Grade the Trade: Messy Pascal Siakam 4-team deal hurts Raptors

The Toronto Raptors have uncharacteristically found themselves at the forefront of the NBA offseason’s usual monsoon of trade rumors. When a player like Pascal Siakam has been floated as a trade candidate for months, such recognition is inevitable.

The Atlanta Hawks have been mentioned as one team that could end up getting in the Siakam race, but their initial package of De’Andre Hunter, AJ Griffin, and draft compensation was not received very warmly by Toronto.

A third team might need to get involved to consummate a deal. With the Dallas Mavericks reportedly expressing some interest in acquiring Clint Capela from the Hawks, they could help facilitate a Siakam move.

Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report proposed an unusual Siakam move that included Toronto getting a haul of miscellaneous assets, Atlanta getting Siakam, and Charlotte jumping in as a fourth team.

Grade the trade: Toronto Raptors make odd four-team deal with Pascal Siakam

Raptors get: SF De’Andre Hunter, SG Tim Hardaway Jr, PF Maxi Kleber, SG James Bouknight, SF Vit Krejci, 2029 first-round pick via Atlanta, 2030 first-round pick swap via Atlanta

Hawks get: PF Pascal Siakam, SF Gordon Hayward, 2027 first-round pick via Dallas

Mavericks get: C Clint Capela, PF, Thaddeus Young, SF Kelly Oubre Jr. (sign-and-trade)

Hornets get: SF Bogdan Bogdanovic, SF Otto Porter Jr, PF Christian Wood (sign-and-trade)

Where to even begin with this one? While this deal would help Toronto get off the unsightly contracts of Young and Porter, and they would bring back a potential long-term asset that fits the team’s style of play in Hunter, the rest of this deal seems like too much of a grab-bag to be valuable. Let’s go item by item.

Hardaway is a fine shooter who addresses a need, but he is 31 years old and coming off a disappointing season. He might take shots away from Gary Trent Jr. and prized rookie Gradey Dick. Kleber doesn’t move the needle one iota and has serious beef with Raptors guard Dennis Schroder.

Bouknight is a complete dart throw, as the former lottery pick has shown next to no indication that he can be an impactful player in the NBA. Krejci is a benchwarmer who might not even make the opening night roster. Two potential first-round picks are nice, but waiting half a decade to cash them in makes them much less valuable.

The only reason this escapes a worse grade is the fact that getting players like Hunter or Hardaway in a Siakam deal would be solid acquisitions, given the circumstances. Trading Pascal for a potpourri of random young players and picks six years in the future would get the fanbase quite irritated.

Grade: C