Biggest Takeaways From the Raptors at 2025 Summer League (So Far)

Biggest Takeaways From the Raptors at 2025 Summer League (So Far)

The Toronto Raptors are three games into Summer League, which is right around the halfway stage. So, here are the three most important things we’ve learned about the team so far. Let’s get into it. Welcome back everybody. This is Amateur Sports, a YouTube channel that is completely dedicated to giving you Toronto Raptors content. I say it’s the halfway stage of summer league because, you know, if you go all the way, you can end up playing six games. You might end up playing five games, but pretty much halfway stage of summer league for the Toronto Raptors. And even after only these three games, there’s some pretty glaring things we’ve learned about the team so far. Some good and some bad. And again, we only need three games for some of this to become a little bit obvious. And the first thing that we’ve learned about Summer League is that Jacobe Walter has arrived for the 2025 2026 season. Now, I did a video uh last week at this time talking about Jacobe Walter and what needs to work on to go into the new season. And clearly, I mean, based off these three summer league games, he’s worked on a lot of these things. And Kobe Walter has been fantastic so far in summer league. And we’re not going to go too overboard with summer league. After all, it is summer league. But when you go into summer league as a secondyear player, you want these guys to look too good. like rookies, you can kind of have a little bit more leeway, a bit of a longer leash, but for a player going into their second season that one you want to have firmly in your rotation for the upcoming season, you want that player to look too good for this level. Jacob Walter in three games looks too good for this level. So far, his summer league performances have been just getting better and better for the Raptors. He had 12 points in his first game against the Chicago Bulls, was three rebounds and two assists, but it was an absolute beatd down by the Raptors. So perhaps didn’t really need all of his exploits to succeed in that game, but again, he’s gotten better and better. In the second game against Orlando Magic, 16 points, four rebounds. And in the third game so far, his most impressive to date, 26 points against the Denver Nuggets. That alongside four rebounds, and get this, seven steals. Yes, seven steals. So far in summer league, he has 10 steals in total, which is 3.3 steals per game, 18 points per game. Jacobe Walter has looked the part and I think like just the the things we’ve wanted him to be the best at like part of the reason why the Raptors selected him 19th overall in 2024. I really felt like this was a player who had lottery pick potential and was so happy when he fell all the way to 19th for the Raptors. And the reason I was so excited about the player is that he provides the just the tools every team is looking for. He provides defense and he provides shooting. He is showcasing both of these things in summer league so far. He looks much more confident as a defender and way more confident as a three-point shooter. Like some of the shots he’s pulling up and I will admit sometimes maybe pulling up a little bit too often, but he has been absolutely letting it fly in summer league to like some pretty shocking results with some of these shots dropping. He was four of 11 in the last game against the Denver Nuggets from three. But overall, Jacobe Walter’s poise, Jacobe Walter’s shooting, his defense, and also his maturity have been very, very good to see, and I’m very excited to see what he can do for the rest of summer league and going into the season. Again, we’re not going to go too overboard with summer league. This has been very good. It means nothing if he doesn’t bring it into the season. But Jacobe Walter has gone from a player who I think was going to have a battle to be in the regular rotation for the Raptors next season. All of a sudden, I’m looking like Jacobe Walter where that is his rotation spot to lose. He is firmly in those positions. I’m looking forward to see what he can continue in summer league and again into the season. But the second biggest takeaway that we have so far from summer league is the play of Colin Murray Boils. This is the player that most people want to know about. After all, he was the Toronto Raptor’s first round pick. He was the ninth overall pick in the draft. It was a little bit of a surprise to some when the Raptors selected him with that ninth overall pick. So, how is Colin Murray Boles playing so far in summer league? Well, let’s start with the really good. And the really good has been the defensive side of the ball. He’s only played in two games because he missed the first game due to injury. But in that second game where the Raptors played his first game against the Orlando Magic, fouls aside because he had eight fouls by the way. You need 10 fouls to foul out of a summer league game. So a feat that has been accomplished previously by the way by OJ Aaji. Anyways, eight fouls in the game. Beyond that, it’s very clear why the Raptors selected this player with a ninth overall pick. His defense is very good and he is long. Oh my goodness. some of the deflections he’s getting, some of the steals that he is getting. He has so much length like just from a width standpoint to cut off passing lanes, to disrupt a player on the ball, and so much length in the form of height. Like just his standing reach, his ability to get on top of players in the paint. He’s just such a smart defender. Like he uses this