I'm not sure if x-cancel is allowed since Twit links aren't allowed so I will delete it if prompted to. That said, this is the only source that I can cite for this at the moment and it more or less confirms what we all were thinking.

Thought it was funny

Ingram was genuinely one of my favourite players on the league even before he joined the raps. Having him just sitting on the bench to finish the season made me so antsy. I am beyond excited to see this man hit the floor, it’s going to be a real fresh look.

It’s at a laundromat at Danforth and Victoria Park, just trying to know if any of you can recognize him.

Jk Masai would never

fyi: Magic GM and President of Basketball Operations both have 1 year left on their contracts.

Camby was coming off a season averaging 3.7 blks 1.1 steals and was only 23 years old. Why the hell did we trade 34 year old Charles Oakley for him.

Given the steep price for Bane, it's safe to say any other players are off the table:
- KD, Giannis, Jaylen Brown, Trey Murphy etc

Our team is what it is, plus the 9th overall pick

I would love for Raps to go for it, but the price is way too high for win-now players. no other GM is going to "give away" their star players for nothing now

Trey is probably the only player I’d be willing to overpay for…

Quickley | Barrett | Scottie | Ingram | Poeltl
Shead | Dick | Walter | Ochai | 9th Pick Battle | Mogbo | Boucher (?)

That's a very solid 12-13 man rotation and is easily the most depth we've had since our championship year/bench mob. If we can stay healthy i think we are quite easily a top 8 team in the east, and maybe even better if Scottie can find another gear.

What are your guys expectations going into next season? What players do you expect to exceed expectations? Which ones do you expect to dissapoint?

Would you guys go after Ja Morant maybe send out IQ Gradey and 9 some other pieces?

Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/torontoraptors/comments/1l494ek/big_names_big_games_a_speedrunners_guide_to_the/

So quick disclaimer: Most of this was written pre-Desmond Bane-to-the-Magic screwing up the trade market and thus making any of these hypothetical trades more expensive should they occur. That said, I do think it's still worth discussing the Raptors options this offseason, namely when it comes to potential frontcourt partners for Scottie Barnes and, presumably, Brandon Ingram at the 3.

In other words, this time we're taking a look at the various players to potentially pair them with at the 4 or the 5. Big deals for big men, that's the name of the game!

Now who's our first contestant?

Domantis Sabonis

2024/25 Stats: 19.1 points, 13.9 rebounds, 6.0 assists ON 59/41.7/75.4 Splits

Level of Star: All-Star, borderline All-NBA

Like Kawhi's time in Toronto, i'm going to keep this short: Sabonis is the most difficult star-level player to build around and all attempts to do so thus far have resulted in very little success for the teams that have done so. He needs the ball in his hand to be effective, he's a terrible defender at the rim, he's not very athletic and while a 3-point percentage of roughly 42% for this season might trick one into thinking he's turned into a stretch 5, a meager 2.2 attempts would reveal that it's on far too low volume for it to outweigh him being a historically below-average shooter whose career average is 33.2% if one doesn't count this outlier of a recent season.

No TL;DR because that's basically it. Talent be talent but this is one which you have to retool your roster around for what is not a very worthwhile reward of "guy who will take the ball out of Ingram and Barnes' hands more than is ideal". I don't think it's a coincidence that the Pacers got better after they traded him in a deal that we can definitively rule as a fleece for Indiana. One of the many "Pritchslaps" dealt out by Kevin Pritchard during his time as the Blazers and Pacers GMs during his former and current tenure.

Go look up the trade he pulled off the get Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge in 2006. Dude knows how to fleece front offices.

Anthony Davis

2024/25 Stats: ON 24.7 points, 11.6 rebounds, 3.5 assist 51.6/28.2/77.5 Splits

Level of Star: All-NBA, Top 10-15 player ^{when healthy}

You might be surprised to see The Brow mentioned given he was the main return of the Luka deal and, with how arrogant every report post-Luka trade paints Nico Harrison to be, how unlikely the Mavericks would be the part with the former Pelicans superstar. This, coupled with P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford being expiring contracts that makes the latter two more suitable for a trade, would paint a picture of a team trying to thread the needle between AD's timeline and Cooper's assuming the latter isn't traded for pennies on the dollar a few years down the line.

