The trade market is heating up, folks.
From the stirring trade rumors surrounding stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and James Harden, we've now been treated to some blockbuster trade news earlier today leading up to Thursday afternoon's trade deadline. The Grizzlies' long-time defensive stalwart, Jaren Jackson Jr., is set to join a talented up-and-coming cast of Keyonte George and Lauri Markannen over in Utah — helping to accelerate their rebuild.
While out East, the Chicago Bulls have been working aimlessly to tweak their roster, with an interesting deal earlier today sending sharpshooter Kevin Huerter to Detroit in a three-team deal that sends Jaden Ivey and Minnesota vet guard Mike Conley over to the Windy City. Not long after, another deal was finalized for Chicago, as they traded center Nikola Vucevic to the Boston Celtics for Anfernee Simons.
If you haven't followed by now, that is quite the surplus of guards heading over to Chicago, and on a roster that already has a fair amount of talented guards in Josh Giddey, Coby White, and Ayo Dosunmu. Which brings me to how I think the Toronto Raptors fit into the equation: this is primetime for the Raps to jump in and help reduce the logjam at those spots by trading for one of Coby White or Ayo Dosunmu.
Raptors need to explore trades for either Ayo Dosunmu or Coby White
Chicago, with their plethora of guards, are now severely depleted in the big men depth department, with only Jalen Smith and Zach Collins remaining — both of whom are currently dealing with injuries. Now, if Toronto could pull off a massive swing, the dream would be to offload the horrid Jakob Poeltl situation by taking on the final year of Collins' expiring $18 million deal and Ayo Dosunmu. Additional pieces would likely need to be involved, like one first-rounder or several second-round picks, as well as Ochai Agbaji's expiring deal to make the finances match.
That's one way of looking at things, as Toronto's most likely stance at this year's deadline will focus on figuring out how to make mid-tier depth improvements and ducking the luxury tax. So much for those Giannis hopes, eh? I think in either capacity, whether the Raps targets Ayo Dosunmu or Coby White — it's fitting for what the Raptors want to or should accomplish. Toronto could benefit greatly by having a second ball-handler in the lineup to help ease the pressure off Immanuel Quickley, as we saw in the IQ and Jamal Shead extended minutes not long ago.
As my colleague Daniel O'Connor previously covered, Dosunmu presents a ton of intrigue for the Raptors' backcourt, as a defensively sound, secondary playmaker, with a proven three-point shooting shot (averaging nearly 45 percent from deep this season). In a way, Dosunmu fills a lot of those gaps that Toronto desperately needs to address. Sure, he won't fix everything on his own, but it's a step in the right direction.
With Coby White, he's way more of a higher offensive ceiling target opposed to the defensive edge and well-rounded skillset present in Dosunmu, but undoubtedly still a talented third or fourth option to have in your midst. In the 2023-24 season, we saw the MIP candidacy that White built for himself as a breakout piece for the Bulls rebuild, and it changed how many saw his game. He was bound for a new extension this past summer, but couldn't come to a new financial agreement with the Bulls.
In fact, with both gentlemen, the issue of future money would certainly prove to be a deciding factor. Sure, the Raptors would be getting cheap contracts for the now, but how about the price tags they'd warrant in the offseason? If this is a team wanting to cut down costs as much as possible, can Toronto afford to pay either one of these guys? Or is Toronto willing to just take on one of 'em as a rental? What about a blossoming stud like Sandro Mamukelashvili — how does he end up getting paid in the aftermath?
We'll find out soon enough, my friends.