The Toronto Raptors are guaranteed a spot in the Play-In Tournament next season The red carpet has been rolled out By Josh Cornelissen | Aug 25, 2024 Mikal Bridges, Brooklyn Nets and Scottie Barnes, Toronto Raptors / Cole Burston/GettyImages The Toronto Raptors might go from 25 wins to postseason this season, don’t pass go, don’t collect 200 dollars. Last season was a nightmare for the Raptors. A slow start motivated the front office to move off of OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam, and in the process a slew of injuries broke down the ability for this team to play competitive basketball. A record-setting losing streak dropped them into the depths of the lottery, merely putting them in position to give up a Top-10 pick to the San Antonio Spurs from the Jakob Poeltl trade. It seems reasonable to expect the Raptors to improve next season, if only because their roster will be healthier. Yet things might be breaking in such a way that Toronto will not only be better, but so much better that they will zoom right past the teams around them in the Eastern Conference and earn a postseason bid. Why the Raptors will be better The 2023-24 Toronto Raptors went through a startling transformation, then never got to spread their wings as a new core. Of the rotation that opened the season, only Gary Trent Jr. was still available to play during the final two months of the season; everyone else was either traded away or injured. That included significant injuries to Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl, as well as minor injuries and absences for nearly every other player on the roster. Trent is the only player on the roster to play more than 60 games, appearing in 71 contests last season. The roster was unable to find a rhythm from the trade deadline through to the end of the season, churning through starting lineups and signing players off the street to play in games that same night. Once Barnes went down with a fractured hand on the first day or March, the Raptors would not start the same five players more than two games in a row the rest of the year. If the Raptors are healthy, however, they should be significantly improved. The four-man lineup of Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl only played 234 minutes together last year, but they had a +10.8 net rating when they did play, by far the best on the team (min 100 minutes). And in the entire league, among 4-man lineups who played at least 225 minutes, the only non-playoff teams with stronger groupings were the Spurs (one Victor Wembanyama group) and the Warriors.