Ten years ago the Toronto Raptors made a franchise altering trade.
Toronto shook things up by trading Rudy Gay, Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray to the Sacramento Kings for role players Greivis Vasquez, Patrick Patterson, John Salmons and Chuck Hayes.
The Raptors rallied after the trade going 42-22 and made their first playoff appearance in six seasons.
From that point on Toronto went on to have a decade of success, which included winning the 2019 NBA Championship.
The trade tree from the move was significant as well and can be linked to current players O.G. Anunoby and Gary Trent Jr.
There are a lot of parallels between this current Raptors team and the one from 10 years ago that decided to shake things up.
Toronto struggles to find any rhythm and continues to slide in the standings.
In short, the Raptors need a Rudy Gay-type trade now to turn the franchises’ fortunes around.
The Raptors should make a big splash by trading Pascal Siakam who’s on the last year of his contract.
Siakam will command a lot of interest around the trade deadline and the Raptors can cash in on a big return for him.
The reality is the Siakam and Scottie Barnes experiment doesn’t seem sustainable. The Raptors must commit to one and trade the other.
Siakam will want a max contract this summer and it doesn’t make sense to pay him that when he’s too redundant with Barnes.
Also, the Raptors don’t want to run the risk of losing him for nothing as they did with Fred VanVleet.
Therefore, the Raptors must trade Siakam to get a package of assets in return that will set their future up nicely.
Raptors need a change
As the season rolls on, it’s looking like the Raptors need a big move to drastically change things up.
The season isn’t going to plan as the Raptors continue to look like a .500 to below .500 team.
They say history repeats itself and 10 years later the Raptors need to make another big trade to change the trajectory of their franchise.
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