NBA Insider Explains Where the Raptors Are At in OG Anunoby & Pascal Siakam Trade Talks
The Toronto Raptors aren’t ready to make any big decisions quite yet.
With just over a month and a half to go before the trade deadline, Toronto reportedly “isn’t there yet” on long-term decisions related to Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski wrote on his weekly Threads chat.
Raptors president Masai Ujiri has made it clear this season is about roster evaluation. He explained that was the reason behind Toronto’s decision not to extend Pascal Siakam this summer as the organization wanted to see how the former All-NBA forward would fare in the team’s new systems. More recently, Ujiri doubled down on that intention.
“I think building around Scottie Barnes. We have Pascal (Siakam), we have OG (Anunoby), we have young players, you know, Gradey (Dick), these guys coming up and I feel we let it sit and see how these guys progress in the new system and then we go from there,” Ujiri told the TSN broadcast earlier this month.
Toronto has so far shown nothing to suggest this team is anywhere near good enough to contend for a playoff spot. The Raptors sit 11-18, 1.5 games back of the 10th seed in the East, and Toronto has yet to string together even a three-game winning streak this year.
In fairness, it’s unlikely Toronto would even be able to make a deal this far from the trade deadline as teams are still evaluating their rosters around the league. Rarely do trades happen this far out from the deadline and the offers for one or both of Toronto's forwards would likely get better closer to the deadline.
That said, it’s hard to look at this Raptors roster as anything other than what its record says it is. Toronto is disappointing, below-average, and a team that doesn’t appear to fit together on either end of the court.
