NBA Insider Suggests Potential Trade for OG Anunoby
The so-called official start of ‘NBA Trade Season’ is now just days away.
When Dec. 15 rolls around, trade talk around the league is expected to pick up with players who signed contracts this past offseason now eligible to be traded. It’s unlikely there’s a flurry of deals, but a couple of deals typically happen before the Feb. 8 trade deadline.
Once again, the Toronto Raptors are expected to be at the center of trade chatter as rumors circle about what direction the organization will take. Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, and Gary Trent Jr. are among the team’s most likely trade candidates considering they’re all on expiring contracts.
“My read on Toronto is if you're making a hierarchy of players they're willing to trade Siakam is probably first on that list because he's a little older,” Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix said on the Crossover Podcast.
One theoretical deal mentioned involved Anunoby going to the Miami Heat for Tyler Herro and two first-round picks. It’s a deal that would require Toronto to add in at least one more player, likely Thad Young, to make the salaries match.
“I think Herro and two firsts gets it done. I think that would be good a haul,” Mannix added.
While the Heat do have first-round picks they can trade, their pick allotment is complicated by a lottery-protected 2025 first-round pick they owe to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Lifting the restrictions on that pick would create more flexibility, but without that, Miami cannot trade its 2024, 2026, or 2027 first-round picks outright until that 2025 first-round pick conveys. That means the soonest Miami can deal a first-round pick outright is 2028. In order to trade two first-round picks, the Heat would have to be willing to move 2028 and 2030 outright as the Stepien rule prohibits teams from being without a first-round pick in consecutive drafts.
Herro, 23, has missed most of this season with an ankle injury but has averaged 22.9 points while shooting 41% from three-point range across eight games this year. He's certainly not the defender Anunoby is, but he's an offensive shot-creator and would help buoy Toronto's at times stagnant half-court attack.
