Morning Coffee – Mon, Jan 30

OG is out | Precious stepping up | Ridiculous trade scenarios | Hang over Monday

Cover Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images

NBA Rumors: OG Anunoby Would Be ‘Best Available Player’ at Trade Deadline, Exec Says | Bleacher Report

At 22-28, Toronto sits in 12th place in the Eastern Conference and could look to blow up its roster to start building for the future. However, the team’s hesitance to pull the trigger on any deals so far has caused a holdup in trade negotiations across the league.

“Toronto is the No. 1 domino in all of this. They have three potential pieces that would draw interest,” the Eastern Conference GM told Bucher. “If they come through this next stretch unscathed, maybe they stay with what they have. But if they get crushed over the next seven or eight days, [team president] Masai [Ujiri] could decide to make some changes.”

The Raptors are in the midst of a seven-game Western Conference road trip, which started with a win over the Sacramento Kings and a loss to the Golden State Warriors. Toronto will return to action on Saturday against the Portland Trail Blazers (23-25).

How Should The Raptors Approach Pascal Siakam’s Future? – Uproxx

It would be incredibly easy to see Siakam as an elbow playmaker and switchable defender in a place like Phoenix, Golden State, or Miami. He could be a great partner in the two-man game for Luka Doncic in Dallas or Tyrese Haliburton in Indiana. Siakam, however, is not nearly the hot commodity that his strengths on the court would indicate. Part of the reason is that Toronto’s asking price — Matt Moore of The Action Network said other teams’ executives described Toronto’s asking price as “insane” for Siakam. Another straw poll described the price as being “a three-for-one plus picks.”

Siakam’s contract pays him $35.4 million this season and $37.9 million next season, so any team going big to trade for him would have to anticipate re-signing him on a raise in 18 months. Assuming he makes it in this season, Siakam will be locked into supermax criteria by making All-NBA in the two years preceding his contract year. A supermax extension, which he only qualifies for if he stays in Toronto, would pay Siakam $205 million from 2025-2030 (when he turns 36).

Though they can’t match the supermax salary, a team like the Mavericks or Suns could see that as a worthy investment if it means giving Donic or Devin Booker a championship-caliber number two for their upcoming prime years. It could also turn out that the NBA doesn’t see Siakam as worth quite that much and he gets a smaller extension or hits unrestricted free agency in 2024. If Siakam is dead set on that contract, it makes sense that he’s staying quiet and riding out his time in Toronto, where he’s played his entire career. It is also worth mentioning that he reportedly would be happy to stay north of the border alongside Scottie Barnes.

This potential ballooning of Siakam’s market has to impact how Toronto operates now, too. If it’s unclear whether teams in title contention would pay up for him, it would be an even bigger surprise to see the Raptors do it.

Toronto has admirably kept and developed its draft picks through their primes and continued to make the postseason long after the Lowry-DeMar DeRozan era. The reason Siakam, VanVleet, and OG Anunoby have as much value now as they do has a lot to do with the Raptors’ structure and pipeline. However, their hopes for a quick reset and reload after bottoming out in 2021 and bouncing back in 2022, seems to have hit a snag, and paying an elite secondary star top dollar usually requires having a primary star in place, which Toronto does not.

Even with an optimistic view of Barnes, the 2021 No. 4 pick who is averaging 18-7-6 on 51 percent shooting in January and has elite defensive tools, you find a player who at his best is going to occupy the same spaces and do many of the same things on the court as Siakam. Maybe from a talent perspective, a team built around Barnes and Siakam (not to mention Anunoby) would have enough to compete deep into the playoffs. But for two years running, the Raptors have been better with Siakam on the court and Barnes off than with just Barnes on or both on. Both Siakam and Toronto could benefit from a trade, especially because their supporting cast figures to take a hit soon, with VanVleet and Gary Trent Jr. both becoming free agents this summer.

