Summer League is over, summer is here.
In a normal year, NBA business would be all but completed by now and the league would be on the cusp of an extended vacation before opening up shop again around late August and early September as players begin reconvening in-market to ramp up for training camp.
Things are little bit different this summer as one of the league’s biggest trades – as the Toronto Raptors acquired Kawhi Leonard for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and multiple draft assets – is on hold while the NBA completes its now-nearly 11-month investigation into alleged salary-cap circumvention after Leonard signed a new four-year contract with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2021.
As well, the NBA is watching with interest as an unprecedented set of circumstances unfold around LeBron James, the 41-year-old superstar who is a free agent and looking for a new team to end his career with while gunning for one more championship, with an added twist that he’s reportedly willing to play on a contract that would pay him a fraction of his actual on-court value.
The Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors and Philadelphia 76ers are the betting favourites to land James in a move that could shift the balance of power in the league.
As for the Raptors? While waiting on Leonard, they have been otherwise going about their business. They finished their Las Vegas Summer League schedule with a 3-2 record and while there was some disappointment that we never got to see second-year star Collin Murray-Boyles unleashed as point forward due to a sprained finger (not thumb!) he suffered in training, there were some interesting developments.
Outside of waiting for Leonard and maybe nailing down a training camp deal or finalizing their 14th roster spot, most of the team’s business is done, with players and coaches heading out for some family and vacation time before reconvening for a team minicamp in Paris during the second week in August.
In the meantime…
Three-point Grange, summer edition:
A big man, really?
The Raptors have never been shy about playing unconventional lineups.
This was a team not too long ago that went two consecutive seasons without having a seven-footer on its roster and tried to compensate by seemingly having half of its players measure anywhere between six-foot-seven and six-foot-nine.
Even since they reacquired Jakob Poeltl late in the 2022-23 season the big Austrian remains the only seven-footer on a standard NBA contract in the organization for most of five seasons heading into the 2025-26 campaign.
The Raptors lack of depth at centre was even more glaring last season when Poeltl was able to play just 54 games due to a recurring back problem, requiring six-foot-seven rookie Murray-Boyles to play heavy minutes at centre. Murray-Boyles thrived in the role, but relying on a six-foot-seven forward to play centre is not a long-term solution.
Meanwhile, big is back in the NBA.
The New York Knicks won the NBA title in part because of their bully-ball tandem of Mitchell Robinson and Karl-Anthony Towns. The Oklahoma City Thunder have multiple seven-footers in Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein and had another seven-footer on the bench in former Raptors 905er Branden Carlson.
As well, Eastern Conference finalists Cleveland feature a twin-towers lineup with Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, and the Portland Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies are trying to become contenders with super-sized front courts.
Looming above it all is seven-foot-five Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs, a team that’s giving every indication of being a dynasty in the making after they zoomed to the NBA Finals faster than anyone expected.
Coincidence or not, the Raptors had not one but two skyscrapers on their 12-man NBA Summer League roster: seven-foot Nate Bittle, an undrafted big man out of the University of Oregon and seven-foot-five Jamarion Sharp, who went undrafted in 2024 but has two G-League seasons on his resume, including winning G-League Defensive Player of the Year honours in 2025-26.
Not surprisingly, the Raptors accumulated 16 blocked shots in their first two games prior to their third Summer League start last Monday, with Bittle and Sharp accounting for 13 of them. The Raptors’ eight blocks-per-game average placed them second in the 30-team tournament.
Of the two bigs, Bittle is further along as an all-round player as he flashed some sharp passing skills while acting as a high-post hub, averaging 2.3 assists per game in just 20 minutes of floor time (to go along with 2.8 blocks per game), and even more intriguingly knocked down 43.8 per cent of his threes on four attempts per game.
The Raptors have already signed him on an Exhibit 10 contract, which gives Bittle a $75,000 bonus for attending training camp and staying with Raptors 905 if he doesn’t make the main roster, but also opens the door to converting him to a two-way deal before that, a move the Raptors are certainly considering.
