The Toronto Raptors opened their 2025-26 season in dominant fashion on the road on Wednesday, thumping the Atlanta Hawks 138-118.
The offensive outburst set a new franchise record for points scored in a season opener, and a lot of key performances were from new faces around the team.
Raptors general manager Bobby Webster joined First Up on TSN1050 on Friday to discuss his reaction to the win, the new players on the roster and the expectations moving forward in Toronto.
“I tell everyone that this is the time to pick your new favourite Raptor,” Webster said. “There’s a lot of faces that maybe people aren’t familiar with, but there’s a lot of exciting players and interesting characters.”
The biggest new face on Wednesday was forward Brandon Ingram, who was acquired in a trade with the New Orleans Pelicans on Feb. 5 during last season. The 28-year-old former second-overall pick was dealing with an ankle injury that ended up forcing him to miss the entire season.
Raptors fans finally got to see Ingram in action on Wednesday, and he was strong in his debut – chipping in 16 points, nine rebounds and three assists.
“[It will be] fun for fans to see Brandon Ingram,” Webster said. “I think the league has not seen him for a year, and I think his style of play people will really enjoy. He really enjoys basketball, a really down-to-earth, humble kid, and I think that will play well here in Toronto.”
Ingram has averaged over 20 points per game every season since he was named Most Improved Player in the 2019-20 campaign with the Pelicans, and his addition figures to add space and scoring in the half-court offence, which was sorely lacking a year ago when the Raptors finished 11th in the Eastern Conference at 30-52.
Ingram was not the only Raptor making their debut to excel against the Hawks, though, as free-agent acquisition Sando Mamukelashvili contributed 10 points and finished a plus-21 in just over 19 minutes played. The bench accounted for 50 points for the Raptors compared to just 34 points from the bench for Atlanta.
“I think the bench has the makings of an energetic [unit,]” Webster said. “Jamal Shead has a good personality, the kid we signed out of San Antonio, Sandro, the rookie [Collin Murray-Boyles] should be due back here shortly but he has an interesting style of play, defence, physicality, a bit of a throwback to old Raptors teams with a lot of defensive versatility. There’s so many bright spots to look around, and that’s the fun of it.”
Defensive versatility has been a point of emphasis through the tenure of Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic, now entering his third season at the helm in Toronto. The Raptors were ranked the second-best team in defensive scoring after the All-Star break last season, and in the Summer League a few months ago, the Raptors forced the most turnovers by a wide margin.
To help reinforce the mentality Rajakovic is searching for, a ‘cobra sceptre’ was introduced in the locker room after the game on Wednesday.
“[The] cobra sceptre, it’s [given] to the player who comes into the game and changes the game defensively, sort of an attacking, defensive style of play,” Webster explained. “Think of the cobra rising up and attacking – so who is the player who came in the game and changed the flow defensively? It sort of goes back to where we started, defensive identity, attacking-style defence. Will everyone understand what it is? Maybe not, but it’s fun to have.”
Rajakovic was particularly excited after the game, which is a trait Webster loves in his team’s coach.
“That’s part of his character, it’s one of the reasons why so many people love him and why we hired him,” Webster said. “I may have been hiding around the corner while [he was running around the room shouting], but it’s fun to see, everyone buys in, it makes it fun, it keeps things light over the course of the season.”
A win in the season opener with an efficient offensive performance is an encouraging start, but over the past four seasons, it’s taken at least four games for the Raptors to find their second win. Webster is trying to keep the team focused at the outset of a season with elevated expectations.
“Listen, it’s one of 82 [games], we’ll pump the brakes,” said Webster. “It was good to see because I think [the win] was to our identity, it sort of was what we started in the second half of last year, a lot of the messaging with Darko and some of the players this summer was that we want to play at a really high pace, we want to really get after it on the defensive end, we want to make [the opponent] uncomfortable.”
“So to see that come to fruition in game one was definitely trending in the right direction.”
With the home opener scheduled for Friday night, Webster and the team are looking forward to bringing basketball back to Toronto for the first time in the new season.
The game will tip off at 6:30p.m. ET / 3:30p.m. PT on TSN4, TSN.ca and the TSN App, with an adjusted start time to avoid overlapping with the Toronto Blue Jays, who play Game 1 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at 8p.m. ET.
“We’ve been supporting [the Blue Jays] from afar. A lot of our players are at the games,” Webster said. “The city’s on fire. I can’t imagine a better day or a better weekend for Toronto sports fans, so we’re excited.”