Bobby Webster didn’t speak the quiet part out loud, but he spoke volumes, regardless. 

In his first extended comments since reacquiring Kawhi Leonard, the Toronto Raptors general manager avoided any ‘championship or bust’ proclamations, but with training camp about to open, he acknowledged that the bar for the current roster is considerably higher than it was a year ago. 

“If I think back to last year, I sat here and I said, ‘the most important thing for this group (is) can we compete every night? Will we compete for 48 minutes?” Webster said at a media conference at the Raptors practice facility Thursday morning. “And I felt comfortable (that) group had a lot of fight, and I think that's probably what you saw play out over the course of the season.”

It worked out better than most expected as the Raptors jumped from 30 wins in 2024-25 to 46 wins and a fifth seed in the East in 2025-26 before falling to the favoured Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games in the first round of the playoffs.  

But then this past summer Webster acquired Leonard, a 35-year-old coming off an all-NBA season and a player who will forever be recognized in Toronto as the driving force behind the team’s 2019 NBA championship. 

Webster didn’t want to put a specific label on the goals or expectations for a team whose most accomplished player is now in his mid-30s and whose projected starting lineup takes up 105 per cent of the salary cap. But he allowed that yes, they are considerably higher, as they should be.  

“I think the expectation this year is, you know, can we win every night? Does this group go into every night thinking that we're the better team? (That) we have a chance to win this........

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