Ten Best Trades in Toronto Raptors History

1. Kyle Lowry from Houston for Gary Forbes and a first-round pick – July 11, 2012

It’s doubtful that even Colangelo himself envisioned that this deal would be as genius as it is now in hindsight.

The Rockets gave away their best player, at the time, for virtually nothing. They flipped the first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder, which was used to selected Steven Adams 12^th overall. Forbes was waived at the start of the NBA season.

Meanwhile, Lowry evolved into one of the conference’s best point guards. The Philly-native began as a backup point guard to Calderon but would quickly take over. He drastically improved the following season bumping his scoring average from 11.6 to 17.9 and his assists from 6.4 to 7.4, both career-highs at the time.

Forming a formidable backcourt with DeRozan, Lowry led the Raptors back to the postseason in only his second season with the franchise. He would go on to make four consecutive All-Star appearances from 2015 to 2018 and was named to an All-NBA Team in 2015.

Lowry has several franchise records including triple-doubles and three-point field goals made in a season (2013-14). He will go down as the team’s best point guard. And all it took to get him was a journeyman and a late lottery pick.