Grade the Trade: Marcus Smart, Brandon Ingram on the move as Raptors join 4-team idea

Do the Raptors make this trade?

The Toronto Raptors are very likely going to trade Jakob Poeltl at some point in the future; he is much older than their core, and his inability to defend in space and do much of anything other than roll to the basket on offense limits his upside for a team hoping to grow into a versatile, two-way contender in the coming years. It would not be a surprise to see Poeltl traded.

Such a deal is likely not going to happen until the trade deadline at the earliest, and more reasonably next summer, as the Raptors confirm for themselves he isn't the highest-upside option for them at center. It would take a lot to make a move right now, given both their high evaluation of Poeltl and their complete lack of center depth behind him.

Is this deal enough to entice them to the table? In a word, not at all. The fact that Toronto gets back three playable players is a positive, and it's not that the value is horribly off; this is at the lower end of a fair offer for Poeltl, but it's not insulting.

The problem is that it does absolutely nothing to address a need for the Raptors. For a team that has seven shooting guards, adding two more does nothing for them. Jordan Hawkins was a lottery pick just a year ago, but the Raptors already took Gradey Dick ahead of him in the draft and nothing about their respective rookie seasons makes Hawkins a clearly better prospect than Dick. He would be buried in a crowded 2-guard room, not to mention how deeply Konchar would go.

At center, the Raptors would be downgrading from Poeltl to Brandon Clarke, a solid backup big who is coming off of a major knee injury and offers just as little offensive impact without the elite rim protection. In a sense, the Raptors are being asked to trade their starting center for a worse center and two players unlikely to crack the rotation. Narry a draft pick is to be seen.

This deal doesn't entice the Raptors to the table, and it doesn't meet a single need for them. It rightly identifies that Jakob Poeltl can help the New Orleans Pelicans, but doesn't properly engage with what the Raptors need in drawing them in. Building trades is hard - and this one missed the mark.

A team that wants Jakob Poeltl is going to have to come with more than this to get Masai Ujiri to budge.

Grade: D