Raptors trade tiers: Which players can be moved at the deadline?
By Mike Luciano
The Toronto Raptors are not going to have the same 16 players on the roster two months from now. Masai Ujiri is already hard at work trying to figure out how to either improve this team in the short-term around Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes or move more towards selling off assets.
The latter option isn’t something that fans want to see, but they may need to confront that unfortunate reality if the team continues to lose. With big contract extensions for Siakam and OG Anunoby potentially on the docket for the next two years, Toronto must hand out money very wisely.
As such, many of their impact players could be traded away. Not only would such a move breathe some new life into a roster that has very clearly hit a wall in the last few weeks, but it could make the Raptors (who very rarely dip into the luxury tax) more financially flexible in the next few years.
While Toronto has some assets that could net them quite a pretty penny in trade talks, there are a few players that are either too good to give up on or too unattractive for teams to consider acquiring. As such, a few players hold the key to determining the direction of this franchise.
Toronto Raptors trade tiers: Which players will be moved?
Tier 1: Off-Limits or not valuable
- PF Pascal Siakam
- SF Scottie Barnes
- PF Precious Achiuwa
- C Christian Koloko
- SF Otto Porter Jr.
- PG Dalano Banton
- PG Jeff Dowtin
- SF Ron Harper Jr.
The record-breaking Siakam and Barnes will not be moved anytime soon, as the Raptors will do anything they can to build this roster around their two dynamic power forwards. Koloko has shown more promise than most second-round picks in this class, so he’s not going anywhere.
Even though Achiuwa is a very raw offensive piece in his third season, Toronto has seen more than enough out of him to keep him around for the immediate future. If the Raptors can get him back to full strength, they should be able to milk as much value out of him as possible.
The Toronto Raptors won’t trade Scottie Barnes.
Despite the fact that he is just 29 years old and fresh off contributing to a championship team, the injuries that Porter has sustained with the Raptors have been so bad that they’ve limited him to just eight games. That’s not a player teams are clamoring for.
Dowtin and Harper are solid young players, but neither of them is going to be considered an asset worth acquiring by most of the teams in the league. The Raptors will do something, but this chunk of players is not going to go anywhere.