Impossible to figure out what these Toronto Raptors are

Good luck trying to figure out which version of the 2025-26 Toronto Raptors is the real one.

Is it the group that went off for 138 points in Atlanta to open the season in emphatic fashion? Or the one that then lost its next four, surrendering more points early on than just about any squad?

Or maybe the Raptors that reeled off nine straight wins in November and victories in 13-of-14 overall, many of them routs?

How about the current version that has lost 4-of-5, including Friday’s worst performance all year, a 111-86 drubbing by the visiting Charlotte Hornets?

Charlotte is no powerhouse. The team sits 12th out of 15 Eastern Conference teams with just seven victories in 23 tries, but two of them have come in the last week against Toronto and the Raptors also needed exceptional defensive plays from Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram to squeeze out a two-point home win over them mid-month.

Despite getting off to a 24-18 start Friday and also winning the third quarter by three points, the Raptors got obliterated by the Hornets in the second frame and allowed Charlotte to score the first nine points of the fourth, turning a winnable, eight-point game, into a tough task for a winded group.

A night earlier, after Toronto had dropped a tough game to the Los Angeles Lakers on a buzzer-beating three, head coach Darko Rajakovic had tried to preemptively ward off a bad effort against Charlotte.

“This is NBA. There is no place for fatigue,” Rajakovic had said when asked about the team’s jam-packed schedule.

“There is another game tomorrow … that cannot be excuse for us.”

But Rajakovic couldn’t ignore the obvious Friday and it wasn’t the time to bury his team for the non-effort.

“Five games in seven nights. Physically, we were worn down,” Rajakovic told media at his availability. “I’m really proud of our guys tonight. We tried. But when you’re trying and you’re missing layups and wide open shots, it’s hard to keep it up. We didn’t quit. We continued fighting but we didn’t have enough in the tank.”

Ingram, the team’s top scorer, has looked particularly tired at times recently. He didn’t get a hand up to contest a Kon Knueppel three-point attempt at the buzzer in Charlotte, which forced overtime and an eventual loss and even if that one was more a mistake than fatigue, there’s no question he was running on fumes on Friday. Ingram shot 3-for-13 from the field, had little legs on his attempts and despite leading the club in free throw attempts for the season, didn’t get to the line once. Ingram, normally an excellent finisher, uncharacteristically missed three layup attempts and a dunk.

It makes sense that Ingram hasn’t been the same player who sizzled early on. He’s played in all 24 games after getting into only 18 last season. He had missed a quarter of New Orleans games at this point one year ago before suffering a severe ankle injury, with the one-year anniversary of that unfortunate moment coming Sunday, and did not play again until this Fall. Plus, Ingram’s defending harder than he has in the past and it takes more energy to play Toronto’s up-tempo style.

The schedule isn’t going to ease up too much and big games are on tap. First, the surprising Boston Celtics, expected to be lightweights with Jayson Tatum likely out for the season and others jettisoned in the summer, have instead won 9-of-11 and leapfrog the Raptors in the standings with a win in Sunday’s matinee at Toronto. Then of course there’s the main event, the NBA Cup quarter-final against the visiting New York Knicks Tuesday, arguably the biggest game the team has played in more than three years.

Immanuel Quickley, easily the best Raptor against the Hornets with a game-high 31 points on 50% shooting (everyone else combined to shoot 33%), said they need to be better and can’t be impacted so much by all of the games.

“You’ve got to make a choice,” Quickley told reporters Friday. “Honestly, it’s a decision. That’s why you train hard in the summer, wake up early in the summer: for games like this, for trying to get to the post-season, all that type of stuff you work hard for to be able to try to bring it on these type of nights,” he said.

“So schedule is never no excuse. We’ve got to learn from this one and continue to try to get better throughout the season.

HOW THEY MIGHT GET THERE

Here’s a suggestion of how they might get better moving forward.

The return of RJ Barrett, which hopefully won’t be too far off, should be a big boost. He takes lots of pressure off Ingram and makes the offence far more dangerous and effective. Toronto’s been last in both three-point and free throw accuracy since Barrett got hurt (plummeting free throw marksmanship is a sure sign of fatigue) and has been dead-last in offensive efficiency in that time.

Rajakovic has a lot of options at wing when the team is healthy and might consider finding a way to scale back Ingram’s minutes a bit and load management makes sense for some games too, with Ingram getting an occasional rest. It makes sense because he’s not going to play every game, he has no history of staying healthy for a full season. Rajakovic has talked of the importance of rest in the past (he was talking about the value of sleep, but the point stands) and Toronto has a history of load managing its stars and should start doing it with Ingram immediately after the NBA Cup.

ONE MORE THING

Another idea is acquiring another 7-footer. We’ve mentioned here previously that Jakob Poeltl is the only player over 6-foot-10 on the roster. That’s not a recipe for success, even if Poeltl wasn’t dealing with a wonky back. The team needs another big, strong player who can rebound and guard the rim. Of course they’d love if that player could also shoot three-pointers, but that shouldn’t be a necessity, since those types don’t grow on trees.

The trade market should open a bit on Dec. 15 when many players become trade eligible with signing restrictions lift. The Raptors should look for a match, using wing depth and second round picks if necessary to get something done.

@WolstatSun