NBA trade rumors: Raptors are sitting on a gold mine, but will they cash it in?

On Thursday morning, a report from SNY’s Ian Begley surfaced that in December the Knicks provided the Raptors two first-round picks for OG Anunoby. This comes after it was reported earlier this week, by the Toronto Star’s Bruce Arthur, that the Raptors acquired a suggestion from an unnamed staff of three first-round picks for Anunoby. 

So far, Masai Ujiri is unmoved. 

But how lengthy will that stay the case? 

It’s not simply Anunoby that Toronto is sitting on as a potential high-value trade piece. Pascal Siakam is an All-NBA participant. Fred VanVleet is an All-Star. Gary Trent Jr. could be a coveted shooter/defender for almost any contender. 

If the Raptors needed to concede to the struggles of this season and put a ceiling of this present core of gamers, they could be in place to take the Oklahoma City path to a rebuild. Scottie Barnes turns into your Shai Gilgeous-Alexander constructing block, and everybody else will get flipped out for a truckload of draft capital. 

Let’s say Siakam is value three first-round picks. Anunoby three extra. VanVleet probably two. Another for Trent. That’s 9 first-round picks, plus Toronto controls all its personal picks transferring ahead. That’s a big-time haul, but if you happen to’re the Raptors, are you prepared to start out over? The purpose that these gamers could be value a lot is they’re superb. Hard to exchange. 

Perhaps the Raptors go the route of buying and selling a couple guys, but hold a core intact. If that is the case, it’s probably that VanVleet and/or Trent could be shipped out. Assuming Trent turns down his participant choice for subsequent season, they’ll each be unrestricted free brokers this summer time. 

Earlier this month, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps reported that Toronto provided VanVleet the max allowable four-year, $114 million extension. VanVleet turned it down. From ESPN:

But one factor is evident: VanVleet believes he is value greater than what Toronto can at present give him.

“Without going too far into it … [I’m] just trying to put myself in a good position business-wise, and not take an extension on a deal that was made three or four years ago,” VanVleet informed ESPN.

“I felt like I’ve outplayed that contract thus far. So just trying to get myself in a position to put the cards in their hands. They got to make a decision from an organization standpoint.

“I really like being right here. I really like being a Raptor. I obtained a nice relationship with Masai and Bobby, so I’m assured that we might discover [a deal]. It’s a nice partnership that we now have, so going ahead, I’m not going to make it straightforward on them and they’re not going to make it on me both, and that is the best way it’s going.”

At the 2021 trade deadline, the Raptors sent Norman Powell to the Blazers for the same reason they might end up dealing VanVleet over the next few weeks. They didn’t want to pay Powell what it would’ve taken to keep him, and they didn’t want to lose him for nothing in a free agency. 

If you’re Ujiri, this is a good problem to have. A bunch of good players that other teams really covet, and that he would probably be fine keeping as well. At that same 2021 deadline, it looked like a near formality that the Raptors would move Kyle Lowry. But they didn’t. 

Ujiri is not going to compromise. We know that much. We also know that “good issues” are problems nonetheless. This is not an easy decision. I would certainly trust Ujiri to put a contender together if he was to suddenly find himself armed with an OKC-like barrel of picks, but there’s no guarantee. And it can be a long process. The Thunder have been at this since 2020 and are solely now changing into a .500 staff as a result of SGA has become an MVP-level participant. 

Does Barnes actually have that sort of upside? I might say no, emphatically. I feel he is a man you construct with, not round. Same with Anunoby. Siakam is the star, but he will flip 29 in April. His timeline would not match into a Barnes/draft capital plan. 

I do not know the precise reply. That’s not my job. My guess is that VanVleet and Trent will be moved, and Siakam and Anunoby will keep. That would give Toronto a minimum of two extra first-round picks so as to add to their very own chest, which might be a fairly good bundle to exit on the market with in an try to herald a star alongside Siakam and Anunoby. That would seemingly be the shortest path to rivalry. 

But what star goes to change into obtainable? And would the Raptors be capable of out-bid an OKC or Houston or New York — all of which are additionally armed to the enamel with draft capital? Would they be giving up a bunch of actually good gamers for the possibility to change into nice, solely to finish up in the identical place or possibly even worse than the place they began? Go ask a Blazers fan about that. 

These are all theoretical questions, but ones you possibly can wager Ujiri is contemplating. These are the selections GMs receives a commission the large bucks to make. They’re not straightforward. The solely factor we all know for positive is that if Ujuri does resolve to trade any of those guys, he will don’t have any scarcity of suitors.