My case on why Toronto Raptors Management should not manage an Insurance Company or a Personal Injury Law Firm

I love it when I can combine by two favourite topics: the Toronto Raptors and Personal Injury Law into the same blog entry. I’ve been a lifelong Toronto Raptors Fan. I’ve been there since Game #1. I’ve been a fan of the NBA even before the Toronto Raptors came to town.

This year has been really difficult, particularly in the 2nd half of the season, to watch the Toronto Raptors play basketball. They are poorly managed, poorly coached, with pieces which are overpaid which and which don’t fit properly on a basketball court. The product is not entertaining, and the future of the team isn’t looking very bright when you consider the long term investments they’ve made into certain key players.

Running an insurance company, or a personal injury law firm requires someone at the top to make shrewd business and management decisions. The same can be said for running the Toronto Raptors.

The performance of the employees at an insurance company, or at a personal injury law firm is largely outside of management’s hands. Either those employees perform to a high standard which has been set by management, or they don’t. Management will set up targets, procedures, protocols and quality control inspections; but it’s not their job to do the work which the employees are being paid to do. Good management will put their employees in positions to succeed, with the tools they need to succeed. Bad management will do the opposite.

The same can be said of management of the Toronto Raptors. It’s not Bobby Webster’s job (current general manager of the Toronto Raptors) to make jump shots or play defence. Rather, it’s his job to build a roster, coaching staff, and operations team; and then for targets, goals and standards to be set which are either met/followed; or not.

Insurance companies and successful personal injury law firms are required to make calculated business decisions each day on how to spend capital in order to help their business move forward and to grow. Some decisions are made more frequently than others. It’s the cumulation of these decisions and how they impact the business which can make or break a profitable year vs. a non-profitable year.

The biggest capital expenditure for the Toronto Raptors are their players. The players are the workforce which the public sees of an NBA team. This is no different than any other business. The salaries, benefits and welfare of staff/employees is always a large capital expenditure. This is why so many businesses are trying to integrate AI. Not only can it increase productivity, but the AI can replace their human workforce. The AI will be cheaper; you don’t have to pay AI overtime or vacation wages; there are no lunchbreaks for AI; there are no sick days for AI; AI doesn’t need medical or health benefits; and if all goes well, you won’t need an HR department or managers to supervise AI. The machines are far less expensive, and far more productive than the human labour force.

The Toronto Raptors cannot do this for their players. They cannot replace their players with AI to take to the Court and to play basketball. Their labour force is expensive and so is running an NBA team. Stephen Curry alone is the NBA’s highest-paid player by playing salary, earning $59,606,817.

This means that the Toronto Raptors have to be very careful with the contracts they enter into with their players. A few bad contracts ruins the overall competitiveness of the team.

Here are examples of some terrible contracts which the Toronto Raptors have signed with their players which have ruined the competitiveness of the team:

Jakob Poeltl is under contract with the Toronto Raptors through the 2029–30 season. He is currently playing under a four-year, $104 million extension. Seems like a nice guy, but he is dramatically overpaid. Poeltl has never been an NBA All-Star, nor has he ever done anything meaningful in the playoffs. NBA Centres are out there who perform much better than him, and who are paid 10x less. Here are a few examples of NBA Centres who are just as good, if not better than Jakob Poeltl, who are being paid far less money than he is:

Neeamia Queta is currently signed to a three-year, $7.18 million contract with the Boston Celtics that runs through the 2026-27 season
Luke Kornet is currently under a four-year, $40.7 million contract with the San Antonio Spurs. He signed this deal as a free agent in the summer of 2025, ending his multi-year tenure with the Boston Celtics
Luka Garza is currently signed to a two-year, $5.5 million contract with the Boston Celtics that runs through the 2026-27 season

Immanuel Quickley is playing under a five-year, $175 million contract with the Toronto Raptors. The deal, signed in July 2024, includes $162.5 million in fully guaranteed money with an additional $12.5 million in unlikely incentives.

Brandon Ingram is a very talented player. He signed with the Toronto Raptors for a three-year, $120 million contract extension. The deal, which he signed in February 2025 after being traded from the New Orleans Pelicans, includes a player option for the final season. The problem with this contract is that nobody else in the NBA on the open market would have signed Brandon Ingram for this amount. The Raptors overpaid, and as a result, became a less competitive team compared to their competition.

If insurance companies and personal injury law firms made these mistakes, then their businesses would suffer. The people who made these mistakes would pay by losing their jobs. There is accountability when the business suffers.

Similarly, in professional sports, there is a degree of accountability as well. The better the franchise and the higher the standards, the greater the degree of accountability.

When we look at what’s gone wrong with the Toronto Raptors this season, we have to start at the top. The signings which the front office has made over the years have not hit a standard of excellence required to compete at a high level in the NBA. The team has not been assembled properly. You cannot blame the players for signing deals which are over market value. Once management has been held accountable, then you can look at the coaching and changes to the roster. But, until that happens, you are left running in circles.