After tons of rumors and speculation, the Toronto Raptors pulled the trigger on a Pascal Siakam deal.
Siakam spent almost eight full seasons with Toronto, his tenure though has now come to an end.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Indiana Pacers finalized a trade to acquire Siakam in a deal that will send Bruce Brown, Jordan Nwora and three first-round picks to the Raptors. The New Orleans Pelicans were the third team in the deal, sending Kira Lewis to Toronto as well.
It is now officially a new era of Raptors basketball that features Scottie Barnes as the No. 1 option. Barnes established himself as the building block of the franchise going forward so it was only a matter of time.
However, Barnes came into the league with Siakam being his teammate and to see him be traded must have been hard.
After a dominant win against the Miami Heat on Wednesday, Barnes opened up about Siakam’s impact on him and the organization, via Sportsnet:
“He meant a lot to me, he meant a lot to this organization…he’s been here his whole career in the NBA…came to the gym every single day. Worked on his craft, worked on his game. I love him as a brother. It hurts but you got to keep moving on, keep fighting.”
For Barnes to see two of his closest teammates traded in a month must sting, but he knows he has a job to do as now the leader of this Raptors team.
However, it’ll be intriguing to see how Barnes, Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett perform with a bit more responsibility.
The future may be uncertain right now, but Toronto has the foundation set with those three players going forward. With more first-round draft picks at their disposal, it is up to the scouting department to surround Barnes with more quality young talent.
Raptors waive Christian Koloko to make Pascal Siakam trade official
To make the Siakam move official, Toronto had to clear a roster spot. Unfortunately, it was second-year big man Christian Koloko.
Koloko was the Raptors 2022 second-round pick. He had not played for the team this season while dealing with respiratory issues. He averaged 3.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, 0.5 assists and 1.0 blocks in 58 games for Toronto last year.
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