Trayce Jackson-Davis is headed back to Toronto.
It was announced Monday morning that the Toronto Raptors have picked up Jackson-Davis’ $2.41 million team option for the 2026-27 NBA season according to Michael Scotto.
The Raptors acquired Jackson-Davis at last season’s trade deadline in exchange for a 2026 2nd round draft pick (that became Lajae Jones). In his first game with the Raptors, Jackson-Davis scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds (including 8 offensive boards) and looked as if he could be a solid third-string big man and insurance if Jakob Poeltl continued to miss time with his back injury.
After that game, Jackson-Davis played more than 10 minutes just once, in a 52 point blowout of the Orlando Magic on March 29th. He did make two regular season appearances for the Raptors 905 and in those games averaged 27 points, 10 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.0 steals, and 2.0 blocks while shooting 63.3% from the field and 81.8% from the free throw line.
At the NBA level, the 26-year-old big man has averaged 6.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.2 assists across 183 career games in Toronto and Golden State.
The fact that the Raptors picked up his option is interesting, considering the lack of playing time that head coach Darko Rajakovic gave him towards the end of the season. In my view that roster spot would have been better served with either a taller big, or used to pick up a guy with more potential upside. It’s possible that they are planning to use his salary in an offseason trade (with Kawhi Leonard reunion talks in full force), or perhaps are anticipating the need to keep a bench big man in the lineup with Sandro Mamukelashvili declining his player option.
We’ll see how things shake out, but for now it seems that Jackson-Davis will be with the Raptors for next season.
