Is the Raptors promise of defensive identity believable?

All of which was well and good, but ultimately, the Raptors finished with a middle-of-the-pack defensive rating, while their “most important guy is going to be the guy who’s guarding the ball” style, as Rajakovic explained, wasn’t without its faults, as Toronto led the league in average fouls (21.2). That’s not to say it was all talk and no action, however, as the Raptors said they wanted to pressure ball handlers, and they most certainly did — ranked fourth for highest pick-up distance and fifth in average deflections (17.9).

So, with the 2025-26 regular season rapidly approaching, it begs the question: have we seen enough to take those reiterated words as gospel this time around?

Honestly, it’s hard to say. And if one pre-season game is any indication … well, it’s still hard to say.

On one hand, the Raptors continued to wreak havoc with high pick-up points and ball pressure, to the tune of 31 forced turnovers for 32 points against Denver on Monday. Yet similar problems from last season persisted as the dinos committed 31 fouls and provided little deterrence once the Nuggets got into their halfcourt offence, especially at the rim (19-of-23), en route to a 112-108 loss.

With five contests left in the exhibition schedule, however, jumping to conclusions seems premature. There’ll be plenty of time for that after games start to count on Oct. 22.

Until then, while uncertainty about the Raptors’ chatter remains, I’m willing to have some faith in what they have to say. Maybe that’s me just falling victim to the honeyed words of early October, but I believe that if a couple of things break right, the Raptors may not just talk the talk this year, but also do some walking.

For starters, and this is pretty obvious, the squad is healthy and maintaining that will go a long way in establishing a stronger defence. The Raptors had 472 total games missed due to injury last year, seventh-most in the NBA, which also marked a second straight year in the top third of the league for that not-so-ideal distinction.

As far as injury status goes throughout camp, thankfully all the key contributors have appeared to be in top form, namely Brandon Ingram, who only just made his Raptors debut against the Nuggets, and Immanuel Quickley, who missed all but 33 games last season.

While there’s no doubt the pair will need to be sound defensively, let’s be honest, there’s no disillusionment that either is a highly influential player on the end. Instead, their way of positively shifting the defence will largely come from how much of the offensive burden they can ease, which should trigger a cascading impact. The more Ingram and Quickley handle the scoring/playmaking/creation load, the less someone like Scottie Barnes (et al.) has to, which lets the soon-to-be fourth-year forward focus that much more on his elite defensive prowess.

Mind you, it’s not just Ingram and Quickley being healthy that’ll make a difference for the Toronto this year. The Raptors as a whole will benefit greatly from an injury-free campaign, as it’s been two seasons since they had more than one player make 70-plus appearances. For comparison, the San Antonio Spurs, who ranked 15th in games lost to injury last year, had five players reach that mark. I’m not breaking news here, but the implications of stalwart defenders like Barnes or Jakob Poeltl missing 17 and 25 games apiece were not positive.

Having a rookie in Jamal Shead lead the team in games played was a nice sentiment but not a marker of success. If the Raptors are going to turn the corner, having core starters and key rotation players — like Gradey Dick, who missed 28 games last year — build continuity is going to be part of the process. Because the simple fact is, if the Raptors can remain healthy for the majority of the season, role definition will be clearer, priorities won’t shift as often, and the defence will be afforded the resources required to flourish.

And speaking of roles, the trickle-down effect of (hopefully) having a healthy starting unit will be asking far less of the rotation guys, who, in the Raptors’ case, are primarily youngsters.

Only the Wizards played their rookies more minutes last season, and while that provided players like Shead, Ja’Kobe Walter, Jamison Battle and Jonathan Mogbo plenty of reps, it forced them out of their expected duties. Experience is never a bad thing, but the Raptors’ second unit suffered as a result.

And for a team ready to leap up the standings in an murky Eastern Conference landscape, a bench group with an 18th-ranked defence that gave up the 12th most points likely won’t cut it.

The good news is that with things projecting to be simpler for the young guys this season, they’ll have an easier time focusing on winning their minutes defensively — and there’s no denying their potential to do so. Anyone who tuned into Summer League saw what the junior dinos accomplished, wreaking havoc as they forced 136 turnovers over five games, including a Las Vegas record 33 takeaways in their opener.

“We have a lot of guys that are very willing defensive players, and we’re keeping the standard so high that everybody else is rising to the task,” Rajakovic explained. “I don’t see a weak link for us defensively this year, and I’m not going to look at any player on this team to give him a free pass because the defence is not at the level that we expect. I’m going to keep everybody accountable to the highest standards on the defensive end.”

It also helps that the Raptors drafted Collin Murray-Boyles, who’s expected to be a headliner for bench-centric lineups. The rookie has already turned heads throughout camp, primarily for his uber-physical approach and exhausting effort on the defensive end. Just ask Barnes who described the South Carolina product as “super aggresive. On the defensive end he’s a beast. He’s a monster.”

While asking first-year player to help anchor the defence in his minutes is a lot, it’s apparent the Raptors have high hopes for the forward. As Murray-Boyles checked in for his first NBA (pre-season) stint on Monday, he was immediately tasked with defending three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. Talk about a welcome to the league moment. And while he didn’t exactly shut down the Serbian superstar (who can?), Murray-Boyles held his own, finishing a plus-five in his 17 minutes of action, even while shooting 2-of-7 from the field.

If the 20-year-old can rise to the occasion and live up to his billing, I’ll go out on a whim and say the Raptors (bench) defence will follow suit.

I’ll also add a reminder that progress is practically never linear, and growing paints are often part of the process.

The Raptors may not have transformed their defence entirely despite their pre-season platitudes last year, but it’s not like they walked away from the 2024-25 campaign empty handed.

Toronto improved what was the 26th-ranked defence two seasons ago up to 15th, so while I won’t say “mission accomplished” just yet, I’ll acknowledge the “foundation” Rajakovic said his team was going to build last September was indeed laid down by year’s end.

The Raptors held the second-best defensive rating after the all-star break (109.3) and flipped from giving up the sixth most points per game (115.2) to the 11th fewest (112.4), albeit against not-so-stellar competition. If they can springboard off that end of season effort, we’re talking about a really good defensive squad.

I know I’ve pointed out plenty of ifs and maybes, but that’s what early October is for. It’s talk the talk season before the walking gets underway. The Raptors have done plenty of the former, and soon we’ll find out if they’re truly ready to do the latter.