3-point shot? Areas for growth. Clutch violation? More growth. Roster-wise, they lack size and experience coming off the bench compared to their starting unit.
How those qualities, or lack of them, will come into play as they seek to make the playoffs for the first time in five years will undoubtedly be a key item in the season-ending postmortem, whether that happens in mid-April, early May or later.
But for now, what’s working in the Raptors’ favor is their high level of “limbic resonance,” as scientists call it.
Give us all “good vibes”.
And most of it comes from the odd couple relationship between the team’s oldest veteran, Brandon Ingram, and nerdy young point guard Jamal Shead.
The strong team chemistry that Toronto has relied on all season will continue to be tested as the Raptors travel to Houston on Tuesday to play the Rockets, where Shead played for four years in college, and play New Orleans in Ingram’s first game back since being traded from the Pelicans to Toronto in February 2025. With just one game to go, the Raptors are in 5th place and a playoff spot in the East with 7th place in the East and a spot in the play-in tournament, so everything counts.
But as the Raptors have shown time and time again over the last two seasons, their momentum is there, and Shead and Ingram, both All-Stars on the starting unit and hard-nosed role players coming off the bench, are a big reason why.
“Their relationship is very dynamic for the team,” said Raptors veteran resident Garrett Temple, who maintains close relationships with both Ingram and Shead. “It helps bring everyone together.”
Although not exactly the way some people think.
NBA norms and conventions typically require Ingram, a two-time All-Star and professional scorer in his 10th season, to serve as a mentor to Shead, who is in his second season as a second-round pick in the 2024 draft.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to expect Ingram, who joined the Raptors at the trade deadline last season and struck up a friendship with Shead almost immediately, to be a big-brother rookie vet, guiding the young player through the various dramas and rigors of NBA life.
“I don’t think he’s responsible enough to be someone else’s vet yet,” Shead said. “I don’t care if he’s in his 10th year or not. He’s not responsible enough to be someone’s vet.”
When Shead’s assessment was relayed word for word to Ingram outside the Raptors’ locker room during a recent road trip, there was a long pause and then a genuine belly laugh as a huge smile spread across Ingram’s normally calm face.
At that moment, Ingram comes across like a kid standing behind a curtain in a game of hide-and-seek with his feet sticking out of the floor. It was only a matter of time before he found out, and he knew it.
“I’m kind of in the middle of the two groups,” Ingram, 28, said. “I’m part of the younger group, but I’ve been around long enough to sometimes give advice and tell people where to be, what to do and what not to do. But on the other hand, I’m just as bad as (young people) when we just make a fuss.”
And there are a lot of them. Ingram and Shead sit one locker away in the Raptors locker room and one seat back on the team plane. Besides Ingram doing many of the things a good veteran does for the young players on a functioning team (such as hosting the Raptors’ young players for an offseason training camp in Malibu or helping pay for a private jet to get Shead back to practice in time after watching his University of Houston Cougars compete in the NCAA national championship game last April), his best gift may be that he likes to be a part of rather than stand out.
After the Cougars defeated Ingram’s Duke Blue Devils in last year’s Final Four, Ingram donned Shead’s No. 1 Houston jersey off the bench. A man must repay his debt.
But there’s a reason Ingram is more of a ‘veterinarian without a portfolio’ than someone with a formal mentoring role.
“No, Brandon is too cold-hearted.” “He’s a veteran player,” said Temple, a sufficiently polished veteran presence in his 17th season that everyone from Raptors general manager Bobby Webster to 22-year-old Grady Dick has asked him for advice. Temple played two seasons with Ingram in New Orleans and vouched for his former teammate when the Raptors traded him last season.
Shead can’t say he was surprised that he developed such a close relationship with Ingram. He seemingly gets along with everyone, and Ingram is a quiet and approachable person to everyone.
But there are many superficial differences that make their friendship fun to watch from afar.
While Shead is full of enthusiasm and energy, Ingram’s languid calm makes his claims of napping for four hours a day completely believable. Ingram is a top-two pick who has made a living as a scoring machine in the NBA, while Shead played all four years in college, earning a reputation for fierce on-ball defense and selfless passing. Shead plays quickly and can have multiple conversations at the same time. Ingram plays according to his internal clock, never appears to be in a hurry and is rarely above a whisper.
