Raptors now have the perfect trade target after latest Warriors whiff

The Toronto Raptors should run the play again.

Last year as the front office fielded trade offers from teams around the league for OG Anunoby, the kind of player every winning team would love to have, they could have prioritized future draft capital. Instead, they identified a talented young player who was not being used to his fullest potential and bought low on him, believing he would blossom in a larger role on their team.

That player was Immanuel Quickley, and he has done nothing but prove the Raptors right for believing in them thus far, maintaining his shooting accuracy on higher volume and looking comfortable in a leading on-ball role. After he signed a new five-year contract this summer, the Raptors get to watch him grow in a red-and-black uniform for years to come.

Now, even as the dust settles and the activity of the offseason dies down, the Raptors may have the opportunity to do the same thing again.

The Warriors are open for business

The Golden State Warriors have a sublime superstar on their team in Stephen Curry, and they have spent the summer trying to find a second star to bring in and pair with him and Draymond Green for one more fight before his prime is over. They went hard after Paul George before he left and signed in Philadelphia, and more recently they spent weeks negotiating for Lauri Markkanen.

The offensive fit of Markkanen on the Warriors made a lot of sense, and the Utah Jazz at least seemed open to the possibility as they listened to trade offers from a number of teams. In the end, however, the Warriors were unwilling to go all-in for Markkanen, and the Jazz agreed to a contract extension that makes the marksman ineligible to be traded for the entirety of next season.

Reports are that the Warriors will now pivot to exploring "smaller-scale deals more actively than is typical in August and September" per The Athletic's Anthony Slater. That's where the opportunity opens up for the Raptors.

Toronto has a number of proven veterans that the Warriors may be interested in. The most available of those players is Bruce Brown, the kind of glue-guy player a team like the Warriors would love, a great defender and playmaker who knows how to make the right play at the right time. He would be an obvious player for the team to target.

He's not the only option, of course; Jakob Poeltl would be a more bold trade target, but if they sent a real trade offer for him he likely wouldn't be untradeable. Kelly Olynyk could be the stretch big they need as a backup option for Markkanen.

If the Raptors were to get into trade discussions with the Warriors, there is one obvious player the team should be asking for in a deal.

The Raptors could pluck a future starter from the Warriors

Moses Moody is entering his fourth season in the NBA after the Warriors drafted him 14th overall in the 2021 NBA Draft, the same draft where Scottie Barnes went fourth overall to the Raptors. In fact, the connection between Barnes and Moody runs deeper, as they were a part of a dominant Montverde team in high school, starting together and propelling one another toward high draft slots.

Since being drafted by the Raptors Scottie Barnes has received a central role, fueled in large part by lowered stakes for Toronto and Barnes' NBA readiness. Moody, by contract, has had to fight and scrape for every minute on a Warriors team that won the championship his rookie season.

For whatever reason, head coach Steve Kerr has not prioritized Moses Moody in his rotation, even as the young wing has proven himself an ideal connecting piece between Curry and Draymond. Moody is a confident shooter, a savvy cutter and a good wing defender. He should have had a larger role the past couple of seasons, but instead the Warriors have pushed him to the fringes in favor of other options.

They clearly don't value him as highly as they should, and that opens up an opportunity for the Raptors to make a move. Whatever trade package they talk through with the Warriors should include a buy-low opportunity on Moody. Golden State was willing to include him in a deal for Lauri Markkanen but not Brandin Podziemski, and they surely won't want to pay him his next deal in a year.

Whether Moody is paired with Andrew Wiggins in a larger deal for Bruce Brown, or with a smaller contract for Kelly Olynyk, the buy-low chance on Moody is one the Raptors can't pass up. In addition to already being good as a role player, he still boasts on-ball juice and could become something even better in Toronto.

The Warriors are spinning in circles trying to figure out what to do this year, and the Raptors can take advantage by plucking the perfect young wing away from them.