length so well to his advantage. And he’s such an intelligent player positionally, defensively, always occupying the right areas, and always being able to make the right reads as a help defender. We saw an insane play in the game against Orlando where he had a high-flying block as a help defender on one end of the floor. Ran down the floor, caught a pass, end up throwing it down on the other end. A very good athlete, super long, super talented defender to go with that. Like there are there are players that we’ve seen who have the length, but just not that raw defensive ability. He has that super intelligent defender, super talented defender to go with that length. That is why the Raptors drafted him and there’s excitement for how he can develop on that end. Now, on the other end of the floor, that’s where we have to see a little bit more work being put in here. Now, we knew about the shooting and we knew about the struggles from there and we knew that wasn’t going to be a polished product coming into summer league and coming into the NBA season. Absolutely did make one in the last game against the Denver Nuggets. That was good. looked pretty smooth as well, but he also had a couple air balls from three in the game against the Magic. It’s good that he’s shooting. If he’s open off the catch, you got to let it fly. That’s something you’re working on. That is something I’m completely fine with. But he’s kind of struggled to get involved from an offensive standpoint. Now, I don’t know if this is maybe on coaching and James Wade, who I think is doing a fantastic job as coach this summer league team, like like the intensity this Raptors team is playing with has been so fantastic. I I I love the way they’re playing. It’s so fun to watch these games right now. But I don’t know if it’s coaching on getting him involved or just Colin Murray Boles himself, but we haven’t seen a lot of that bruising interior play that we were kind of expecting to see based off of his college resume. I want to see him putting the ball on the floor a little bit more often. I want to see more cuts and getting the ball in the post a little bit more often. We haven’t seen that quite enough. We saw it a little bit in the second half in the Denver game, which was refreshing to see. I thought he played well in that in that role, but I just want to see a little bit more. I want to see more plays sculpted towards his game so we can get a better look at what Colin Murray Boils can do. That’s just kind of like me selfishly. I think other raps team would agree like this is our ninth overall pick. We want to see our ninth overall pick. The team is doing well, the team is winning. I just want to see a little bit more of that. But takeaway is this guy’s NBA ready. In my opinion, from a defensive standpoint, it will be his offense that decides if there’s enough there for him to stay in regular rotation to start the season or if more development strides are needed before he gets that rotation spot, which would be fine. If he needs some time in the G-League to refine his game, that’s completely fine. We saw Grady Dick do that. We saw Jakoy Walter do that for a minimal amount of time last season. If it has to happen, it can happen and it could make him a better player. That’s completely fine. But we’ll see what sort of role he has defensively though. He’s there. Third takeaway is the players who are on non-g guaranteed contracts. Now, how these contracts work, essentially the Raptors pay these players $100,000 and they have about $2 million non-g guaranteed for the season. How it will work if these players make the final roster for the Raptors. They are guaranteed the rest of that money. So, essentially, the Raptors gave $100,000 to play with us in the summer to do our training camp for us to see if they are worth giving that guaranteed one-year contract for the season. Now, why these are important is because the Raptors, if they don’t like these players, can wipe their hands clean, let these players go for really no penalty, the $100,000. That is completely fine. These players have to earn their roster spot and if they do so, get all of that money. Now, there’s two players in this position right now for the Toronto Raptors. One of which is AJ Lawson. The other of which is Colin Castleton. So, let’s talk about these two players and how they look so far. Colin Castton will begin with, like I said, it’s not all good things. Colin Castton has been starting for the Raptors in summer league. And initially, I thought, okay, you bring Colin Castton as a starter, you get a more traditional big, maybe to balance out the starting five a little bit more. He’s got more NBA experience. He’s probably more equipped to help this team from the start than a guy like Shamshay, who’s a little bit less experienced, not quite as far along in his developmental trajectory. Well, I said that before I actually watched Colin Casten play. And we’re not going to turn this into something that is too negative, but has become like very abundantly clear that Colin Casten, not only is he not good enough to play in the NBA, and I wasn’t a fan of him coming into something because I wasn’t a fan of watching him with the Raptors last season, not only is Colin Casten not good enough for the NBA, it it’s becoming quite evident Colin Castton is not good enough for NBA summer league. He is very firmly out of place on this Toronto Raptors team. When he is on the floor, the team struggles a lot more. When they take him off, they go on they go on runs. Like they are just way better when he is not on the floor. Like like just the