What they share is a tendency to find the same things funny.
“I think we have the same kind of sense of humor,” Shead said. “I think he finds (expletive) funny everything I find funny. That’s why I think we’re so close.”
“I think it helps because I’m an introvert and he’s an extrovert,” Ingram said. “He’s definitely a charming person to deal with.”
More importantly, their relationship carried over to the floor as the duo played the most minutes between starters and second unit games and maintained positive net ratings throughout the season.
Their dynamism has created an expectation that on a team comprised of a large group of young players and a small core of veterans, accountability does not have to come solely from the top down.
“Jamal can talk BI on the court and challenge him on the court, and that’s one of the things people don’t realize about Brandon,” Temple said. “He’s an All-Star in this league and a high-level scorer, but he takes constructive criticism, even from second-year players.”
Coming out of Shead helps. Ingram has an affinity for tough-minded players who have had to fight for their place at the table. One of his best friends in New Orleans was Jose Alvarado. Last week, when the Knicks (Alvarado’s new team) were in Toronto, the two spent about 20 minutes catching up outside the Raptors locker room.
“I think I connect with the underdog character,” Ingram said. “A guy who brings energy to the room, a high-class guy. Alvarado is like that, Jamal is like that. And I think he (Shead) really loves basketball. He’s knowledgeable, he wants to get better, he wants to learn. He’s got an open ear. He listens, but he also reacts well. I think that’s why it’s easy to connect.”
Ingram doesn’t take any credit for the Raptors’ team dynamics. He was a rookie who had missed time due to pre-existing injuries when he arrived in Toronto in February 2025, but he said he tried to adapt to the situation he was already in.
But Shedd sees it differently. Ingram may have sat out last season recovering from an ankle injury, or the high-profile veteran star may have tried too hard to climb the ranks after returning to the lineup this season. So did Ingram.
Instead, it was natural, positive, organic growth. The second-year guard believes Ingram deserves a lot of credit for allowing him to come into form.
“He’s in a leadership role,” Shead said. “The biggest thing is he doesn’t give a (expletive) about it. Like, he doesn’t say, ‘Oh, I’m Brandon Ingram. I spent 10 years in the league. You do as I say.’ No, if he tells you something and you have a different perspective, you tell him and he listens. I think that’s a big, big leadership quality that he and all the best leaders have.”
No one is more excited than Shead to see Ingram return to NBA relevance.
“People are actually starting to realize the good side of BI and how playful and goofy he is and half-serious player,” Shead said. “When he gets on the court, it’s a different mindset. Off the court, he’s really fun to be around and makes it fun to take a new step with the Raptors and have him back as an All-Star again.”
Ingram has made welcome and meaningful gestures toward the team’s younger players, but it’s his day-to-day interactions that define those relationships.
“I think the biggest thing he does is whenever we go out to eat, you will see him pulling a few Uno cards out of his pocket. Every time, wherever we go,” Shead said. “He loves to play Uno and that’s his way of talking to everyone and making sure he’s with everyone. When we’re all together, he gets off the phone. When we’re all together, he gets everyone’s attention. It’s just a routine thing to be with him.”
When it comes to Ingram, the opposite is true for Shead. Like all the best relationships, this one is built on a steady flow of small gestures.
“He does a lot of good things, but the thing that stands out the most to me is when he asks me how I feel in the game,” Ingram said. “He tells me where I can get better and how to make it easier for me.
“I think that’s a long way off. He asks me about my son, he asks me other things. That goes a long way to me. And it shows how much he cares about the floor and the floor. … And when you build that chemistry on the floor, it’s a lot easier to get it from the floor because you can tell each other anything because you know it’s coming from a good place.”
The Raptors’ team chemistry, atmosphere, and limbic resonance have served them well this season, patching up some shortcomings and helping the team become greater than the sum of its individual parts.
But as the time of crisis approaches, more information will be needed. Fittingly, when they travel to Houston and New Orleans this week, their defense-first, secondary point guard and leading scorer All-Star forward will be ready to contribute all season long.
Why has the bond between Shead and Ingram become so strong this season and part of the Raptors’ DNA?
“We’re two different types of players,” Shead said. “But there are two people of the same type.”