NBA trade deadline: Blow it up or do nothing? Four paths Raptors can take – The Athletic

Blow it up

The move(s)

To Suns: Siakam
To Raptors: Deandre Ayton, Torrey Craig, 2023, 2025, 2027 first-round picks, rights to 2026 pick swap (all Suns)

To Knicks: Anunoby
To Raptors: Derrick Rose, Immanuel Quickley, two 2023 first-round picks (Knicks, Mavericks), 2025 first-round pick (Knicks)

To Lakers: VanVleet
To Raptors: Patrick Beverley, Lonnie Walker IV, Max Christie, 2027 first-round pick (Lakers)

The rationale: This is the ultimate step-back move. The Raptors would be giving up on the idea of this team, getting as many draft picks as possible for their three most valuable players (not-Barnes division) and hurting their chances to win in the short and medium terms in the process. In Ayton, Quickley and Christie, the Raptors are getting players who could be part of the future. Really, though, this move would be about the seven first-round picks (and a pick swap) that they would be getting for Siakam, Anunoby and VanVleet. On the court, Barnes and Achiuwa get to do their thing, pretty much free of consequences.

What’s next: Send your best scouts to all the hottest international, collegiate and G League Ignite games. Try to re-sign Trent in the offseason. Send more scouts to more games. Maybe check the trade market on Ayton in the summer, but don’t talk about that publicly. Hire more scouts and send them to even more games.

Core going forward: Barnes, Trent, Achiuwa, Ayton, 2023 lottery pick, a whole bunch of future first-round picks

VanVleet finding his game as Raptors show signs of life vs. Blazers – Sportsnet

VanVleet says it’s been coming for a while, it’s just taken time for the number to catch up to how he’s been feeling. 

“Getting my legs under me took a little longer than I would have liked it too, said VanVleet. “I made a lot of drastic changes to my body and to my approach to my preparation and just the way that I’m approaching the season. It took a little longer for me to find it. 

“I feel good where I’m at and I just have to find ways to maintain that on a nightly basis. When I’m fresh and I got that pop, I feel like I can compete against anybody in the league and it’s my job to continue to find ways stay ready and stay fresh for the season.”

VanVleet’s found himself in the news for other reasons too. He can be a free agent this summer and has found himself figuring prominently in trade speculation. Then earlier this month came reports (that VanVleet denied) that he’d turned down a $114 million contract extension and then last week news that he’s split with his long-time agent, Brian Jungreis. 

Was it a sign that more changes are coming? VanVleet told me otherwise.

“It was a long time in the making,” he said of his decision to change agents, adding that reports that he’s going to join Klutch Sports Group, the agency representing Gary Trent Jr. and Anunoby – two other Raptors whose names have been prominent in trade rumours – were premature. “Maybe the paperwork getting filed around the time when my name is in a lot of trade rumours, it’s going to make some noise, but there’s really nothing to it.

“It’s just time for me to switch agents for the second half of my career,” he added. “It didn’t work out with the previous thing going on. I’m looking forward to a long, prosperous career, so I wouldn’t read too much into it.”

How the Raptors perform on the floor will likely have a lot to do with the decisions management makes between now and the trade deadline on Feb. 9th.  

Raptors ignore trade rumours for best stretch of NBA season | The Star

“We absolutely have a lot of young guys on this roster. For better or for worse, you can’t really put a timer on that. But I think in the last couple weeks, it’s been coming together and we’re growing and getting better. Like I said the other day, it’s not too late. I like the direction we’re going in. We’ve been playing better basketball, it seems like, day by day.”

It’s all relative but, considering where the Raptors were, where they are isn’t too bad.

They are 2-1 on the seven-game road trip that continues here Monday against the Phoenix Suns, they are 7-5 in their last dozen games. They may still be outside the Eastern Conference playoff bracket but there’s no doubt they are playing consistently better basketball than they were three weeks ago.

VanVleet is largely responsible for that, too. His fourth quarter here Saturday — five points, five assists, three rebounds, a steal and an emphatic blocked shot — rescued another game for the Raptors, who recovered in the final 12 minutes for an impressive road win.

There was just a good “feel” to the performance.

“It was very, very noticeable, the togetherness and connectivity tonight,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “It’s a bounceback on a tough loss (to the Warriors the night before). You’re on the road in a pretty loud environment and they really banded together tonight very well.”

