Grade the Trade: Raptors land broken former star in massive three-team proposal

The Toronto Raptors are not going anywhere this season. For that matter, neither are the Brooklyn Nets or the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks will likely make the Play-In Tournament as the No. 10 seed, but the odds of them climbing their way out to make the 8-team playoffs are infinitesimal, before you factor in the Boston Celtics waiting on the other end. The Raptors and Nets, meanwhile, are in a late-season freefall.

The Raptors have lost nine-straight games, while the Nets have lost five-straight. The Hawks are nine games under .500 and playing without Trae Young. It's natural for all three teams to be looking ahead to the offseason and what each can do to revamp their teams.

The bottom of the Eastern Conference could be active this summer

For the Hawks, they need to either move on from one of their point guards, be that Young or Dejounte Murray, or they need to find a pathway to adding a third star to the mix who isn't also a small guard. The Nets are trying to straddle the line between rebuilding and competing and probably need to choose a lane this summer.

The Raptors finally made a move to trade their stars, but they also prioritized young talent instead of draft picks. They are a candidate to swing for the fences this summer, perhaps by star-hunting in free agency, or to fully embrace the rebuild and move on from more veterans.

The popular NBA trade website Fanspo recently shared a massive three-team trade that Atlanta, Brooklyn and Toronto could put together this summer. Each team has a reason to come to the table, but the problem is that the proposed deal is an utter disaster for the Raptors.

Let's look at the trade in detail and break down the motivations for all three teams involved, then grade the trade from the Raptors' perspective.