Feb 6, 2020
Raptors stand pat at trade deadline, as expected
Entering the season, many league observers believed the defending champion Toronto Raptors would be among the NBA’s most aggressive teams leading up to the trade deadline but Thursday came and went without the Raptors making a deal, and nobody in the organization was especially surprised or disappointed, Josh Lewenberg writes.
TORONTO – Thursday’s NBA trade deadline came and went without the Toronto Raptors making a deal, and nobody in the organization was especially surprised or disappointed.
Unlike last year, when they pulled off arguably the most important move of deadline day in acquiring Marc Gasol, the Raptors weren’t expected to make a big splash ahead of the 3 p.m. ET buzzer, as TSN reported earlier this week.
Factors included a lack of selling teams around the league and impact players on the market, a reluctance from Toronto – and many other clubs – to take on long-term salary in the interest of preserving salary cap space for the loaded free agent class of 2021, and the Raptors’ own situation.
Entering the season, many league observers believed the defending champions would be among the NBA’s most aggressive teams leading up to the deadline. The thinking was that, by then, they could be hosting a fire sale.
With Kawhi Leonard already gone and some big expiring contracts (Gasol, Serge Ibaka and Kyle Lowry, who was signed to a one-year extension in training camp) remaining on the roster, February seemed like a reasonable time to begin the rebuild, or retool, that most assumed was coming.
Instead, this Raptors team had other plans. Despite Leonard’s departure and a multitude of injuries to key players, they’ve been one of the league’s first-half feel good stories.
Toronto has won 12 games in a row – a franchise record and the longest active winning streak in the NBA. The latest of which came in dramatic fashion, as they erased a 19-point deficit to come back and beat the Pacers on Wednesday. Through 51 games, they’re 37-14 – one game ahead of last year’s pace – and sit second in the Eastern Conference. They’re resilient, versatile and deep.
Although team president Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster worked the phones, as usual, there was nothing out there that could entice them to break up their core, or even surrender long-term assets or flexibility. The asking price for impact players around the association was higher than usual this year, according to Webster.
“I don’t know if it’s ever quiet at the deadline,” Webster said. “There’s always a lot of deals and stuff on our board. I guess [it was] quiet in the sense that nothing got done.”
“I think we had a lot of options. We had long-term deals, short-term deals, expensive deals, mid-tier deals [on the table]. I don't think that was a limiting factor this year.”
They decided to stand pat, and given what was available, it was probably the right call. None of the guys that were moved on Thursday would have been a clear upgrade over the Raptors’ current rotation players, especially when you consider what they would’ve had to give up to get them.
Cleveland stole Andre Drummond – an all-star calibre centre – from Detroit for pennies on the dollar, as the Pistons feared he would pick up his player option for next season. The Cavs got him for Brandon Knight, John Henson and a second-round pick. Could the Raptors use him as depth or insurance in case one of their bigs were to go down? Sure. Could they have gotten him? They would have had to part with Ibaka or Gasol to match Drummond’s salary. Not worth it, given how well Ibaka’s been playing and how important Gasol’s skill set is to how the Raptors play on both ends of the floor.
The Clippers landed Marcus Morris from New York in a three-team deal with Washington – a solid addition for a team with aspirations of making a deep playoff run. Assuming the Raptors were interested in Morris and willing to look past his off-court character concerns, he would have cost them Norman Powell and a first-round pick, at minimum.
It was a quiet day around the league. In all, 12 trades were agreed to in the 48 hours leading up to the deadline. Forty players changed jerseys and 16 different teams made at least one move. A year ago, there were 19 trades made ahead of the deadline, featuring 50 players and 22 different teams.
This season’s largest pre-deadline move actually came early on Wednesday morning – a four-team, 12-player deal that sent Clint Capela to Atlanta and Robert Covington to Houston. Canadian Andrew Wiggins was arguably the highest profile player on the move, going to Golden State along with a valuable first-round pick from Minnesota, in exchange for D’Angelo Russell.
Notably, most of the teams jockeying for position with Toronto at the top of the East were inactive. Like the Raptors, Milwaukee, Boston and Indiana didn’t make any moves.
The 76ers got a little deeper, acquiring Glenn Robinson and Alec Burks from Golden State, but that won’t address the bigger and more fundamental issues that have plagued them recently.
Of the East’s top-six teams, Miami was the only one to make a significant trade. The Heat added Andre Iguodala, Jae Crowder and Solomon Hill, with Justise Winslow and Dion Waiters heading to Memphis and James Johnson to Minnesota.
You can’t question their ambition – they were even close to prying Danilo Gallinari from Oklahoma City before the deal feel apart. They’re better than they were a day prior, but by how much?
Iguodala is a wild card. He comes with name recognition and should bring experience and toughness as a three-time champion and former Finals MVP. He’s still an impact player on the defensive end and fits Miami’s culture. However, he’s 36, coming off an underwhelming season with the Warriors, and he hasn’t played since June.
Meanwhile, the Raptors are the NBA’s hottest team and figure to get Gasol back from injury shortly after the all-star break, with Powell’s return to follow. There’s no reason to think that the hierarchy in the East has changed. They can still feel good about where they stand.
“I think the timing of trying to match what another team does is hard,” Webster said. “And so I think a lot of it is always based on your evaluation of the team and where you think you could improve as opposed to what everyone else is doing.”
“We're sitting second in the East, which I think we're all happy with. I think the good part is that we feel like we continue to grow. We haven't been healthy all year. So I think, where we are now we'd all take, with some improvement.”