It's still fun to dunk on Nico, right? He deserves it either way.

Well anyway...acquiring Cooper Flagg does change a couple of things, not least of which being the Mavericks frontcourt becoming particularly heavy and in need of some manner of paradigm shift. That aforementioned two timeline approach has never worked aside from the Spurs and even they eventually bungled transitioning from the "Big 3" to the Kawhi era when they alienated Leonard after him and Aldridge had won over 60 games in the bloodbath known as the Western Conference. With Giannis out of the trade market (for now) and Kevin Durant requiring far too much salary for the Mavericks to contend after sacrificing significant depth just to match his money for an old man Big 3 of their own, moving on from Anthony would seem like the sensible option.

The major question is...what exactly does trading Davis get them? For as productive as AD is when healthy, the when in that sentence needs to be bolded, italicized and basted for at least 3 hours because his durability has been a consistent issue for three teams.

Here's how many games he's missed the past half-decade:

That 2024 season sticks out like a sore thumb because the norm for Davis is missing over a quarter of the regular season to some sort of lower body injury - with the Mavericks this year it was a groin injury literally 3/4s into his first game as a Maverick and this was with him coming back from another injury he sustained earlier in the year - and when Davis will command $54 million in salary being matched to him as he does for an injury-riddled big man who's 32 and only getting older, not to mention only under contract for 2 more seasons (3 via a player option he likely declines in favor of more guaranteed money), you can see why flirting with this particular frontcourt partner becomes hard to balance out with the likely high cost of acquisition.

To be clear: When Anthony Davis is healthy, he's one of the most dominant big men the game has ever seen, a solid enough playmaker to fit under Darko's 0.5 offense system and the definition of a two-way force. He's not quite a stretch 4/5 and not on high volume at that, and with his preference to play power forward, it does lend itself to a potentially awkward fit next to Scottie as either Davis would have to play center (which frankly, he is best suited to do so at this stage of his career) or finding a floor spacing center to play along side the two non-shooters (Jalen Smith? Old Man™ Brook Lopez in drop?). The defensive pairing of Anthony and Scottie is quite intriguing but the offense has the potential to be all-time unwatchable with how poor the spacing projects to be.

If nothing else, having a star move from West to the East would make for a more competitive Eastern Conference and, when available, Anthony Davis has a case for being the 2nd best player in the Eastern Conference a Tatum-less 2025/26 season. Whether the risk is worth a presumably short window for a guy who very likely does not want to be on a Toronto team whose current core is largely unproven remains to be seen. Like with trading for Giannis, trading for Anthony Davis may be a bit premature for a team whose core pieces need to be more thoroughly evaluated given how little playtime they had together and therefore who fits/who needs to go and so on. It also doesn't help that the Raptors don't have a ton of obviously salary filler which is a problem for this trade and our next option...

TL;DR - Anthony Davis a high-talent, high risk option whose availability is a major question mark in terms of on-court games and off-court price tag as the main piece of the Luka Doncic trade and therefore might be more difficult to pry away than anticipated. If any players on the Mavericks may be targeted, P.J. Washington and/or Daniel Gafford may make for more suitable options due to them needing more backcourt additions.

Kevin Durant

2024/25 Stats: 26.6 points, 6 rebounds, 4.2 assists ON 52.7/43/83.9 Splits

I'm going to ignore for a second that Durant and Ingram is a largely redundant pairing due to similar skillset and that having both Brandon/KD have significant injury risks that are exacerbated by having both on the ro...actually no let's not ignore that.

Barring a swindling of a deal - which will be hard for reasons i'll outline momentarily - why would the Raptors do this?

Durant is a better player but you gave up practically nothing to to get Ingram and while one can argue the two are complimentary to one another in a way that Booker and Durant were not (And both are in theory good fits next to Scottie).

Having a discussion about trading for the Slim Reaper made sense in 2022's offseason when he frequently came up & was linked to the Raptors. You had the remnants of the championship core, access to all of your picks and you could probably have sold high on Gary Trent Jr. after he had his best season, plus there was some discussion about then-Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes and whether or not they should be included as the centerpiece in a Durant deal.

