The Toronto Raptors traded away Pascal Siakam to jumpstart their rebuild and give Scottie Barnes space to grow. As Siakam continues to play like a star for his new team, however, the trade looks like less of a win for the Raptors with each passing day.
The Raptors held onto their veteran core from their championship run in 2019 for too long, and when they finally traded away the likes of OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam, they did not maximize the returns coming back for either player. With Anunoby, they added two expensive younger players and a second-round pick they wasted on Jonathan Mogob.
The Raptors traded Pascal Siakam
They traded Siakam to the Indiana Pacers for Bruce Brown Jr., salary filler, and three first-round picks. At the time, it appeared to be the exact sort of trade that the Raptors needed. The picks reset their coffer of draft capital, and Bruce Brown looked like a great veteran glue guy to have on board.
The one clear benefit of the trade was giving Scottie Barnes space to be the unquestioned No. 1 option, and with some overlap in position and role between he and Siakam, moving on from the All-Star forward was supposed to help unlock Barnes. That has happened, and Scottie is now a top-tier defensive player and an offensive All-Star at the same time. Mission accomplished.
Unfortunately, the rest of the return for the trade has only trended downhill since the trade was made, and Toronto's decisions since trading Siakam have made the trade look worse and worse.
The Raptors are losing the Siakam trade
The Raptors got back three first-round picks for trading away Siakam. The first pick they sent to the Utah Jazz for stretch-big Kelly Olynyk and young wing Ochai Agbagi. Olynyk did very little of us in Toronto due to his defensive weaknesses and injury issues, while Agbaji showed some flashes but ultimately was just salary-dumped on the Brooklyn Nets at this year's trade deadline.
Olynyk was packaged along with Bruce Brown and another of those first-round picks to trade for Brandon Ingram, who was then handed a lucrative three-year contract extension. That pick was the Pacers' Top-4 protected 2026 first-round pick; that would be an extremely valuable pick to have right now, as it could very easily be the fifth or sixth pick in a loaded 2026 draft.
Instead, the Raptors invested in Ingram, who can certainly score in bunches and somewhat inexplicably earned an All-Star berth this season, but who hasn't proven doubters wrong about his ability to elevate a team's play in the postseason. Unlike, for example, Pascal Siakam, who was just the second-best player on an NBA Finals team.
Siakam remains an All-NBA player this year, even playing on a tanking Pacers team, and he would unquestionably be a more impactful player on the Raptors right now -- it's not like Ingram and Barnes are a match made in heaven. Given how the Raptors used the draft return from trading away Siakam, they have Ingram and that third first-round pick, one they used on Ja'Kobe Walter.
The trade is mired in disappointment
Ingram and Walter vs Siakam? The promise and possibility of the trade return from moving on from Siakam has turned into overpaying the ill-fitting Ingram and a player who looks like a future backup wing. Along the way, the disappointments of Olynyk, Brown and Agbaji litter the way.
Perhaps the Raptors couldn't have navigated the past couple of seasons with Siakam still on the roster. Perhaps Barnes doesn't become a true star if Siakam were still around. But in terms of how the Raptors used the assets they got back, it's hard to conclude they won the trade.
And with each dazzling performance from Siakam, the scale tips towards Indiana. If Ingram disappears in the playoffs -- or if the Raptors even fail to qualify by slipping deep into the Play-In Tournament -- it will be time to declare the trade an official loss for the Raptors.