It’s been a few weeks now since Raptorland was staggered by the trades of the Raptors’ core, OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakim. It’s been a long, slow decline for the team since it’s championship in 2019, losing asset after asset with nothing coming back our way.
Granted, after the OG trade, it looked like the Raptors might be gearing up for a run of some sort and in fact they met with some initial, surprise success. But not long after, Pascal Siakim was packaged off to Indy for stiffs and picks and the rebuild was formally announced.
So where are we now? What should we expect in the near, mid and long term? Let’s break things down and have a look under the hood.
First of all, without any doubt this is now Scottie Barnes’s team. He is the main man, the alpha and Masai and Bobby are going to try and build something around him. I hate it when the Raptors do this. We have no more than 4 years to build something special around Scotty or he’s gone and with very little likelihood of having our 2024 first round draft pick, it’s not going to happen quickly.
The only other immediate ‘core’ players are RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley. RJ has improved his productivity since returning north of the border and Quick is doing well also. But in truth, only time and results will determine if they stay here. I really like both signing as players and people so I hope they do.
Behind Barrett salary wise is Bruce Brown, a veteran big man who isn’t currently in Masai’s future plans except as trade bait for another first round draft pick.
The other big salary on the team that isn’t going away any time soon is Jacob Poeltl who at nearly $20 million per year just hasn’t been pulling his weight. Not that he has been dead weight, by any stretch, but I don’t think he’s met expectations and unfortunately, at 28 years of age, his skills are likely as developed as they’re going to be. Neither is he quite strong enough to grind with the larger centers in the league. Prove me wrong Jacob, please.
Gary Trent Jr. He’s in the last year of his deal. Don’t expect him to be resigned.
Dennis Schroder. A good back up at a decent price but can he survive on a team that’s just playing for picks?
The rest of the team is filler, unfortunately. I had hopes for Christian Koloko but he has not panned out, nor did Otto Porter provide anything and Thad Young proved not worthy of a draft pick. Gradey Dick might yet prove out to be something, maybe, but it’s not looking great. That’s a lot of ‘proves’ in one paragraph, but that’s where the Raptors are.
Not the most positives of my Raptors posts, hopefully it’s all uphill from here.