‘Future is very bright for us’: Raptors reflect on season after Game 7 loss

TORONTO — Scottie Barnes posed a question before answering with his thoughts.

“Successful? I don’t know about successful, but it was a good season for us.”

The Toronto Raptors’ two-time all-star and face of the franchise was one of several players who spoke during the team’s end-of-season availability Monday. The team was ousted in the first round of the NBA playoffs after a 114-102 Game 7 loss to the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Sunday.

Barnes, who thought the team could’ve gone further, did acknowledge the positives from the season which saw the Raptors return to the post-season for the first time since 2022.

“I felt like we went out there every single game and we just got better,” he said. “Found out more about ourselves after each and every single game and we worked really hard. … Didn’t leave nothing on the table. It felt like a solid season.”

Toronto was without starting point guard Immanuel Quickley for the playoffs. All-star Brandon Ingram left Game 5 with an injury and missed the final two games.

Ingram said the heel injury flared up in March but he stuck through it as the team was in the thick of a race to the playoffs. However, the discomfort during the post-season was too much for him.

The 28-year-old led the team with 21.5 points per game during the regular season.

Meanwhile, Quickley strained his right hamstring in the regular-season finale April 12 and re-aggravated it while working his way back. When asked if he could’ve played in the second round had Toronto advanced, he said “it was a little bit more serious.”

Quickley added that “it’s a little early to say right now,” as to whether he’ll have a full off-season of training due to the injury. The 26-year-old averaged 16.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and a career-high 5.9 assists in 70 regular-season games.

The Raptors made a 16-win jump in the regular season, finishing 46-36 to secure the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference.

“Obviously, always the end goal is to win a championship but I think from where we were last year till now has been a huge, huge jump,” Canadian guard RJ Barrett said. “So it’s successful in that, but also because I think that you can kind of see just the work that’s put in and where we can go in the future. I think the future is very bright for us and it’s only the beginning.”

Barrett was one of a handful of players who shined in the post-season for Toronto. He paced the team with averages of 24.1 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 47.7 per cent from the field and 38.6 per cent from three-point range.

“(I) think this was my most efficient season so far, so just growing in that way, knowing how to be successful with less,” the Mississauga, Ont., native said. “You got a guy like Brandon Ingram into the mix trying to play off of him and Scottie and Quick’s point guard so he has the ball a lot. Just trying to find where I fit in on both sides of the basketball.

” … I think it’s a luxury that I have, it’s the luxury that we have on this team to be able to kind of play positionless.”

Rookie Collin Murray-Boyles proved to be a valuable core piece, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Second-year guards Jamal Shead and Ja’Kobe Walter also shone in big spots with the team being undermanned.

“I think they did an amazing job,” centre Jakob Poeltl said. “We could have easily, you know, just kind of gave up in the series. We didn’t have Quick, we didn’t have BI for a lot of the series. Even when he was playing, like he was always like struggling with his health a little bit.

” … Pretty much all of them is like their first playoff experiences out there. And for them to step up in that manner is really impressive. Just going out there and playing our brand of basketball, not hiding from anything or anyone, just going out, they’re being aggressive. It was good to see, it fills me with confidence for the future.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2026.

Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press