I was perusing the RealGM Raptor forum the other evening and I ran across a post asking forumites whether they would be interested in watching the Raptors this upcoming season, 23-24, if Masai decided to run it back with the current crew. Overwhelmingly, 2-1, posters felt they wouldn’t be that interested in spending much time on the Raptors running back the current roster. I couldn’t blame them. If I had logged in, I would have joined that crew. As one poster said, ‘ Not that interested in watching the bench of the championship team try and fail to make any significant impact.’
So what’s a GM to do? Well, as all us old hats know, this is the time of the year when misinformation is at its peak so listening to Masai and the front office really isn’t going to tell us anything substantial, is it? What they want to do and what they can do are likely entirely different but what is actually in the realm of possibility?
Here’s what they have to trade:
Trade Bait
Fred VanVleet – Could be back or not but did turn down his player option to test the free agency waters. That means he could be gone – or not. My own feeling is it’s time to take a break. Fred has stagnated these last 3 years and with the emergence of Scotty Barnes as a point forward Fred has lost his raison d’etre. Likewise, I could see Fred benefitting from going to a good team and taking on a backup PG/SG role. Let’s hope we do something different at starting PG this year. Chance of it happening? 75%
Gary Trent has taken his player option and that could mean that he will be back or traded. Sort of a younger Fred clone, but with less defense, Gary is a decent role player with some room to grow and probably pull more trade return now with a single year left on his deal than any other time other than the trade deadline and that’s a do or die, roll the dice time. Don’t make a deal then and Gary can walk for no return. At least a deal now guarantees a return. Chance of Gary leaving? 50%
OG Anunoby – has been talked about several times in trade rumours lately. A solid defender with a decent offensive game and room to grow, OG is another player I like but believe needs to find himself on another team to reach his potential. OG needs a bigger city, New York would be the perfect place in a swap for RJ Barrett, the good Canadian boy who’s been itching to play for his home team. Chance of OG being on the team come Nov 2023? 40%
Pascal Siakam – The Raptors main man with one more year on his deal, a nice piece in the championship run but has never fulfilled his potential as a number one guy partly because he fell in love with himself after the championship and started talking about himself in the 3rd person. His Dad wouldn’t be happy. I’d love to see what Gregg Popovitch could make out of him instead of seeing him as a disciple of Rico Hines who left to join Nick Nurse in Philly. Maybe Pascal will join them? 50% he’s gone.
What they want is a franchise impacting player to match with Scotty Barnes. Typically, in order to get that level of talent a top 3, 4 or maybe 5th pick is necessary. Are any of those pickles available? We know that San Antonio is in full rebuild and that all of their success has been on the back of a great big man so the number one pick is staying with them. Charlotte holds the number 2 pick and is rumoured to be after Brandon Miller having worked him out twice which leaves Portland at 3, Houston at 4 and Detroit at 5. Portland should want to build around Dame so expect the third pick to be in play. Likewise with Houston and Detroit, they have stockpiled much youth of late and must be itching to trade those picks for current allstars.
Will Masai be able to leverage any of his players for any of those picks? You have to know he wants to – but can he?