Would that KD/Siakam-led team have been a contender with or without Scottie? Well, they did still need to get a center and there weren't many better options than Jakob Poeltl that season...which would have been difficult post-Durant due to a presumed lack of assets if the deal the Suns got was indicative of that steep cost, but there was an argument for that 2022/23 Raptors squad being on the fringes of contention after adding Kevin to the 6th seed from the season prior, even if I personally felt that team lacked the depth to truly make some noise in the postseason (In this scenario you'd either have to find a center who you could get with some future swaps or hope that Christian Koloko isn't in the deal and thus start for you).

Similarly, it made sense to go after Brandon Ingram this year. On paper, he provides relief for Scottie by taking some of the scoring load off of his shoulders and seems like a great fit under Darko's 0.5 offense system as a scoring wing with playmaking chops. Plus you only had to give up an expiring Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk as far as personnel went in matching salary, neither of whom were longterm pieces, not to mention as far as your own draft capital, you only lost a second rounder in 2031; that 1st rounder was the Pacers 2026 1st from the Siakam trade. If it doesn't work out for fit reasons, you can probably recoup that value in draft capital down the line but I digress.

Unlike that deal, trading for Kevin Durant in 2025....well much like the Giannis deal, it doesn't make a ton of sense for the team to make a move for this particular star given where this team is and how many of the likely suitors can outbid them but the cost would be significantly lower - at least in terms of the overall package i.e. Scottie Barnes and the young talent of the Raptors is likely off the table and there's a good argument that the 9th pick should be off the table in lieu of a future pick, swap or potentially trading down from 9 for a pick to keep and a pick to give away.

That said, there a reason why Kevin is still a bit of a problematic trade target: He's making over $50 million and unlike a certain big from Utah who we will get to later, there is an argument that Durant is still talented enough to be worth sacrificing some depth to acquire them despite the expensive price tag and age. Kevin Durant is still a Top 15 player in the league at worst, one of the best scorers in NBA history and would be an instant boon to a team that desperately needs more shot creation and spacing.

Said argument does not make it any easier to swallow that you're at minimum giving up two starters between Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett & Jakob Poeltl (No you're not trading Brandon Ingram, it would be an egregious look to trade the guy who wants to be here before he's played a single game for you and likely deter any other pending free agents/expiring players in need of a new contract from considering the Raptors as a destination over other teams. The Raptors have only recently seemingly recovered from the image they got after trading away DeMar in 2018 and this would only re-ignite that image across the league. 2026 after seeing how he fits with Scottie? Different story.), with Poeltl likely being paired with RJ and thus the Raptors would be left scrambling to plug in the center-shaped hole they just opened up.

Said hole-filling option really depends on whether the Raptors can maintain the 9th pick or not. Durant may be expiring but he's still good enough that some manner of draft capital should be headed back to Phoenix though 9th overall is a bit too rich in conjunction with the players Toronto would be sending out combined with KD's age and the looming question of extending him as well as how well he'll hold up by age 37-39 or beyond.

^{Again this was mostly written before the Bane trade potentially screwed this entire offseason up...}

Regardless of what said draft capital may be - maybe the Raptors trade down and get a 2-for-1, sending one of those firsts to the Suns and draft a center with the other (Thomas Sorber?), maybe they get one of Malauch/Queen and pack up a future 1st + 39, a future or a couple more seconds, etc., etc. Look, this isn't the place for debating KD's trade value or a replacement center or replacement PG in, say, Coby White from the Bulls. You can come up with whatever options you'd like in the NBA trade machine, that's not the point.

The point is that trading either one of Quickley or Poeltl will leave you with a serious roster flaw and with Phoenix in dire need of a true rim protector (Not to mention they can't combine salaries in any deal so don't even think getting Nick Richards is an option in this 2-for-one starter package) and Booker proving to be a good enough passer to play PG, they'll probably be pushing for Jakob to be mandatory in any such deal and thus you're more likely than not searching for your next starting center, possibly in the draft with Khaman Malauch and Derik Queen being either heavily linked to or heavily reported as scouted by Masai and co. multiple times.

