Are the Toronto Raptors too good to tank?

The team is now 7-15 on the season despite still having a long injury list... are they abandoning tank?

Coming into the 2024-25 NBA season, Toronto Raptors fans, writers, and honestly many other people league-wide assumed this season was already in the books. You have a young core, a younger bench, and a relatively new NBA head coach — the tank was palpable.

Add on the fact that it was barely training camp before the injuries started piling up. RJ Barrett hurt his shoulder, Immanuel Quickley hurt his pelvis and then his elbow, Scottie Barnes got an elbow to the face... Not to mention Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown have yet to make their debut. The beginning of the season was handed over to the young guys.

It showed, too. a 2-8 start to the regular season screamed tank. Which was fine because, again, it was almost expected. Yet in the past three-ish weeks the tides have seemed to turn...

RJ Barrett returned from injury, shortly followed by Scottie Barnes. Jakob Poeltl started playing like an NBA All-Star. Suddenly they’re 5-3 in their last eight games and are beating teams like Minnesota and Indiana. They are losing in one-point buzzer beater defeats to Boston. They are 12th in the Eastern standings AHEAD of the 76ers, Hornets and Wizards.

Most importantly — they just keep getting better.

In the Raptors’ Tuesday night win over the Indiana Pacers (which brought them up to 2-0 over Indiana this season), Barnes and Barrett combined for 64 points and 15 assists. Barrett shot 9-16 from the field against Indiana, resulting in a 68.1 true shooting percentage. Per Keerthika Uthayakumar, the pair has combined to score or assist on approximately 67% of the Raptors’ total points in the last 4 games.

That pair also joins an elite group of players in the NBA this season who are averaging 20+ points, 6+ rebounds, and 6+ assists. On top of Barnes and Barrett, the list also includes Giannis, Jokic, Doncic, LeBron, Harden, Sabonis, and Cade Cunningham.

RJ Barrett is leading the team with 23.9 points per game (a career high for him), along with 6.5 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game in the 19 games he has been available for. He’s shooting 46.2% from the field and 35.5% from three.

Scottie Barnes has been available for 11 games this season, and is averaging 22 points, 8.5 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.4 steals per game.

Jakob Poeltl leads the team in rebounds per game with 11.8, along with 16 points and 2.5 assists per game.

So... what does all of this mean? Well, the first thing is obvious: this Raptors team is better than they were anticipated to be. While these leaps from Barrett, Barnes and even Poeltl were anticipated, it’s the rest of the variables that bring everything together.

The first thing is that this team is nowhere near full strength. Immanuel Quickley, Bruce Brown, and Kelly Olynyk would be heavily in the rotation in they were healthy.

The result of these injuries has meant younger players — ones that weren’t even being considered to have potential to make an impact before the season — are stepping up. Ochai Agbaji has absolutely blossomed into a reliable NBA rotation player before our eyes, and before Gradey Dick missed the last few games with a calf strain, was having the entire GTA ready to sign up for whatever development program he went through last winter.

It’s the first week of December, and this team is 7-15. In comparison to other teams that are “tanking”... that’s a little too much winning to be on pace for best draft odds. The Wizards are currently 2-17, while the freaking 76ers are even at 5-14. In the Western Conference, two teams have worse records than the Raptors, the Utah Jazz at 4-17 and the New Orleans Pelicans at 4-18.

With the Raptors just continuing to get better, even without being at full strength, their window for a full-on tank is closing. It seems early, but December-January is when the chances of these middle-of-the-pack teams either making a charge for a playoff spot or fading into lottery obscurity is decided. Even last season, many said deciding to start selling in late December when the OG Anunoby trade happened was considered late.

Now, I’m not saying I’m Team Tank or Not, because there are pros and cons to both. Sure, having a top-draft pick to add to this assortment of great young players would be fantastic. Yet, if Barrett, Barnes and even Poeltl are putting up the best numbers of their lives, do you dull their spark just to tank? Or do you let them try their hardest and see what comes from it?

If this team shows enough potential, if they get All-Star buzz, or even an All-Star player — then they compete in the play-in or even the playoffs... it’s another pro’s and cons situation.

On the one hand they risk getting a sub-par draft pick next year. On the other hand, the rising potential of this team and a better than expected postseason performance could attract big free agents or trade requests in the offseason. With the ever-changing landscape of the NBA, with teams like Milwaukee and Philadelphia experiencing troubles, big stars may be on the move. If Toronto is one star away from making a push... do they try this route? Or play it safe an continue a steady track of development?

A lot of this is just getting ahead of where we are in the season. Yet, if the Raptors are going to truly tank, truly make a run for having the best draft lottery odds in the NBA... the wins are stacking up a little too fast.

So, this begs the question: Are the Toronto Raptors too good to tank? Are they even trying to anymore?

Obviously there is a bit of a rift in the discussion — players want to win, or so they say every time they ask. Tanking isn’t fun. Winning 5-10 out of 82 games in a season is not fun. If the players had it their way they’d win all of them, or at least all they could manage.

There’s a tricky balance in these situations — if you’re team is actually that bad and simply cannot win more than 5-10 games in a full season, then so be it, you tank. The Raptors are already proving that not to be true, so do you pressure the coach to intentionally put the team in losing situations? Are you super strict on injury recovery timelines? Do you start resting more?

These are all questions above my pay grade. All I can say is that this team is FUN. It’s been genuinely enjoyable to watch them all this season. They get along extremely well, they have fun on the court, they love supporting each other. There’s still the anticipation of seeing Quickley in the mix with them all.

What do you think? Are we slowly sailing away from the tank?