The Toronto Raptors Are Finessing The NBA

The Toronto Raptors Are Finessing The NBA

With the trade deadline quickly approaching this is a time of year where teams look at the roster and decide whether they’re happy with the group of guys that they’re putting out there if it needs some more pieces or if teams are looking to completely blow it up and

Start all over and this year the action started pretty early after a long 2 years of overvaluing OG and Pascal cakam Messi Jeri has finally made a move by first sending off OG to the Knicks then shortly after trading Pascal to the Pacers but for the most part it does

Seem that fans are glad that Messi held out as he did end up getting a pretty good return for those two players including Emanuel quickly Bruce Brown three first rounds and a second round pick as well as bringing in their first Hometown hero and RJ Barrett and with

All of these moves it’s made it pretty apparent that the Raptors are fully committing to Scotty barnes’s timeline the Pacers on the other hand now have a pretty deadly duo with Pascal and halberton that they can definitely build off of and as for the Knicks who were 17

And 15 at the time of the trade brought in OG as a move to bolster their roster to be competitive this season and considering theyve went 12-2 since acquiring OG I think things are going in the right direction so just by looking on paper these trades look to be a win

Win win for everyone involved but we’ll take a look to see how these moves are really going to affect their respective teams this season and going forward starting off with the Raptors who really initiated this spurt in trades after winning the championship and then losing

Kawhai the Raptors were in a bit of a search for their identity slowly starting to shut off some of the pieces of the championship team like Kyle Lowry Norman Powell Ser Baka and so on until it was just Fred Van vet Chris buet og and cakam left from that 2019

Championship team at this point it was clear to pretty much everyone except for mside that the team was ready to be shook up and when news started to come out that the Raptors were shopping Freddy around at the 2021-22 trade deadline fans figured this was the time considering Fred was producing at a

Career high rate while making an All-Star team and especially with his contract set to expire after the following season with everyone correctly assuming that he wouldn’t resign it seemed like the franchise needed to trade him now or risk letting him walk and as everyone knows that’s what ended

Up happening reports are now coming out that the bucks made a serious offer of Grayson Allen in a first round pick another pick and another asset that they could have used down the road the lack of moves with the addition of reports coming out that the Raptors were

Treating OG and cakam like future MVPs on the trade market led to a lot of mistrust with fans doubting the direction of the team which is a pretty massive contrast to how fans felt during the 2019 playoffs run when Messiah seemed like a master genius but now

Looked to be more asleep at the wheel than anything then at the end of last year they would go on to fire Nick nurse yet another piece to that championship team gone but given that the squad that the RS had moving on from Nick nurse was probably best for the team they brought

In Darko rakovich as a head coach which brought some excitement but overall there was little hype for this upcoming season even with a dick pick during the draft and the season started out about as lackluster as fans expected with the exception of Scotty Barnes taking a massive Leap Forward this year looking

Like a player that a franchise could really build around and with expiring contracts for seak and OG the Raptors were ready to fully commit and make those moves to build around Scotty as mentioned by bringing an RJ in quickly first then a stack of picks and Bruce

Brown after to complement it so far RJ has been amazing in his role with the Raptors having an uptick in every single statistic across the board with his most notable being his increase in rebounds and especially his efficiency shooting a mind blowing 14% better from the field

While still putting up the same amount of shots a game and the City of Toronto has really embraced him with a warm homecoming the addition of RJ and IQ had an immediate effect on this team as you could instantly see the increased pace of play for this squad being within the

Top 10 teams for Pace since making the trade with the Knicks but as we mentioned after the Knicks there was another trade that brought in Bruce Brown as a center point for this team who might be on the line to get flipped again at the trade deadline as there are

Plenty of teams out there that would love to pick up a player like Bruce Brown like the 76ers possibly even the Knicks or another possibility which is my personal favorite they could go out and add another GTA Hometown hero to the team by trading Bruce Brown to the

Warriors in return for Andrew Wiggins but the Raptors also would do just fine by holding on to Bruce Brown for the long term although it does seem that the Raptors may not be done and could even be looking to trade yaka purle come the deadline as with emerging Talent like

Jeante Porter they could be fine rebuilding with him at the five if they wanted to go the OKC route and stack up a bunch of picks either way it does seem that fans are excited for the future of this team who seem pretty directionless for a pretty good chunk of time but now

