The Toronto Raptors will start next season with largely the same core that they had from last season. Nevertheless, here are some of the biggest takeaways from Media Day.
While the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics overhauled a large part of their rosters over the offseason, the Toronto Raptors brought back a very similar team from a year ago.
Toronto re-signed Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka and sent the often injured DeMarre Carroll to the Brooklyn Nets. The Raptors also sent Cory Joseph to the Indiana Pacers for C.J. Miles in the most surprising move of the offseason.
Joseph is a two-way point guard that gave the Raptors good minutes off of the bench, but his time in Toronto had run its course. Joseph struggles to shoot the deep ball and the Raptors already had four point guards on the roster. Meanwhile, Miles made 41.3 percent of his 3-pointers last year and shoots 36.1 percent from downtown for his career.
Despite having back-to-back 50-win seasons, the Raptors are still viewed as underdogs in the Eastern Conference. But that isn’t anything new, because the Raptors have never had a legitimate championship contending team. The current squad might be the most talented team that the franchise has ever had, and they’ll look to make some noise in the postseason.
Here are the five biggest takeaways from Media Day.