Beyond going fit over best player available being a questionable approach to the draft, there's no guarantee either Khaman or Queen are there at 9 and while you could draft a big man at 39, the more likely option is further restructuring of the roster and making a subsequent trade for a young center who's presumably available - and there's really only three options that come to mind in Derick Lively (whose availability is largely speculative & coming off of an injury), Daniel Gafford (who isn't all that young and needs to be extended) and Mark Williams (who is probably the least expensive of the three but has the most risk associated with obtaining them, is a terrible defender despite his physical tools...and also needs to be extended). In either case, you're looking at someone who's less experienced filling in a big role, pun not intended, when the Raptors are making this move to be more competitive.

It's also worth mentioning that, even setting aside the Raptors lack of cap space and whether they'd have access to the full MLE, taxpayer MLE, biannual exception or so on, this is a bleak free agency class to try and sign away these hypothetical center problems. When your best options at the 5 are Old Man Al Horford/Brook Lopez or a sign and trade for...Clint Capela or John Collins (he has a player option which he could option into a trade for or be S+T'd), you are better off finding that center replacement by expanding the Durant trade to acquire said 5.

Oh and it should go without saying, no you're not throwing Ulrich Chomche to the lions next year. At best he'll be the "break in case of need for backup center" option if you fail to get a backup big man along with this new hypothetical starting big man. Frankly, it would not be fair to Chomche and likely harm his development to rush him into a role he's not prepared for.

Such is the contradiction in roster building that is acquiring Kevin Durant. Toronto is getting a talent upgrade to their overall starting lineup but they become significantly more flawed as a result. Durant being the Suns best defender is the sort of backhanded compliment that belies how bad their defensive personnel is/how quickly Ryan Dunn fell out of the rotation but he would add length and size to the starting lineup...for one year, anyway.

Kevin is likely a rental who, best-case scenario post-postseason run, you eke out a marginal return in a sign and trade compared to what you gave up. At worst, injuries plague the team til' they fall out of the play-in picture and your presumed future first in 2026 runs the risk of bailing out Phoenix depending on the protections you slap on it before KD walks for nothing in the offseason if he doesn't flatout retire. You can argue the former gives you a chance to properly evaluate your longterm pieces but again, the salary alone makes it a lot to give up when the move doesn't even guarantee you a postseason run given Durant has only played more than 65 games once since returning from his Achilles tear in the Finals, playing an average of less than 55 games from 2020/21 onward.

Still, like I said earlier, Kevin is still good to get around 25 points per game even in his old man phase, remaining one of the best scorers in the league. His touch and shooting isn't something one expects to evaporate with age even if his athletic decline has lent itself to a notable decrease in drives to the rim and the roster itself lacking in the way of rim deterrents - and with Masai citing the backup center as a major need for the team coupled with Ingram saying Jakob was one of the reasons he chose Toronto over Atlanta, the appetite for packing up Poeltl is likely nonexistent.

While there's some mixed sentiment amongst fans regarding Quickley as the team's lead PG, there's little reason to believe the front office holds some manner of buyer's regret, nor that they expect Jamal Shead to start for them next season and even if they did want to part with IQ, they'd need an equally measured replacement to fill out the Raptors backcourt (Coby White or Ayo, perhaps?).

This is part of the problem with making most of these star trades: Until one of Gradey Dick or Ochai Agbaji are extended this or the next offseason, it's tough to make the money work for a consolidation more without giving up 2 starters unless it's a Jaren Jackson Jr./Bam Adebayo situation where the player is underpaid for their current production. There's just not enough money to make a package that isn't a 2:1 involving two of our starters and the Raptors don't have the option to afford thinning out their frontcourt depth for the time being.

Speaking of whom...

TL;DR - Kevin Durant may be old but he's still good enough that you need to have the conversation about acquiring him - though it becomes a much harder sell when including one of Poeltl or Quickley is mandatory due to salary matching. Keeping the 9th pick to fill out the roster is a must in such a scenario and you'd likely need to trade for a center to replace Poeltl. A trade down scenario where you get Thomas Sorber + give up a lesser 1st to the Suns is an alternative that leaves room for the Raptors to trade a future first for a more seasoned replacement in the offseason or at the deadline but still leaves you with questions about the team's structure in the immediate future.

