The Raptors’ season is going according to plan: some good development from their young players, plenty of competitive losses and some reasonable draft lottery odds.
For a minute last week, it looked like they might be going into full tank mode when Scottie Barnes left Monday’s loss to the New York Knicks with a sprained ankle, but the team’s star was on Sunday. A little training has no consequences. There is optimism that the Raptors could have their best player back in the lineup later this week.
Meanwhile, the NBA trade season has begun.
The deadline doesn’t come until February 6, but Sunday marks the semi-official “opening” of the market, as it’s the day most players who signed contracts during the offseason become eligible to be traded.
Where do the Raptors fit in?
Well, first of all, the difference from the past two seasons is that the Raptors are at the fulcrum of more trade discussions than perhaps any team in the NBA as they try to move Fred VanVleet ) combined with Pascal Siakam to gauge the feasibility moving forward – OG Anunoby with Barnes at the core, or go all-in and rebuild with Barnes at the center and build from their three A young veteran who has been tested by championships continues to move forward. We finally know how it turned out.
But even now that they’re rebuilding around Barnes, there are still moves — or at least potential moves — to consider. For now, the Raptors are focused on developing young talent or acquiring future assets. But for a young team, the Raptors do have a bunch of useful veterans on reasonable contracts who could draw interest from teams during a competitive cycle.
What are the chances that the Raptors will be a part of it? Your mileage may vary.
Things moved quickly, with old friend Dennis Schröder being traded from the Brooklyn Nets to the Golden State Warriors for De’Anthony Melton, while the struggling Indiana Pacers acquired Thomas Boolean from the Miami Heat. Ryant to bolster their center depth.
Most moves are usually made close to the deadline, but there’s an argument to be made that a deal will be done sooner or later. Since the latest collective bargaining agreement went into effect in 2023, the league’s financial ecosystem has experienced significantly less liquidity, and teams have been beset with every possible means to thwart the league’s most financially deep or ambitious owners—that’s you, billionaire Billionaire Steve Ballmer’s Los Angeles Clippers victory comes from unlimited spending while regular old billionaires guard their wallets.
You don’t need to fully grasp the nuances of terms like “repeat tax,” “second pitch,” “hard cap,” and others that come around this time of year, just know that the end result is more teams with more Being limited in how many trades can be made, even if the trade can be manipulated, the appetite for taking large sums of money on long-term deals is suppressed because while it is advantageous to take on the player now, the consequences of doing so must be considered on the player’s books in subsequent years. money.
That’s why Zach LaVine — who has long been one of the NBA’s most efficient scorers when the Toronto Raptors host the Chicago Bulls on Monday night — is playing on a team hungry to win. The team was in trouble. Move him and facilitate his reconstruction. Teams may love his scoring and shooting, but the two years and $95 million remaining on his contract are a huge deterrent as he projects as a third option in a championship-worthy offense but has a checkered injury history. He is a defensive liability.
Anyway, the point is, as more teams face more constraints, it might make sense for those who are actually motivated to get the job done early rather than be left without chairs when the music stops.
Here are my thoughts on the Raptors, who, for what they’re worth, will probably be checking their phones over the next few weeks:
Surprisingly, the Austrian big man is still only 29 years old. He has two years left on his contract worth $39 million after this season, but he does have a player option in the final year, 2026-27.
At his age and his numbers, I believe the sources I spoke to predict he’s more likely to be a part of the Raptors’ rebound next season and beyond, rather than hanging around at the trade deadline, regardless of the young talent and draft mix. Assets a rebuilding team might be looking for. With Barnes and Immanuel Quickley already signed to long-term deals, it’s hard to imagine the Raptors having another lottery-focused season a year from now. The goal is to pop into the lottery this summer and get lucky and hopefully start pushing the Eastern Conference back into contention.
