Last night, another trade went down, as reported by ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania. While it's not a blowaway transaction or a needle-mover by any means, the implications involving the Toronto Raptors are quite apparent — even if they weren't involved in the deal at all.
The deal I am referring to here is the trade involving Washington and San Antonio, in which the Wizards flipped ex-Raptors stretch big Kelly Olynyk (who had already been moved from New Orleans) to the Spurs in exchange for Malaki Branham, Blake Wesley, and a 2026 second-round pick (the least favorable of Dallas, Philadelphia, and Oklahoma City).
Now, you might be looking at this trade I just mentioned above and think it's just Kelly Olynyk that I'm talking about when it comes to the Raptors. While you'd have a point there (I will get to that in a minute), it's largely the inclusion of Malaki Branham in a salary dump or a case of the Spurs pulling the plug on his development.
But what does Branham have to do with Toronto, you ask?
Well, if you can recall back to the February 2022 trade deadline, a weird move was executed wherein the Raptors shipped out disgruntled vet Goran Dragic to the Spurs in a salary dump to take back Thad Young and Drew Eubanks (later waived). And also included on Toronto's side of the deal was a 2022 protected first-rounder, which the Spurs used to select Malaki Branham at 20th overall.
Raptors' original trade piece moved (making history look more ddd in hindsight)
Branham spent three seasons with San Antonio, where upon his arrival he was joining a squad with a myriad of minutes to spare on their young players; trying to figure out who could be a focal point of the franchise moving forward. Branham's first two seasons weren't worldbeaters by any stretch, but he was certainly proving to be a serviceable rotation guard.
On that front, considering what Toronto got out of Thad Young — mainly him big brothering Joel Embiid during the 2022 playoffs (dropping him) — the return on investment didn’t seem worth it for the Raptors, especially at the expense of their own first-round selection (whether they'd use it on Branham or not). Branham was the pick that San Antonio went with, and he was proving to make the Raptors’ decision look like a costly mistake.
But as the Spurs have transitioned into the Wemby era, that room for patience and abundance of playing time has proven scarce. Last year, Branham barely made an impact on the court, averaging a mere five points in 9.1 minutes per game.
And I think it's even funnier that Kelly Olynyk was the player the Spurs dumped two unproven youngsters for, seeing as Toronto also had the luxury of his services (along with a talented wing in Ochai Agbaji), and he was later included in the deal to acquire Brandon Ingram. When Toronto dumped Thad Young's salary alongside Dennis Schröder to the Nets at last year's trade deadline, it just made the original trade look quite odd.
But now, as the Spurs close the door on the Branham chapter, I think both Toronto and San Antonio can look back at the trade with a sense of confusion about what they were thinking at the time. It just didn't turn out to be much for either side.