Raptors end-of-season awards featuring Jakob Poeltl’s floaters and Jamal Shead’s dunks

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A colleague told me that these last two Toronto Raptors seasons were the first time the franchise has lost 50 games in back-to-back years since their second and third marathons through the NBA calendar.

For an organization with a history as varied as the Raptors, that did not seem right, even if they had recently put together nearly a decade of competence. Pull out your asterisks. While the fact is technically true, each team played just 66 games in 2011-22 because of a lockout. The Raptors went 23-43 in Dwane Casey’s first season. That put them on pace for a 29-53 season, which would have followed a 22-60 season.

Regardless, the Raptors will back up last year’s 57 losses with at least 50 this season, with two final games to play in Texas over the weekend. You might not want to remember, but we celebrate the good and the bad here. With that, here are my annual end-of-season Raptors awards.

Play of the year: A putback dunk from … Jamal Shead, March 10

Of the 83 players who stood up straight without shoes at last May’s NBA Scouting Combine, Shead ranked 82nd, a quarter inch taller than 6 feet. He had a maximum vertical leap of 37.5 inches, 24th among those who tested — fine, but not eye-popping. It was a surprise, then, when he accepted the runway that the Washington Wizards gave him and flew in to put back a miss from RJ Barrett with a dunk. That the Wizards completely failed to box out Shead was understandable: How could anybody have thought that was coming?

Nominees: Jakob Poeltl goes coast to coast; Ochai Agbaji posterizes his teammate; Agbaji blocks Miles McBride in transition

Best individual performance: Poeltl floats over the Celtics, Nov. 16

Barrett deserves special praise here. Without Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley, he was a playmaking machine, dropping a career-high 15 assists. Six of those were to Poeltl. The Celtics were giving up the middle, trying to keep Barrett out of the paint, and Poeltl’s array of push shots was deadly. Poeltl made 16 of 19 field goals, tying him with Kawhi Leonard for the second-fewest misses for any Raptors player to ever hit 16 buckets in a game (Gary Trent Jr. went 17 of 19 in a game once. Really. I suppose anything could have happened in the Tampa season).

Nominees: Barnes destroys the 76ers in Philadelphia; Barrett lights up the Pacers; Agbaji and Jamison Battle combine for 12 3s in New Orleans

Worst individual performance: Pick a player in the Raptors’ 54-point loss in Boston, Dec. 31

The Raptors scored fewer than 20 points in three quarters, which is hard to do in the modern NBA. Ja’Kobe Walter went 1 of 10 from the field. Shead was 2 of 10 and a minus-37 in 25 minutes. The Raptors were minus-25 in Kelly Olynyk’s 10 minutes (!!!) and minus-39 in Barnes’ 31. Barnes’ performance included six turnovers and 1-of-8 shooting from 3. Pick any of them, or, like, three or four others from that game.

Nominees: Shead goes scoreless with seven turnovers in Indiana; Barrett disappoints in Detroit Brick City; Barnes has a nightmare opening night

Best individual opponent performance: Luka Dončić dismisses the Raptors with a triple-double, Dec. 7

It was just so easy. Dončić dissected the Raptors defence, not yet at peak powers, with ease, spraying passes to wide-open shooters. Dončić had 30 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists, leading the Mavericks to three 30-plus-point quarters to start the game. Kyrie Irving, like Dončić, had six 3s, but it was the Slovenian who controlled the game. The Mavericks moved to 16-8 with the win. I’m sure that continued, with nothing else to note about the Dallas season.

Nominees: Nikola Jokić carries the Nuggets to an early-season overtime win; Darius Garland cooks the Raptors in Cleveland; Domantas Sabonis has a perfect game (no misses, no turnovers) in a triple-double in Sacramento

Best game: Undermanned Raptors push Boston to overtime, Nov. 16

The Raptors fell to 2-11 the night before with a home loss to Detroit, back when that result seemed worse than it ended up being. A back-to-back after a late-night flight to Boston seemed like a recipe for disaster.

Instead, as mentioned above, Barrett and Poeltl kept the Raptors alive despite being short-handed. The Celtics weren’t at full strength, but were still 10-3 entering the game. Barrett could not close out the game down the stretch, giving the Raptors the lead once in the final minute of regulation, but not twice, after the Celtics had tied the game.

Instead of fading away in overtime, Agbaji gave the Raptors the lead with 2 minutes, 25 seconds left, and Barrett tied it in the last minute. Ultimately, Jayson Tatum did what he couldn’t do in regulation — beat the buzzer with a 3, ending a night that was way more fun than anyone would have predicted.

