Trail Blazers Show Raptors That Last Year's Trade Deadline May Have Been a Mistake

The Toronto Raptors made a pivotal decision to win at last year's trade deadline and it's proven to be a mistake following a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers

The Toronto Raptors and Portland Trail Blazers found themselves at a crossroads at last year’s trade deadline.

Both teams had been disappointing heading into that faithful Feb. 9 afternoon. Toronto entered the day 26-30, clinging to the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference. Portland similarly found itself in 10th in the West, but with a slightly better record, just one game below .500.

Despite nearly identical situations, the teams took radically different approaches to that afternoon and the ensuing months. The Raptors decided to preach the value of winning, adding Jakob Poeltl, and trying — unsuccessfully — to make the playoffs. Portland, conversely, tanked for the sixth-worst record in the league before getting lucky in the draft lottery and moving up to the No. 3 pick.

Who's better off now is complicated. Portland is loaded with young players and future draft capital while Toronto remains middling with the seventh-oldest roster in the NBA. Coming into the night, the Trail Blazers seemed a long way from NBA relevance but a 99-91 victory over Toronto now has both teams 1-3.

Both teams looked like their record suggests, underwhelming teams but at different stages in their developmental cycle. Portland's younger players looked, well, young, but Malcolm Brogdon came up with huge crucial buckets in a 21-point effort for the Trail Blazers while Toronto's persistent shooting woes, of course, persisted.

In reality, the Raptors couldn’t really shut down their star players the way the Trail Blazers did at last year's deadline, but any step toward selling would have drastically changed Toronto’s fortunes. Maybe O.G. Anunoby could have been shipped out in a move that would have tanked Toronto’s defense? Maybe Fred VanVleet could have been dealt for something more the nothing they received when he departed for Houston in free agency? Maybe Toronto, who considered moving Pascal Siakam this summer, could have actually dealt their All-NBA star the way Portland did with their franchise superstar?

Would they have won the lottery? Would they be better in the long run?

Who knows.

But Toronto never got to find out, instead, the organization opted to put its faith in the value of winning for the development of its generally young core.

“When you win, you're getting that positive feedback,” said Raptors coach Darko Rajaković during his pre-game media availability. “It's much easier to learn new things, to be open to new things. So it is important. But everything comes for young guys, for young teams. It's coming with time, and the time they're putting in to do the work.”

That’s an understandable approach. But there is another way to look at player development. Take Shaedon Sharpe, for example. The Canadian third-year guard saw his shot attempts double following the trade deadline as the Trail Blazers fed him more opportunities, results be damned.

“In our league, really any league, confidence is the thing that will take you over,” said Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups on the value of Portland’s developmental focus. “For young guys trying to find themselves in our league, they have to find that confidence somewhere and if they are able to develop, play through mistakes and play through tough times, it just gives you the confidence to learn the game, learn who you are.”

Portland is by no means very good. Their mistakes Monday night were plentiful. Sharpe’s still-developing handle was exposed when Scottie Barnes stripped him just minutes into the game before Toronto’s forward took it end-to-end for a transition dunk. Barnes later lowered his shoulder into rookie second-round pick Toumani Camara, sending Camara flying before floating in another two points.

Rookie first-round pick Scoot Henderson showed what this season might look like for the Trail Blazers. At one point he dribbled the ball off his foot allowing Anunoby to score in transition. An ill-advised pass while mid-air at the rim allowed the Raptors to again core a pair in transition courtesy of a Malachi Flynn layup late in the third. He also took a crucial offensive foul as Portland clung to a one-point lead with three minutes to go in the fourth before ultimately fouling out moments later to end an 11-point 4-for-12 showing.

For Toronto, Barnes showed the merits of his developmental path as he continued his torrid start to the season with another 20-point showing. He nailed a pull-up three midway through the third quarter to recapture the lead for Toronto as the two teams went back and forth trading buckets. In the fourth, he poked the ball loose from Sharpe before flushing a wide-open layup in transition to pull the Raptors to within two midway through the frame.

But he also showed there is room to grow as another crunch-time turnover proved costly late in the fourth when Barnes tried to weave a pass inside to Poeltl that ended up squeaking out of bounds.

"It’s a work in progress and we need better execution and we need better pace and we need better spacing," Rajaković said. "We have a lot, a lot of room for growth."

As for that All-NBA forward that Toronto didn’t trade this past summer, Siakam bounced back from a strange eight-shot attempt showing last game and asserted himself far more against the Trail Blazers. He called his own number midway through the fourth, scoring an end-to-end layup after Toronto had gone four straight possessions without a made field goal. He followed it up moments later by finding Poeltl under the hoop who converted the old-fashioned three-point play.

"I thought he came in with the right mindset, he was aggressive from the start," Rajaković said. "His defense was on a high level, especially (at) the start of the game, we were able to get stops and deflections and steals and to get out and run in transition."

Toronto was ultimately undone by its continued half-court struggles and a 4-for-29 night from behind the arc. It's been the same old story since last season and, frankly, the year before that too.

"Individual problems cannot be bigger than the team," Rajaković said post-game, the first subtle hint that last year's selfishness issues may be continuing. "We just talked about in the locker room. I told guys, like, we've got to be a team. We gotta think about what I need to do for my team to win."

The results of the teams’ decisions at last year's tradeline can’t truly be judged anytime soon. Sure, Toronto is in theory closer to a championship with its current roster than Portland, but that doesn’t really mean much this early in the team’s cycle. The Trail Blazers may very well have the young core to get there one day. If they do, it’ll be because of the decision they made at last year’s deadline, prioritizing the long-term future over the present.

Up Next: Milwaukee Bucks

The Raptors will wrap up their homestand Wednesday night when the new-look Milwaukee Bucks come to town for a 7 p.m. ET tipoff at Scotiabank Arena.