They finally seem to have a plan in place and it begins and ends with Scotty Barnes leading this young Squad who still do have some cohesion issues to figure out but they definitely see seem like one of those young teams you might want to watch every now and then on

League pass and with the reputation the Raptors have for finding talent and developing said Talent it’ll be interesting to see how they try and form another contending team around this group that they’ve already started to build following the recent trades it’s looking like the Raptors finally have a

Clear Direction and identity but it’s not just them entering a new chapter Indiana snagged Pascal cakam giving the team a bit more punching power and a big offensive weapon to support halber offense to acquire Pascal cakam they really didn’t have to sacrifice much present roster depth besides Bruce Brown

Instead opting to deal three first round picks to the Raptors Bruce Brown is a great player and his absence will be felt in games but the value seak brings to this team is much higher than Bruce could ever hope for Pascal is a premier scorer with championship experience and

He has a great all-around game honestly the best part about this trade is that Pascal without a doubt operates better with a proper number one at his side who can draw gravity Tyrese is perfect as that number one he’s one of the best passers in the entire NBA right now and

Will allow Pascal to play off ball much more often where he’s best adding to this the threat of Pascal charging into the paint and then receiving a pass will be more than enough to open up a bit of room for halberton to operate you can definitely expect the Pacers to greatly

Improve their standing from Seventh in the East currently to the point where they’ll be knocking on the door of the top teams in the conference will it be enough for playoff success well they might make it kind of far this year if cakam gets integrated into the team fast

Enough but the Pacers aren’t exclusively looking for Success this year this is obviously an attempt at securing some kind of a future for the team with playoff success included siakam’s looming contract makes this a big gamble for the Pacers if cakam ends up walking then three picks will have been traded

For nothing on the Pacers end which would be a total dis disaster Pascal is considered a short-term rental at the moment until we hear a commitment from him to resign to the team the Pacers must know something that the general public doesn’t as this is a hefty price

To pay for someone who may or may not resign with you unfortunately small Market teams do have to make gambles like this to get truly good teams you can either trade up or develop your way to success if you’re Indiana because unlike New York Miami and La high impact

Free agent signings are very unlikely speaking of New York the Knicks have got a solid two-way player in OG and anobi the team has done extremely well since he’s arrived going 12 and two and beating solid teams like the Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics despite this

The team still kind of feels like it’s in limbo and the job isn’t finished a team with the core of Julius Randall and Jaylen Brunson has no business winning a championship compared to the top teams in the East the Knicks seem to be short of high-end talent and we’ve seen

Regular season teams fall apart in the playoffs time time and time again this probably won’t be any different while the Knicks are making good moves to stay competitive in the early stages of the Eastern playoffs what good will consecutive first or second round exits be it’s still to be seen if last year’s

Surprising run was a fluke or not or if they can improve on that run we can’t disrespect a team for making moves to tighten their rotations and improve but the Knicks may run into problems against known playoff threats well it’s tough to say exactly where people will go this

Year really does feel like the wildest West where anyone can win and teams are appearing to be making moves that way Terry Rosier just got traded to the heat in return for Kyle Lowry and this should provide the heat that extra man they need to cover for injuries or step up

When needed making the heat that much bigger of a playoff threat this shake up of the East has set a number of teams on A New Path but the February 8th trade deadline hasn’t come yet and there may be even bigger moves to come the magic are also reportedly aggressively

Targeting a few players with the main name being anthon Simons this isn’t even mentioning the West which is starting to look like anybody’s conference and has a number of teams looking for that edge over their close competition if any team is looking for an edge male Bridges has

Really broken out this year on both sides of the floor well I’m sure the Nets would love to keep him he doesn’t exactly fit the timeline of a rebuilding team and it’s looking more and more like the Nets May deal him to stock up on some draft picks watch out for Bridges

Getting moved to a team looking to take that leap another person whose name is been floating around in trade rumors is 22-year-old Jonathan kaminga who may be moved for a true Difference Maker to help the dubs make another championship push don’t expect kaminga to go to a

Contender anytime soon but a few years down the road he may have a crucial role in a well-developed team given that the Thunder are currently on top in the west and the Celtics grip on the East is being tested by some new trades this year really seems wide open so make sure

To pay attention at the deadline for some League shifting moves O

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