Would the Toronto Raptors trade for Domantas Sabonis for free?

Would the Toronto Raptors trade for Domantas Sabonis?

To clarify the exercise here, this is not a question of whether the Sacramento Kings are open to trading Domantas Sabonis; they are not. They also obviously value him way too highly to "trade him for free" to other teams. This is merely a tought exercise to determine his value around the league if the bar were set very low.

Sabonis also has a track record of being traded for significant value; the Kings sent Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield to the Indiana Pacers for Sabonis just two years ago. If the Kings were to make him available, he would likely have at least a handful of suitors. Would Toronto be one of them?

On the one hand, the Raptors don't have a locked-in center of the future on the roster. Jakob Poeltl is entrenched as the starter, but he isn't untouchable. This isn't like asking the Spurs if they want to replace Victor Wembanyama with Sabonis; Toronto could trade Poeltl elsewhere and put Sabonis at center next to Scottie Barnes.

The Raptors have historically loved international players, feeling an opportunity to connect the league's only international team with international players. They also have one of the best power forwards possible to pair with Sabonis and shore up his defensive weaknesses, as Scottie Barnes is a fantastic weakside rim protector.

On the other hand, the Raptors are trying to build not a successful regular season team, but one that can win in the playoffs. It also seems unthinkable that, given the fact that Barnes is not a high-level shooter, they would want to commit to a relatively non-shooting center who also doesn't bring elite rim protection. Sabonis thrives with the ball in his hands; so does Scottie Barnes, so does RJ Barrett, and the Raptors didn't pay Immanuel Quickley $163 million to run off of screens.

If Sabonis were truly free, and the Raptors could cobble together some salaries to make it happen, it seems like Masai Ujiri would ignore the fit concerns and pull the trigger. Should he? The answer is probably not, as the core they have in place just doesn't fit well around Sabonis. A different roster may have a different answer, but Toronto would have to remake the entire core, and it's hard to see Barnes thriving alongside Sabonis. They both need the ball and need to operate in similar spaces.

Inexplicably, the answer should be that no, the Toronto Raptors should not trade for All-NBA center Domantas Sabonis, even if he were offered for free.