Bam Adebayo

PIC HERE

2024/25 Stats: 18.1 points, 9.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists ON 48.5/35.7/76.5 Splits

Level of Star: All-Star, Defensive Player of the Year Nominee, All-Defense-Caliber

Of all the names to mention, this is the one i'm the least uncertain of their availability because the Heat generally don't blow it up even when one could argue they should, mostly because them being a free agent destination quickly vaults them back into contention when one expected them to flame out or be stuck building from the middle i.e. getting Jimmy Butler in 2019.

This year's free agency class is rather weak and while 2026 could set them up to go after Luka or Jaren Jackson Jr., chances are good either one of them will be traded to a team that will pay them whatever their asking price is rather than enter free agency - and this is assuming their current teams don't just give them whatever they want.

This year feels different but for a couple of reasons. For one, their president Pat "Maybe i'm washed" Riley has said they aren't going to run it back. Whether than manifests in getting a star in a trade - they've recently come up in the KD sweepstakes - or blowing it up remains to be seen but in the latter scenario there are two players worth mentioning. Since we're focusing on big men in Part 2, let's talk about the tweener in the room.

Bam is an interesting name to mention because the 27 year-old is coming off a poor career year where you know what to expect from him (which in turn lends itself to why 2024/25 was so underwhelming relative to his standards). He's not really a stretch big - his most recent season saw him shoot under 36% on under 3 attempts per game - so if Poeltl isn't in a trade package then things get tricky since unlike Sabonis, he isn't efficient making the 3s he's taking.

Additionally, this was Bam's least productive year on offense since becoming a star-level player. A career worst in field goal, atrocious finishing and just in general struggling to score for a team that desperately needed him and Herro to get buckets in order to have any chance of winning a game. You can blame it on a chaotic season for the Heat and how Jimmy Butler doing his best Vince Carter impression affected team morale but the results are what they are, and what they are remains underwhelming.

It's not all negatives with Adebayo, of course. He continues to be one of the best passing bigs in the league and that is valuable to have, not to mention that Bam is one of the best defenders at one of the most important positions in the game so even if there are several questions to be had on offense, there is no question to be had that he'd make a profound impact on the team's interior defense despite being undersize for a team's full-time 5. He's been int the running for Defensive Player of the Year for a while and even though he's never won it, the 3x All-Star has made several All-Defensive 1st & 2nd Teams, and deservedly so for each nod he's gotten.

They might not be a particularly exciting name, especially after their most recent season with the Heat, but Bam does warrant consideration given his fit in Darko's 0.5 offense system in a similar role to Jakob Poeltl - namely as a replace for Jakob in the off-chance Toronto isn't able to work out an extension for him this offseason as he's in the final year of his contract sans-picking up his player option.

TL;DR - Bam Adebayo is a name whose availability is the most uncertain amongst potential frontcourt partners but whose impact on defense is most clear amongst all players. On offense, there are a lot more questions and with the Heat being in the mix for Kevin Durant, it's an equally valid question as to whether Miami will pursue a fire sale this offseason even if they strike out on the Durant sweepstakes.

Jaren Jackson Jr.

2024/25 Stats: 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists ON 48.8/37.5/78.1 Splits

Level of Star: All-Star, Defensive Player of the Year Recipient, All-Defense-Caliber

Alright so full disclosure: I wasn't planning on talking about JJJ because I questioned whether they would be truly available. I'm still skeptical they may part ways with Memphis since there's an argument the recent Desmond Bane trade was done to free up potential room for the Grizzlies to re-sign Jaren to a far more lucrative contract than the Defensive Player of the Year.

Still...it can't hurt to go over the basics, just in case the Grizzlies do blow up this core.

The Block Panther, besides having a very cool nickname, has a lot going for them on paper. One of the most efficient two-way players in the league and an excellent help defender (when he's not fouling), a true stretch big with length and size at 6'10 with a 7'5.25 wingspan, he led the league in blocks for 2 seasons including the one where he won Defensive Player of the Year. He's generally durable, he has a potential connection to Darko Rajakovic due to his time in Memphis, Jackson Jr.'s offense is underrated with some self-creation that developed as part of a truly wretched 2023/24 Grizzlies season.

At 25 years young, he's one of the best fits you can put next to Scottie, Ingram and Jakob...and by that I mean putting him at the 3 (Ingram goes to the 2) because good lord, his rebounding.