Speaking with Bittle, it was interesting to learn that he targeted the Raptors as an organization he felt provided a meaningful path to earning an NBA job – and he can read a depth chart, too.
“Me and my agent, my parents, we had that talk,” Bittle said. “After being an undrafted free agent we thought this was a great fit for me and I went up there, did the little minicamp with them before summer league.
“Came out here, had a couple practices, and then now we're playing and I think everything is going good. I’ve just got to stay true to myself and my game. Being able to block shots, space the floor offensively, set good screens for guys to get open … that's something that they needed and we looked at it and there’s just an opportunity there for me and I just want to make the most of all the opportunities I get.”
Graves springs to life
Realistically, the Raptors can’t be happier with how their first look at their first-round draft pick went.
The most interesting thing about Allen Graves, who the Raptors took 19th overall in the 2026 draft, is that he won’t really have to adjust his game to play in the NBA.
Sure, figuring out how to play his game at NBA speed and against NBA athletes will take some getting used to, and whether he can or not will determine how successful a career he has and how soon, but the 19-year-old won’t have to change his style or develop a new set of skills. He was drafted as do-a-little-bit-of-everything role player on offence with elite disruptive skills defensively, and that’s exactly what he showed in his first taste of professional competition in Las Vegas.
His stat line was probably a perfect representation of what the Raptors hoped they were getting and what he can be at the NBA level, as he averaged 16.8 points on 51 per cent shooting from the floor and knocking down 50 per cent of more than five threes a game, all while grabbing 6.8 rebounds (including 1.5 on the offensive end), dishing three assists, making 2.3 steals and one block, all in 27.5 minutes per game.
Summer League athleticism isn’t the NBA, but it’s a big step up from Santa Clara and the WCC and Graves made the transition with ease as a 19-year-old. He appears to be the rare 'energy player' that somehow plays smoothly, rather than frantically. He is always moving and reads the game easily, which means he seems to arrive where he needs to be to make a play — deflection, rebound, steal, etc. — with just a little extra time to make a play. It’s quite fun to watch, and the Raptors were thrilled.
Roster-spot watch
The Raptors have 13 guaranteed contracts on their roster (presuming the Leonard deal goes through) but are so close to the first apron threshold ($209.1 million) that adding one more player to get the required 14 players, let alone the 15 NBA contracts they are allowed to carry, is going to be tricky.
Basically, even signing someone on a veteran minimum — which counts as $2.49 million against the cap — puts them over the first apron and restricts them in any moves they might want to make subsequently. The Raptors have options — making another trade to dump salary or carrying 13 players for most of the first month of the season — but not a lot of them, meaning a reunion with former Raptor and the franchise’s all-time leading scorer DeMar DeRozan seems like a long shot.
But if the Raptors could figure something out they would do worse than find room for Seth Lundy. The 26-year-old was a second-round pick in 2023, but had his career stalled by a major ankle injury. He’s now back to full health and was, arguably, the Raptors’ best player in Las Vegas, as the six-foot-four guard averaged a team-high 20 points per game and knocked down 43.8 per cent of his threes on eight attempts per game. He also rebounded well (3.8 per game) for his position, chipped in 2.3 assists and understood the Raptors’ ‘handsiness’ mantra with 1.8 steals in 27 minutes.
The challenge there is even having played just nine games in his rookie season, he would still count as a ‘veteran’ minimum deal, so $2.49 million, which is too rich for the Raptors at the moment. However, given his injury history and how tight rosters are around the league right now, the Raptors could possibly sign him on a two-way deal, of which the Raptors have one remaining.
In theory, Toronto could sign Bittle to a rookie minimum (worth $1.37 million against the cap, which the Raptors can afford) and add Lundy on a two-way deal that they could convert later in the year.
This move may not be as headline-grabbing as Leonard’s deal being finalized or James signing somewhere, but will be interesting to follow, nevertheless.
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