Toronto Raptors: B/R’s Pascal Siakam trade idea is wildly off-base

The Toronto Raptors had to deal with a barrage of Pascal Siakam trade rumors, with everything from a swap with the Warriors and a deal that sends him to Sacramento being thrown against a wall in the hope that something would stick.

While the Raptors might be in a bit of a transition considering the fact that Kyle Lowry has departed, Masai Ujiri has continuously said that this franchise intends to win this year with a core of Siakam, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, and Scottie Barnes.

Despite that, trade rumors continue to pop up, some of them with the intent of ditching Siakam’s contract and beginning a rebuild around some younger players. That mindset could force the Raptors to make some short-sighted trades.

Bleacher Report suggested that the Raptors could build around Barnes while trading Siakam. To get rid of this “bad contract”, the Raptors would trade him to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a package centered around Malik Beasley, Taurean Prince, and a few future first-rounders.

We’re just going to jump the gun and say…no deal.

The Toronto Raptors shouldn’t trade Pascal Siakam to Minnesota.

There are three myths around this take, and all of them need to be dispelled. First, the Siakam contract is not a “bad” one. Sure, taking a small step back isn’t ideal for a player with three years and nine figures left on his deal, but he still led the team in scoring and had to deal with the tsunami of bad luck that washed over this franchise last year.

That represents adequate value, at least.

Second, Siakam might not be a No. 1 option? While we will need to see how he functions without Kyle Lowry, he did lead the team in scoring in consecutive seasons. In one of the years, his team won 53 games, and he was named as an All-NBA player.

Finally, let’s say for the sake of argument the Raptors are trading Siakam to Minnesota. Beasley and some scraps won’t do it. Even if they don’t get as many first-rounders, you have to include a player like Anthony Edwards or D’Angelo Russell in the deal.

Russell’s big contract and one or two other spare parts could hypothetically be a deal, but Toronto would still be worse off without Siakam.

The NBA has always had a problem with short-term memory loss, but the fact that everyone seems to have their own Siakam trade package for pennies on the dollar when he was an All-NBA player on the No. 2 seed in the East just one season ago simply boggles the mind.

The Raptors are not going to trade Siakam if they feel they can win with this core, and they certainly won’t trade him for a collection of spare parts like the ones Minnesota is giving up in this deal.