Poeltl will help the cause next year and beyond. But things could get interesting: Poeltl is eligible for an extension this summer — he can add three more years to his current contract, starting at about $27.3 million per season — and has a free agency period. If you were representing Poeltl, wouldn’t you want some kind of assurance that the Raptors would be very interested in getting an extension done next summer to prove he’s part of their long-term vision? If the answer is “no” or “we’ll see,” would you start seriously considering finding a team at the trade deadline that sees Poeltl as the missing piece on a team that wants to win now?
Complicating things is that the market for centers — especially those who don’t spread the offense offensively or don’t shoot particularly well at the free throw line — is a little crowded right now, with Nikola Vucevic , Jonas Varan Ciunas, Robert Williams and Deandre Ayton are just a few of them. The name that will pop up. Poeltl might be the best of those options, but teams do have options, which means even if the Raptors do decide to make a trade, they probably won’t be counting on a king’s ransom. Once he leaves, the Raptors will be in the market for a quality big man to anchor their team moving forward. All of this tells me that I think Poeltl is more likely to stay than to be traded.
The lanky Montreal native has shown some nice flashes this season, but as the roster gets healthier, Butcher is back to where he was a season ago: in a position where Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovi The edge of the odd rotation. Considering he turns 32 in January and is in the final year of his contract, it’s hard to imagine the Raptors blocking a trade for Butcher.
It’s more likely that his $10.8 million salary fits perfectly within the various trade exceptions, so the market may be wider for him than it would otherwise be. The NBA, on the other hand, has known Boucher was available for about a year, and as one Eastern Conference executive told me the other day: “If the demand was high, he wouldn’t join the Raptors.”
That said, he’s healthy, durable, can shoot a little, is fearless, and can still turn a game around like no one else. For a team trying to squeeze into the playoffs or secure a home seed, he’s hardly a gamble at the price of a future second-round pick. I would miss him if he were gone.
It’s safe to say that when Brown does take the floor for the Raptors, he’ll be in great shape. The 28-year-old has been out of action since undergoing knee surgery in September but has been “recovering” for the game for nearly three weeks.
Given that by his own admission he was a shadow of himself last season as he battled knee pain, who knows what he’ll be like when he finally takes the field. But Brown has plenty of time to find his game before the trade deadline. Still, considering he hasn’t had playing time over the past 10 months and is making $23.5 million this season, it’s unlikely he’ll get a huge return.
It’s conceivable that the Raptors could use Brown’s contract as part of a deal to get some long-term money as the team tries to cut payroll, but that’s been an option since Toronto acquired Brown last January, but what? None came true. At the same time, the Raptors have signed long-term contracts with Barnes and Quickley and need to be cautious about the big contracts they sign. Brown and team sources also said he has embraced what the Raptors are trying to build and wants to be part of the process going forward.
Considering his next contract will be much cheaper than this one and he’s only 28 years old, maybe the Raptors will keep him around or even re-sign him in the summer. If the Raptors end up landing a quality prospect in the draft and hope to compete again next season, he could be a useful player. Regardless, his trade value can only rise from here.
The skilled Canadian big man is having a stellar season, and the Raptors acquired him as part of the trade that also brought Ochai Agbaji to Toronto.
He averaged 8.1 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists in just 20 minutes per game, posting career-high shooting efficiency for a rebuilding Utah Jazz team that is more competitive than imagined .
But here’s the thing: While there were rumors that Olynyk could be a trade target for a number of playoff teams looking for a skilled big man to bolster their bench, he ended up in Toronto , when he was still a pending free agent. agent. Olynyk is still recovering from missing the first 23 games of the season with back issues, but even assuming he returns to last season’s form, there’s reason to wonder whether there’s a significant market for the 33-year-old. After joining the Raptors last season, he signed a one-year, $13.4 million contract extension. His defense may be struggling at this stage.
His $12.8 million salary this season does (as is the case with Boucher) be just shy of the $12.82 taxpayer mid-level exception, which broadens his market a bit. But the remaining year on his contract could give teams pause.