issue is like he’s seven feet tall, but there’s no saving grace to his game. He’s a seven-footer who doesn’t rebound the ball well. The amount of times I saw in that Denver game where he’s going up for a rebound with one hand instead of two. Just go up with two, you’ll catch the ball. Instead, he goes up with one. And that left so many rebounding opportunities astray going to the other team. Not a sound finisher on offense. Not a good defender. Continuously gets beat especially if he has to go on the perimeter. He is like he is absolutely going to get dusted. He is absolutely going to get blown by on the perimeter. Not a good connective piece on offense. Not even that great of a screen setter. Like unfortunately I just don’t see any saving grace here. And I’m struggling to see why he is getting so much game time. Like he played a ton of minutes against Denver, only eight minutes against Orlando, but he had more than eight minutes in the first half against Denver. I’m a little bit confused, especially when Mobile’s playing quite well, I think. But Shamshay has been fantastic in summer league. So, as far as that non-g guaranteed contract, like I I really struggle to see the Raptors not waving Colin Castleton. And if they do wave him, it is the Orlando Magic that holds his G-League rights, not the Raptors 905, which honestly, again, I’m I’m more than comfortable seeing him go to a different team. I wasn’t a fan coming into summer league, and I am even less of a fan after seeing him in summer league. But the other player on a non-G guaranteed deal, this is the tough one because AJ Lawson, he’s a more experienced player coming into this season, one of the older players for this Raptor summer league roster. He’s been coming off of the bench. That’s how stacked this Raptors roster is. But AJ Lawson has arguably been arguably been the MVP of all of summer league. Not just Raptor League, of all of summer league so far. He has been fantastic. And this is what you have to do when you’re on that non-G guaranteed deal. The Raptors have one of these older players here in summer league because they want to get a final look at him and decide if it’s worth it to have him with training camp and to potentially have him for the upcoming season. AJ Lawson has played so well that he is forcing his hand into training camp where he’s going to try and earn that guaranteed contract for the upcoming season. This is what you have to do as a more experienced player. You have to look way too good for summer league. AJ Lawson is absolutely doing that because the Raptors I think it’s going to become an easy decision to wave Colin Castleton because they have that easier decision on their hands there. It’s a lot more likely for AJ Lawson to make the final roster, but there are a lot of talented players on this team and a lot of talented players in the wing position. Like the Raptors have 12 or 13 players that I would seriously trust with NBA minute. It’s not a topheavy bench, but it’s a very long bench. I wouldn’t call it like deep because it’s not like topheavy. It’s not like a fantastic bench, but there were a lot of good NBA caliber players on this bench like 12 to 13 I think. AJ Lawson’s fighting an uphill battle still to make the Raptors roster. It’s almost like a job interview where you are looking for a reason not to hire the person to not sign the player. But if AJ Lawson can continue in this vein in summer league, then he might force the Raptors head and get himself on the squad for the season, which would be fun to see another Canadian added to the roster. The final takeaway, and I said and I said there would be three, but this is a little bit of an honorable mention bonus. My god, this team. Oh my god, this team is full of dogs. I mean, how can you watch these games and not have so much fun and enjoy it? The intensity that they are bringing on defense, the cohesion they are bringing, the unity of this team. Wow. What fantastic work by this staff. What fantastic work by head coach James Wade for this team. when you play against the Raptors, you know, it is going to be hell for your offense because that defense is absolutely locked in. And if we can bring some of that culture or a lot of that culture into the NBA season, we could see some exciting things for the Toronto Raptors.

The Toronto Raptors have been lighting up NBA Summer League with an unbeaten record so far and showcasing a menacing defense which has forced nearly 90 turnovers in just three games. Through all of this, what have been the biggest takeaways for the team so far?

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0:00 – Toronto Raptors Summer League Takeaways after 3 games
0:43 – Ja’Kobe Walter is ready for the 2025-2026 season
3:45 – Is Collin Murray-Boyles ready for the NBA?
7:43 – Are these non-guaranteed players earning their roster spots?
13:02 – This roster is full of dogs

This is Amateur Hour Sports. On this channel, Jacob Gramegna analyzes and breaks down the latest on the Toronto Raptors NBA team from trade rumors to post-game reactions, analysis, and much more. By subscribing to this channel you will be there first to watch and enjoy 3-4 videos a week all focused on this team and on game days Jacob goes live on the channel for a watch party where he interacts with chat, answers your questions, and analyses the game as it happens with play by play and commentary. Join the Amateur Hour Army today by subscribing and consider becoming a member to give extra support to the channel and help create better content more often.

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