The Toronto Raptors were in a ton of trade rumors at last season’s trade deadline.
There was speculation on if the Raptors would look to trade some of their players in the mists of a disappointing season.
However, instead of being sellers the Raptors were buyers and landed Jakob Poeltl from the San Antonio Spurs.
The move of course did not pay off as the Raptors were eliminated in the play-in tournament by the Chicago Bulls.
Now that the dust has settled from last season, there are some interesting new details that were revealed by ESPN’s Zach Lowe.
The Phoenix Suns had conversations with the Raptors involving their two players at the time in Pascal Siakam and O.G. Anunoby per Lowe on his podcast:
“An interesting little Phoenix tidbit that’s not relevant anymore, that’s not even close to relevant anymore, but it’s just interesting: they were, I learned this week, they were in talks with the Raptors on either, not both, but either Siakam or Anunoby before the Durant thing became viable for them. And they pivoted everything to the Durant thing. Which you pivot to Kevin Durant.”
It would have been interesting to see what the Suns offer would have been. Perhaps Cam Johnson or even Mikal Bridges were on the table.
Ultimately, the Suns traded for superstar Kevin Durant which not many teams would pass up on.
As for Toronto they did eventually move on from their two key players. Toronto traded Anunoby to the New York Knicks for Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett and then traded Pascal Siakam to the Indiana Pacers for a deal centered around three first-round picks.
The Raptors might have been a year late in executing their build. However, at least the franchise has finally picked a direction.
Toronto has 46 percent chance of keeping 2024 first-round pick
The Raptors are currently in a rebuild and their interest now is first-round picks. The Raptors traded their 2024 first-round pick to the Spurs in the Poeltl deal, but it is Top-6 protected.
Therefore, if the season ended today the Raptors would have a 46 percent chance of keeping their pick.
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