3 offseason moves the Toronto Raptors might already regret
By Mike Luciano
1. Not trading or extending Pascal Siakam
The Raptors still haven’t decided what to do with Siakam. Trading him would allow Scottie Barnes to take over as the main man, but extending him would show a commitment (however ill-placed their faith might be) to their current core. Instead, the team remains in severe limbo.
As Siakam showed in Toronto’s unsuccessful comeback against the Celtics, he is capable of willing this team back into games. An extension would keep this talent in Toronto for the rest of his prime, but Ujiri has not been willing to accommodate such a contract.
Will the Toronto Raptors trade or extend Pascal Siakam?
The Raptors haven’t traded Siakam, and every day the season goes on knocks his value down a peg. Toronto may go from being able to refurbish an entirely new bench with the fodder from a Siakam deal to only adding one or two more high-risk young players and some picks four years from now.
The Siakam situation (and, to a lesser extent, the OG Anunoby chase) is part of some larger frustration with Ujiri among Raptors fans. He refuses to pick a direction, even as losses start to pile up and the true direction of this franchise starts to become much murkier.