Precious Achiuwa, inserted into the starting lineup for the injured O.G. Anunoby, responded with his best game of the season, a career-high 27 points to go along with 13 rebounds and a couple of steals in 33 minutes.

He felt it, too.

“It’s all about rhythm and playing in the flow of the game and playing together as a team,” he said. “That’s how we’re going to get more wins and that’s how we know we’re playing basketball the right way and we’re just trying to get as many wins and we can right now.”

All of this comes against the backdrop of the Feb. 9 trade deadline, with rumours swirling around many of the Raptors and with vice-chairman Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster along for the trip.

But as they shut out the noise around the bad start to the year, the Raptors are mostly disregarding the current trade chatter.

“There are guys that are thinking about where they’re living, where they’re moving, what their family situation is, kids in school,” Nurse said. “There’s the real-life part of it that, for sure, guys are thinking about. But I also believe once you get here and once the ball goes up, they probably focus in and do the best they can on the night. Play the game and start worrying about it all over again, night to night. I think they can lose themselves in the game.”

Precious Achiuwa’s emergence could affect Raptors’ trade deadline | Toronto Sun

Achiuwa, who came over in the Lowry deal along with the short-lived stint of Goran Dragic, has always had the potential to join that core and made a strong case for it in the latter stages of last season and into the playoffs.

But as the season began, Achiuwa was coming off the bench and clearly not a part of that core just yet.

He struggled early on to find his form and then suffered a severe ankle injury that cost him 24 games. Upon his return, though, he has steadily improved to the point where head coach Nick Nurse is suggesting he’s not just back to the form he was at in that Philadelphia playoff series, where he was instrumental in making the Raptors competitive, he has surpassed that level.

In his past five games, three of them starts, Achiuwa has averaged 34.2 minutes, 18.4 points, and 10.2 rebounds. He has been a defensive mainstay for the Raptors more than holding his own in the one-on-one battles and changing shots at the rim with his size and athleticism.

Only 23 years old, Achiuwa is in his third year in the NBA and he has found his preferred pace. He doesn’t let the game speed him up anymore. He’s more in control and when he makes his move to the basket, there are few in the league who can keep him from getting where he wants to go.

He has started twice in place of Anunoby and once for VanVleet in the past five games.

But starting or not, he has led the Raptors in rebounding in four of those five games, and led them in scoring Saturday in Portland with a career high 27 points.

But as much as Achiuwa is forcing a full-time promotion to starting duties with his play, an opportunity that an opening could be coming in that group.

There are all kinds of rumours floating around at this time of year and one of them has the Raptors seriously contemplating trading Anunoby. The narrative goes that Anunoby is not happy with his current role here and would prefer a change of scenery.

Anunoby is currently out of the lineup with a sprained left wrist. He had an X-Ray in San Francisco where the injury occurred and the results came back negative. He then had an MRI in Portland, but the results of that procedure have yet to be made public.

In the interim, Achiuwa is filling in and prospering.
Only 23 years old, Achiuwa is in his third year in the NBA and he has found his preferred pace. He doesn’t let the game speed him up anymore. He’s more in control and when he makes his move to the basket, there are few in the league who can keep him from getting where he wants to go.

He has started twice in place of Anunoby and once for VanVleet in the past five games.

But starting or not, he has led the Raptors in rebounding in four of those five games, and led them in scoring Saturday in Portland with a career high 27 points.

But as much as Achiuwa is forcing a full-time promotion to starting duties with his play, an opportunity that an opening could be coming in that group.

There are all kinds of rumours floating around at this time of year and one of them has the Raptors seriously contemplating trading Anunoby. The narrative goes that Anunoby is not happy with his current role here and would prefer a change of scenery.

Anunoby is currently out of the lineup with a sprained left wrist. He had an X-Ray in San Francisco where the injury occurred and the results came back negative. He then had an MRI in Portland, but the results of that procedure have yet to be made public.

In the interim, Achiuwa is filling in and prospering.

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