though. The Raptors had to make sure of that.

They have lots of paths to minor improvements. Don’t hit a near league worst percentage on your open three-point shots. Don’t convert a near league worst rate in transition after steals. Hit shots after offensive rebounds. All these things have been poor and could get better and it’s incredibly important that they buzzsaw through mediocre and weak teams while they sort this stuff out

• Samson Folk

Top Performers:

1. Immanuel Quickley – 27 PTS, 2 REB, 11 AST, 10-15 FG, 2-7 3FG, 5-5 FT +7 +/-
2. Jakob Poeltl – 18 PTS, 10 REB, 3 AST, 3 STL, 1 BLK, 7-7 FG, 4-5 FT, +18 +/-
3. Brandon Ingram – 24 PTS, 5 REB, 5 AST, 1 STL, 1 BLK, 9-14 FG, 1-1 3FG, 5-6 FT +11 +/-

Quick Reaction Roundup

Take a peek at this week’s Quick Reaction grades throughout the week.

	OKC Thunder	SA Spurs	Wash. Wizards	Average Grade
Immanuel Quickley	C+	C+	A+	B
RJ Barrett	B	D+	B-	C+
Brandon Ingram	B-	C	B	B-
Scottie Barnes	B+	C-	B	B-
Jakob Poeltl	Inj.	A+	A-	A-
Collin Murray-Boyles	C+	A	Inj.	B+
Jamal Shead	B	B+	B	B
Sandro Mamukelashvili	D	Inj.	C+	C-
Ja’Kobe Walter	A+	B-	C	B
Gradey Dick	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Trayce Jackson-Davis	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Jamison Battle	N/A	N/A	A	A
Darko Rajakovic	B	B-	?	B

Raptor of the week: Immanuel Quickley

Quietly, Quickley has been playing excellent basketball for weeks now. The best thing about it is that it hasn’t just been his off-ball play that’s excelled. Yes he’s been shooting well, but he’s also been driving better, making better and quicker decisions, and altogether playing a more complete game.

This week Quickley posted averages of 21.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists on 53.7% from the field, 42.9% from three and 78.6% from the free throw line. He led the Raptors in scoring this week and on Saturday night he put up 27 points and 11 assists. Nearly every week Quickley has been putting together some of his most complete games. His assist numbers this week are down from his season average but the quality of assists has risen considerably. Quickley is driving deeper, getting two feet in the paint more often than not and has done a great job finding guys on the perimeter.

Just take a look at some of these assists from the Washington game, he’s deep and making split second decisions in both transition and the halfcourt that create significant advantages:

Current Raptor of the Week standings:

1. Scottie Barnes – 5 times
2. Brandon Ingram – 3 times
3. Immanuel Quickley – 2 times
4. Ja’Kobe Walter – 2 times
5. Collin Murray-Boyles – 2 times

Top pieces of the week

What to make of Raptors’ Jonathan Mogbo in Year 2

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?

• Zulfi Sheikh

Stirtz, Cenac Jr., Carr: more Raptors targets in the stacked 2026 NBA Draft

The time has come for some more draft profiles on this year’s class of prospects. This is part two in this year’s draft lookahead, so be sure to check out part one here once you’re done.

We’ll jump right into things today. As it stands, the Raptors are holding firm in that late teens-early twenties range of picks. The late first round looks fairly deep, but also quite volatile at this time of year as more players start to cement their chances at professional basketball or fall off entirely. As a result, I’ll be covering a handful of players who could go anywhere from the mid teens to the early second round, since the Raptors could in theory target any one of them. These guys are good to keep an eye on if you’re curious about which players could fit the best on a developing Raptors squad.

• Brendan Stewart

Charting Alijah Martin’s course to NBA impact for the Raptors

There’s no way around it; Alijah Martin is a dog.  

It’s apparent immediately watching him play. It was apparent to the Toronto Raptors from his first pre-draft workout, where he was talking trash, getting in guys’ faces, and being ultra physical all while showing out after apparently arriving at 2:30 a.m. the previous morning.

“You just got to find it,” Martin said on Open Gym. You just got to find it in these workouts. And I found it today.”

He plays with an indomitable spirit. Relentless ferocity. A ruthless drive to exert his will upon opponents and win at all costs.

Looking Ahead

Tuesday, March 3rd – Knicks @ Raptors | 7:30pm ET on Sportsnet

Thursday, March 5th – Raptors @ Timberwolves | 8:00pm ET on Sportsnet

Sunday, March 8th – Mavericks @ Raptors | 6:00pm ET on Sportsnet

Record Prediction: 2-1, I do think the Raptors get one back against either the Knicks or Wolves, of the two I’m leaning towards them taking the game on the road against Minnesota. The Mavericks game on Sunday should be a good game with Cooper Flagg set to return soon and the Raptors haven’t played Dallas since the first month of the season. They should take that one but struggled in the early season matchup.

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Raptors Roundup, thank you for reading! Have a wonderful week!

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