The Autopsy Report: A Lost Season, a Found Franchise

The Toronto Raptors’ 2025-26 season suffered a painless death. It took 2.5 minutes. The Raptors had been keeping pace with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the first half of Game 7, truthfully outplaying them by a wide margin. But because the Raptors were so small with Brandon Ingram out, they were losing the rebounding battle, and they were also fouling a ton on the defensive end. Then came the third quarter. 

The Raptors were sputtering and floundering and almost out of shot-making horses. Ingram and Immanuel Quickley were already out. Scottie Barnes and Jamal Shead, who sprained his ankle fairly seriously in the first half, were hobbling. There simply wasn’t enough scoring. And on the other end, whistle after whistle went against Toronto, and Mitchell started hitting step-back triples, and Evan Mobley hit a fading jumper, and the Cavaliers found a nine-point lead almost immediately despite Toronto’s performance. Talent, sometimes, wins out. Health doesn’t hurt. 

For a time, though, the Raptors were soaring.

The fact of the matter is that the Raptors employ a variety of players who have never seen such incandescent lights — but found that they quite enjoyed the heat. Ja’Kobe Walter remained an assassin with the jumper. For a time, Shead, too, as he splashed a buzzer-beating corner triple on his first look in Game 7. He followed that up with an opportunistic cut for a layup, a lob pass to Collin Murray-Boyles for a thunder dunk, and a driving layup over Evan Mobley. After driving for free throws midway through the second, he at that point had more points than James Harden and Mitchell combined. More assists, too.

Jamison Battle hit a catch-high-keep-high triple in transition after Murray-Boyles stole a rebound that Jarrett Allen was trying to dunk. Murray-Boyles hit a buzzer-beating isolation jumper to magic points from a nothing offensive possession. For a time, the Raptors were a Nascar driver with their wheel patched, their windshield taped in place, and their engine glued in by gumption and good vibes. And also for a time, that vehicle and its driver was in pole position of the race. 

And, yes, it all fell apart. Jamal Shead can only outduel James Harden and Donovan Mitchell for so long, especially on one ankle. Things got ugly in the third quarter. There were headbutts, blocked shots, runout dunks for Cleveland. There were noteworthy calls that gave star players fifth fouls on 50-50 balls. It’s not that the Raptors flew too close to the sun as much as that their patched-together wings had an expiration date that didn’t quite last seven full basketball games. But perhaps the best lesson from this seven-game journey is that the Raptors may not have landed the plane in the next round, but neither did they lose the blueprints. 

The Raptors know who they are going forward. 

For half a decade, the Raptors have been wandering lost in the desert. The champions left in ones and twos. Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, Serge Ibaka, Marc Gasol, Kyle Lowry, Norm Powell, all gone. Then Fred VanVleet. Then OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam.

And without those stars, the Raptors suffered both in terms of quality and identity. The offence fell apart. The Raptors went so long without a center that Khem Birch was a breath of fresh air. They lost and lost and lost — yet not quite enough to find a surefire superstar at the top of the draft. What could Darko Rajakovic spin out of those years of experimentation? 

Here, now, in these playoffs, they have found themselves. Under Rajakovic, under Scottie Barnes, the Raptors possess an identity that formed during the last two regular seasons and crystalized in these playoffs. In 2024-25, they finished as the 14th-ranked defence after a hot close to the season. In 2025-26, they finished seventh and carried that momentum into the playoffs, during which the Raptors proved themselves to be ferocious, slobbering hounds, quivering on the chain, brutal and physical and risers risers risers in the crucible of the playoffs. 

Jamal Shead? Certified Dawg. Ja’Kobe Walter? Hound. Collin Murray-Boyles? More of a bear, but still a Dawg, too. RJ Barrett? Blessed by the angels, and certainly still a Dawg. Scottie Barnes? The pack leader. 

The Raptors took a championship-hopeful Cavaliers squad to seven games, playing even for the first 13 halves of the series, falling short in the final one. They did it without their starting point guard and best shooter, mostly without their second All Star and leading scorer, and with their starting center seemingly frozen in carbonite. But the Raptors were scrappy and hungry and unwilling to concede an inch on the defensive end. 

There is much that is certain in Toronto’s future. Barnes was one of the best five players in the first round, and it is undoubtable that his game translates smoothly to the playoffs. The defence of Murray-Boyles and Walter, and their unique offensive abilities, too, are foundational components of the franchise’s future. Shead may not be what you want as a starting point guard (at least not yet), but he continues to emulate the paths of true franchise legends. In any situation, facing any opponent and his own limitations both, he simply finds a way. 

There are uncertainties as well. Raptors Republic will have much, much more on how to address those elements over the offseason as we get into it. That’s not what a eulogy is for. 

For now, the 2025-26 Raptors’ season is to be celebrated. It deserves celebration. The future is certainly brighter than the present for these Raptors. All of Barnes, Barrett, Murray-Boyles, Shead, and Walter are 25 years old or younger. More trails will be blazed, more identities found, more skills developed. The Raptors have put themselves into position to earn those journeys together. The team’s present is now on hiatus. It will return better than ever.

The Toronto Raptors are dead. Long live the Toronto Raptors.

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