Should Raptors buy, sell or hold steady at the trade deadline? – The Athletic
Buy: The Raptors had turned things around before the two shorthanded losses, and their underlying metrics suggest they are the top of the East’s second tier. Getting more deep playoff experience for the core trio is valuable. Making the most of what could be your last year with Lowry — or at least your last year with Lowry at an All-Star level — is plain window optimization. And Bird rights on Lowry and Powell are valuable, either to re-sign them if the team’s cap flexibility produces no superior options or to sign-and-trade them. There are a lot of potentially helpful trade targets, up front and on the wing, that could stabilize the rotation beyond the top six or so.
Sell: The idea of “getting nothing” when a player leaves is wrong — you still got the years of production from that player. Still, four main pieces of the championship rotation have left in free agency; you wouldn’t trade that time with them for picks, but over a longer period of time, it’s really hard to keep the roster well-stocked drafting late (if at all) and not recouping assets. No trade makes the Raptors obvious contenders, any playoff run will probably happen in Tampa with far less revenue than usual and Lowry and Powell should bring in legitimate returns. If there were ever a time to step back with an eye toward a future year, it’s this one.
Hold: Nothing matters, we still don’t know how good this team is, trading Lowry would be dispiriting and giving up future assets to make the second round makes no sense. My wife left me.
I feel … no clearer after laying that out. This is very much a heart-versus-head situation for me. You know I tend to come at transaction stuff from a slightly colder perspective, but Lowry has meant too much to the franchise to treat him as a line item. Allow me a minor copout, then: Lowry’s preference for staying or being dealt to a contender should be the single biggest determinant of their direction.
Powell is a question I have a more firm answer on. His market in trade is probably more than I’m willing to walk away from, and the market for him this summer is probably more than I’m going to be comfortable paying him. While he’s been around longer than anyone other than Lowry, I’m fine with selling high in his case. Obviously, if Lowry wants to stay and make a run, Powell is a part of that, but in the “opportunistic” path you mentioned, I’d be seeing what’s out there.
Raptors have to be thrilled with development of OG Anunoby | Toronto Sun
As nice as the offensive progress has been, what separates Anunoby from other players is his work on defence. Anunoby has been able to guard every position for a while now, but he’s now elite, deserving of a spot on an NBA all-defensive team without a doubt.
Whether your MVP candidate is a guard — like James Harden — or even a giant like Giannis Antetokounmpo or Joel Embiid, Anunoby is willing and able to make life tougher for the best of the best. That’s hugely valuable, especially in today’s all offence, all the time league.
“OG, man, when he locks into a defensive matchup with one of those top guys he can really do some disruptive things,” Kyle Lowry said.
Anunoby’s tied for fourth in steals, just behind VanVleet, he’s 11th in deflections and like Siakam and Boucher is great at contesting three-pointers.
Simply put, he’s a problem.
And with Siakam and Boucher part of the long-term plan, it gives Toronto something to build around defensively, with VanVleet causing havoc at the initial point of attack, too.
“He’s athletic and he can box out strong side and gets a lot of steals,” Boucher said. “When I’m playing with him, he’s just another guy with high energy on the floor and it definitely helps knowing I can switch with him and, between me, Pascal and OG that’s three guys that’s kinda like six-foot-nine that can move their feet (and switch across multiple positions).”
Right about now the $72-million contract extension the Raptors signed Anunoby to before the season is looking like a nice piece of work for the front office.
The Raptors have had a lot of reasons to feel gloomy in 2020-21. They haven’t been to Canada for months, they’ve faced injury and COVID-19-related challenges and they haven’t won enough games, but they have to be thrilled with what they’ve seen from Anunoby.
The future of Raptors star Kyle Lowry might be the ride of March | The Star
Make a list of the NBA’s would-be contenders, after all, and the bulk of the group could easily use Lowry’s skill set to push its roster over the top. He’s a six-time all-star, a proven clutch shotmaker, and a heady defensive pest who leads the NBA in taking charges. He also has an NBA ring, which makes him all the more marketable. So it only makes sense that the likes of Lowry’s hometown Philadelphia 76ers — or an L.A. Clippers team that currently employs Raptor titlists Kawhi Leonard and Serge Ibaka — would be drawing up proposals for a player like Lowry.
Add in the fact that Daryl Morey, the Philadelphia GM, is known as an aggressive propagator of transactions — in 13 seasons with the Houston Rockets, Morey made something like 77 trades, one of which sent Lowry to Toronto in 2012 — and it follows that Toronto, playing Morey off various other suitors, might negotiate a significant collection of assets in return.
Ujiri, of course, won’t veer from his always-stringent view of what defines “significant.” First-round picks would have to be on the menu. Young talent around which the Raptors could continue their post-Lowry retooling would be essential. And even then, a deal, especially with an Eastern foe, wouldn’t be a given. If the playoffs began today, for instance, it would be Sixers-Raptors in the first round. It’s hard to imagine Ujiri signing up for the prospect of watching Lowry lead Philadelphia to a series win over the Raptors, no matter the haul.
In other words, it’s a distinct possibility that the Raptors, betting on a solid second half and perhaps buoyed by the prospect of acquiring some roster reinforcement in a trade or in the buyout market, allow the deadline to pass without moving Lowry. There’s a chance they could wait until after the playoffs to work a deal for Lowry’s so-called Bird rights, which are valuable because they allow the team that holds them to exceed the salary cap in signing Lowry.
Lowry, of course, isn’t Toronto’s only potential trade piece. Norman Powell’s stock has never been higher. And given how Powell, an impending free agent, is building a resumé that’s going to get him paid handsomely in the off-season — and how the Raptors, knowing Powell to be a mediocre defender with a puzzling blind spot to performing well as anything but a starter — it’s fair to wonder if the Raptors might be comfortable watching another team sign that cheque.
The Raptors are caught in the middle with half-season in the books | The Star
The Raptors have 36 games left in a 66-day span starting Thursday. If anyone has to miss a week or two, it might be crippling to their playoff or seeding hopes. That’s primarily because they continue to be plagued by inconsistency off the bench, their most glaring weakness so far.
Some nights, the likes of Chris Boucher, Terence Davis, DeAndre’ Bembry, Stanley Johnson and Aron Baynes are good; some nights they’re not. Trying to figure out who will be good and when has been frustrating for Nurse and his staff.
That’s the conundrum facing not only Nurse but Webster and president Masai Ujiri.
Can they count on good health, a coronavirus-free existence for about three months and players settling into roles they were good in, at times, in the first half of the season?
It’s impossible to know, but it’s worth the gamble. In this craziest of seasons, just managing things and getting a few breaks might tip the scales.
“Will we get a little bit more clarity? I don’t know,” Webster said. “Every single day you go from fourth to 11th to fifth to seventh to 12th. It’s wild.
“I think the broader reaching (question is): How do you evaluate this? We have to. That’s our job. We have to evaluate it, so that’ll be the challenge. “
