The Toronto Raptors traded for an oft-injured superstar in Kawhi Leonard, but the Los Angeles Clippers revealed today that it may well be the outgoing All Star in Brandon Ingram who will miss the start of the 2026-27 season.
The heel injury occurred towards the end of the 2025-26 and forced Ingram out of the playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. But the newfound partially torn Achilles will mean Ingram’s health for the 2026-27 season is largely in doubt.
This is surely a devastating blow for Ingram. Despite the Raptors trading him away this past offseason, he rehabilitated his value with the Raptors in 2025-26. He was named an All Star for the first time since 2019-20 and played 2604 minutes, the largest total of his career by a wide margin. That total also ranked 13th league-wide. Joe Wolfond covered Ingram’s season with the Raptors in great depth at Raptors Republic. He wrote this then:
Overall, though, the early returns on Ingram’s Raptors tenure have been objectively positive. He still meaningfully improves spacing with his on-ball gravity; the attention he draws opens up pockets of space in the halfcourt that simply weren’t there before he arrived. His pick-and-rolls and post-ups often draw two defenders, and help sometimes shades his way before he even catches the ball, all of which opens up lanes for cutters, short rolls for big men, and kickouts to open shooters. His presence has nudged other players on the roster like Barnes and Barrett into more natural roles, and has raised the team’s offensive floor.
The challenge now is raising the ceiling, and the big question for the Raptors’ coaching staff, front office, and Ingram himself is how much more can be mined from this partnership. Is what we’ve seen this season the extent of Ingram’s ability to adapt, or merely an encouraging first step toward a more complete synthesis with Rajakovic’s system? While Ingram and Rajakovic continue to figure out how best to make compromise work, Bobby Webster has to decide whether further compromise between them is a viable long-term strategy.
The Raptors clearly made that decision this offseason. Ideally, Ingram could have found open pastures in Los Angeles and turned his All-Star nod into another in the Western Conference. That seems unlikely now.
