Toronto Raptors: Top six moments from the successful 2010s

6) Trading away Andrea Bargnani, Rudy Gay but keeping Kyle Lowry

The foundation for the Raptors’ success this decade starts with the key trades Masai Ujiri made and didn’t make way back in 2013.

After being drafted 1st overall in 2006, Andrea Bargnani had a promising start to his career with the Toronto Raptors, averaging 11.6 points in 25 minutes per game off the bench as a rookie, while converting on 37 percent of his threes and flashing some passing skills. He improved each year, averaging 21.4 points per game in the 2010-11 season after Chris Bosh left for the Miami Heat.

However, Bargnani didn’t play defense, became injury-riddled (averaging just 33 games per season over his last two years in Toronto) and was never willing to work hard to maximize his talent. While you could feature him in a Primo Pasta commercial, you couldn’t have him as your star player and expect to win.

Considering all of this, the team had to get rid of him. Thankfully, the New York Knicks obliged. In trading away Bargnani, the Raptors received a few players, a 2016 first-round pick and two second-round picks (2014, 2017). That first-round pick became Jakob Poeltl, a solid contributor, who the Raptors eventually flipped together with DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard. We know how that turned out.

While you could feature Bargnani in a Primo Pasta commercial, you couldn’t have him as your star player and expect to win.

Much like Bargnani, trading away Rudy Gay became an addition by subtraction. In a monster deal, the Raptors sent Gay, Aaron Gray, and Quincy Acy to the Sacramento Kings for Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons and forwards Patrick Patterson and Chuck Hayes. While none of these players became major long-term contributors, they were valuable assets that cleared cap space and brought in players who could.

Vasquez was traded away in the 2015 offseason to the Milwaukee Bucks for a second-round pick and the Los Angeles Clippers’ first-round pick in 2017. The former brought Norman Powell to Toronto, the latter was flipped along with Terrence Ross for Serge Ibaka in 2017. It took years, but the dominoes fell into place.

In the short term, this 2013 reset resolved a duplication in skillset between Gay and DeRozan, sparking 14 wins in next 20 games, as the Raptors finished first in the Atlantic Division and secured home-court advantage in the playoffs.

None of that would have mattered had the Raptors traded away Kyle Lowry to the Knicks. Not wanting to be fleeced again by Ujiri, Knicks owner James Dolan turned the deal down. In the years to come, the tandem of DeRozan and Lowry would help the Raptors reach new heights, culminating in the franchise’s first Conference Finals in 2016.