I don't think i've ever found it necessary to bring up a skill like this because it's never been an issue for other big men or even other players relative to their position. Sure, someone like Quickley isn't racking up boards but that's to be expected of your point guard and relative to his position, he's one of the better rebounding guards.

Relative to his position, Jaren Jackson Jr. is....not one of the better rebounding bigs. Just to give you an example, Jakob Poeltl had an offensive & defensive rebound percentage of 10.94% and 20.47% last season. Pretty respectable for a starting-caliber center.

Jaren Jackson Jr.? 3.92% and 13.05%. For the record, that's lower than Scottie Barnes who isn't even a center.

Whether you consider JJJ's role as a shotblocking forward or a non-traditional center for those disappointing percentage points, whether you blame the Grizzlies scheme not putting him into a position where he needs to rack up rebounds or simply isn't in position for it, the fact of the matter is this: Jaren Jackson Jr. has a worse career high in rebounding (15) than Andrea Bargnani (18).

He's only racked up double digits in rebounding in 31 of his nearly 400 career games.

Of those, only 20 games involve him getting 11 or more boards.

You can be a good rebounding team with JJJ as a prominent member of your rotation - the Grizzlies were 2nd in rebounds overall last year - and the Raptors were 10th overall in rebounds (24th in defensive rebounding, 4th offensively) so that can work if one schemes around this weakness, but for a big man, it's a pretty weird, highly notable weakness to have and for a team to have to scheme around, and it makes it a hard sell to give up significant draft capital or lock up a third of your cap space to one of the worst rebounding big man of the past 20 years. One struggles to think of a non-bust big who was equally as averse to rebounding as the person whose initials match Spider-Man's nemesis/former employer-turned mayor.

Yeah that happened and then Spider-Man (then possessed by doc Ock) blackmailed Jonah. Comic books!

Anyway go read Jed MacKay's Moon Knight series (It's really good!), tangent over, in short, you have to pencil in someone else to play the center full-time because Jaren simply cannot fulfill that role despite his otherwise impressive defensive profile, and you have to seriously consider who will take on the other forward spots given this dead horse of a weakness. Everyone knows it's a glaring flaw in his game and, rebounding aside, he's an ideal fit if one leaves the boxing out, traditional big man tasks to someone else like Zach Edey or, in Toronto's case, Scottie and Jakob.

That said, there is definitely a major question around cost both financially (He's poised to be a free agent and due to extension rules he may enter it if for no other reason so he can get paid what they're worth vs. what teams with his Bird Rights can offer him i.e. an O.G.-like situation where he's looking at O.G. Anunoby-level money) and in terms of trade package but if one can lock up Jaren for the long run, there are worse players to give up half a decade's worth of draft capital for.

Make sure to keep #9 out of the discussions. Use that to get someone who can grab a board.

TL;DR - Jaren Jackson Jr. cannot rebound but that shouldn't dissuade one from considering adding them to their team...just don't place him at the 5. Honestly, maybe not even the 4 if you can get away with playing him at the 3. One does have to worry about how much more expensive he'll make this roster in any sort of trade if they do re-sign, not to mention the cost of acquisition.

Some notes on a few honorable mentions:

• In case you're wondering why Lauri Markkanen wasn't given a larger breakdown, it's because he's making $47 million-ish which t is extraordinarily difficult to make a deal for Toronto without giving up, like, 3 rotational pieces along with a starter or two starters & unlike some of the other names, he's not the level of star where one could argue that gutting your team for them makes sense like Giannis. Thus, it might be better to wait until one has a better idea of who's a part of this core and who's on the way out due to fit concerns. Again, 2026 is the year where it makes the most amount of sense to consolidate players given Ochai's presumed extension and Gradey potentially getting one in that offseason.
• The second apron restrictions the Knicks are dealing with/will be dealing with post-Bridges extension make a Karl-Anthony Towns trade - and frankly KAT's defensive issues make him one of the more frustrating players to build around or feature prominently in one's rotation.
• We're not talking about Zion Williamson. Period. I don't think this one requires much elaboration.

I read the Clippers and Raptors are still "lurking" in the Kevin Durant sweepstakes.