{"id":549442,"date":"2026-01-20T19:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T19:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/549442\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T19:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T19:32:21","slug":"raptors-rumors-webster-morant-ad-agbaji-sharpe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/549442\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors Rumors: Webster, Morant, AD, Agbaji, Sharpe"},"content":{"rendered":"

There have been rumblings around the NBA that Raptors general manager Bobby Webster \u2013 who is in the last year of his contract \u2013 is facing some pressure to accelerate his team\u2019s contention timeline by making a significant in-season deal, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca<\/a>. However, Grange hears that\u2019s not actually the case.<\/p>\n

Multiple sources tell Sportsnet that Webster and the Raptors are already having \u201cmeaningful\u201d discussions about a contract extension and that the team\u2019s head of basketball operations has a very strong relationship with Keith Pelley, the president of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (the Raptors\u2019 parent company).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a really good vibe,\u201d one of Grange\u2019s sources said of the relationship between Webster and Raptors ownership. \u201cEveryone is comfortable with each other. The communication is good. It seems like there is a big-picture view of the whole thing. It\u2019s kind of (an) old-school approach to dealing with management. There\u2019s a lot of runway, and no rush. Everything has cooled off (since former Raptors president Masai Ujiri was let go last June). They\u2019ve really come a long way, considering there was an executive search this past summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following Ujiri\u2019s exit from Toronto, the Raptors conducted a search for a new lead basketball executive but ultimately decided to promote<\/a> Webster, who had worked in the front office under Ujiri for over a decade. Pelley has no regrets about that decision and told Grange that Webster\u2019s contract status won\u2019t affect the team\u2019s in-season decisions on the trade market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no pressure regarding the trade deadline or his contract,\u201d Pelley said. \u201cAnd he is 100 per cent aware of that. The team is moving in the right direction and I\u2019m convinced that Bobby will make the right moves, at the right time, to make us better. This team under Bobby\u2019s direction, will contend for championships.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have more on the Raptors:<\/p>\n

While Toronto has been linked<\/a> to Ja Morant<\/a> since word broke that Memphis is considering trading him, one insider who spoke to Grange insisted that the Raptors won\u2019t be a serious suitor for the Grizzlies point guard. Grange also expresses skepticism about the likelihood of an Anthony Davis<\/a> trade between the Mavericks and Raptors, noting that the big man \u2013 who will turn 33 in March \u2013 is the sort of win-now target who probably doesn\u2019t make sense for Toronto right now.
\nTo that point, while Grange doesn\u2019t rule out the possibility of the team making a big move sooner rather than later, he hears from multiple sources that the Raptors are prepared to be patient and may be more likely to take a big swing a year from now. As Grange observes, Toronto has a fairly young roster and head coach Darko Rajakovic has repeatedly used the word \u201crebuild\u201d this season when discussing his team\u2019s progress. While I wouldn\u2019t describe this Raptors team \u2013 which is operating in luxury tax territory \u2013 as rebuilding, Grange\u2019s point is that the Raptors believe there\u2019s more room for internal development and aren\u2019t in a rush to go all-in right away.
\nDucking the tax and adding frontcourt help still appear to be the primary deadline goals for the Raptors, according to Grange, who reiterates that wing Ochai Agbaji<\/a> and his $6.4MM expiring contract is the team\u2019s top trade candidate.
\nIn addition to Magic big man Goga Bitadze<\/a>, who was connected to the Raptors earlier in the season, Nets center Day\u2019Ron Sharpe<\/a> is another potential frontcourt target to watch for Toronto, Grange says. He has also heard from multiple sources that second-year Pelicans center Yves Missi<\/a> is available, though the Raptors\u2019 level of interest in Missi is unclear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There have been rumblings around the NBA that Raptors general manager Bobby Webster \u2013 who is in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[495,7,10295,2299,875,178,25966,6,10513,681,680,476,3820,1259],"class_list":["post-549442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-toronto-raptors","tag-anthony-davis","tag-basketball","tag-bobby-webster","tag-dayron-sharpe","tag-goga-bitadze","tag-ja-morant","tag-keith-pelley","tag-nba","tag-ochai-agbaji","tag-raptors","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-torontoraptors","tag-yves-missi"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115929097592424776","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}