Nominees: Narrow defeats in Golden State and Cleveland; Barnes comes through in crunch time in Atlanta; Quickley almost propels Raptors to win in Intuit Dome debut

Best victory: Raptors hammer the slumping Celtics, Jan. 15

Did you know the Raptors didn’t win a single road game against a team that will finish .500 or better this season? That’s hard to do. Washington, Utah, Charlotte, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Brooklyn, the six teams that will finish below the Raptors in the standings, all had at least one.

Anyway, this was in the heart of The Great Boston Panic, when the Celtics lost to several lesser teams, and flirted with a few other defeats. Still, the Raptors boat-raced Boston here. The Celtics had their normal starting lineup, and the Raptors dismantled them: Derrick White was minus-29 in 21 minutes; Jaylen Brown was a minus-23 in 33 minutes. Sure, the Celtics looked bored, but that just highlighted how young and hungry the Raptors were. With 35 assists on 45 buckets, it was one of the Raptors’ most aesthetically pleasing nights, too.

Nominees: Wins over the Timberwolves and Clippers at home; Raptors dismantle the Hawks in Atlanta

Worst loss: Raptors fall lethargically at home to Chicago, Jan. 31

The Raptors lost their last four games of 2024 by a combined 126 points, so I don’t make this pick lightly. At least they had the injury excuse in those games. The Raptors were on a roll entering this game, having won five in a row and seven of eight. Additionally, the Bulls didn’t have Zach LaVine for this game. The Raptors laid a defensive egg, allowing the Bulls to shoot 51 percent from the field and hit 18 3s. They forced just 10 turnovers and grabbed only seven offensive rebounds. An inexcusably flat performance.

Nominees: Early-season loss in Charlotte; the end of December; Quickley’s gaffe results in a brutal loss in Chicago

Most pleasant surprise: Shead’s emergence

For financial purposes, the Raptors needed to hit on one of their second-round picks or undrafted free agents, especially after they traded for Brandon Ingram, muddying their long-term cap situation. Shead was known for his on-ball defence at the University of Houston, and that has carried over to the NBA.

He has shown more offensive potential than expected, improving his shot as the season went on and providing some necessary paint penetration for a team that can string together passes but rarely gets to the rim. Shead has a long way to go, but he looks like a keeper as a backup point guard.

Nominees: Agbaji’s solid play; Chris Boucher can’t miss; Poeltl’s stat-stuffing; Walter’s end of season; the competent defence

Least pleasant surprise: Barnes devolves as a scorer

Nobody attempted more shots per game than Barnes and finished with a lower true-shooting percentage. That is a problem. Entering Wednesday night’s game, only seven players who attempted more than 10 field-goal attempts per game had a lower true-shooting percentage, including two rookies. Not great.

Nominees: Quickley’s parade of injuries; Barrett’s efficiency drop; Gradey Dick’s disappointing sophomore season; the Brandon Ingram trade

Amir Johnson award for most underappreciated player: Agbaji

A winner true to the spirit of the award’s namesake. Agbaji is a low-usage, no-nonsense player who helps lineups click. On a team full of players figuring out how to play in the NBA or adjust to new roles, Agbaji found his niche and delivered a steady season, even if his 3-point accuracy wavered.

He seemed manically dedicated to making the correct basketball play on both ends. Agbaji is a smart basketball player with above-average athleticism. If he can make 3s as often as he did this season — 39.1 percent on more than five attempts per 36 minutes before Wednesday’s game — he should be a rotation player, no matter the team.

Moment of the season: Walter hits game winner despite Raptors pulling starters in Orlando, March 4

With about eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, coach Darko Rajaković pulled Poeltl and Barnes against the Orlando Magic, ending their nights. In the month to come, this became normal practice. At the start of March, this was a first. The Raptors were significantly limiting the resources they were putting toward winning games.

Barnes left the game with the Raptors up by nine, and the Magic needed seven more minutes to erase the deficit. Down two in the waning seconds, Rajaković drew an out-of-bounds play that went to Walter.

The rookie spread his legs wildly to get off the shot, somehow hitting the 3 with less than a second remaining. This was the Raptors season in miniature: They won a little too much, but some developmental wins made the loss of lottery balls easier to accept.

Nominees: The buzzer beats Shead; Vince Carter’s jersey retirement; Coby White’s four-point play

(Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

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