Toronto Raptors' biggest mistake at 2025 NBA trade deadline

02/18/2025 03:02 AM

The past three seasons have been tough for the Toronto Raptors. It has been a gradual decline for the Raptors franchise ever since they broke through with a championship in 2019, and now, they’re stuck in a rebuild. For the 2024-25 season, it was clear that their intention was to compete for lottery balls instead of a playoff spot. To that end, they currently have the fifth-worst record in the association, at 17-38, which has them right on track.

However, the Raptors don’t intend to stay down for long. Any Masai Ujiri-helmed franchise knows that remaining prepared in the event of a potential franchise-altering trade is necessary, as this strategy was vindicated back in 2018 when they struck a trade for Kawhi Leonard. Gathering assets is a must, as that is imperative to building towards a sustainable future of contention.

Nonetheless, there are still plenty of questions to be asked regarding the big move the Raptors pulled off prior to the trade deadline.

Raptors start house-flipping process with Brandon Ingram trade

The main thing a team with contending aspirations needs is a franchise-altering talent that they can build the team around. The Raptors, at present, have deemed Scottie Barnes to be that player. Barnes, however, hasn’t been quite as impactful in raising the floor of the team, as talented as he is. Toronto is still in search of the player that would take them from being a cellar-dwelling team in the East to being a consistent contending team.

And while it did come as a surprise that it was the Raptors, of all teams, that swung a trade for Brandon Ingram, this was nothing other than a characteristic move from a Masai Ujiri-led front office. Ujiri has a history of assembling assets and waiting to strike when the iron is hot, and Ingram, at the very least, would put them one step closer to acquiring the next foundational superstar that is made available on the trade market.

Of course, the criticisms regarding the Raptors’ trade for Ingram are understandable. Ingram is an iffy fit alongside Barnes and RJ Barrett, as the three require a lot of the basketball to do much of their damage. To top it all off, the Raptors gave Ingram a three-year, $120 million contract extension, a hefty investment in someone who isn’t exactly the piece that would take them over the top.

The Raptors are playing the long game, even though on the surface, it did not look as though they made a shrewd move by acquiring Ingram. But for the low price they acquired Ingram for, this move could end up being very worth it. They only had to give up Bruce Brown (an expiring contract), Kelly Olynyk (a better fit on a contending team), a 2026 first-round pick from the Indiana Pacers (which should end up outside of the lottery anyway), and a 2031 second-rounder — not a bad price to pay for someone who’s a fringe All-Star.

But for salary-matching purposes and for the protection of their investment, this was a move that the Raptors had to make. Say, for example, someone like Devin Booker becomes available. Ingram stands out as an easy piece for the Raptors to build a prospective trade package around.

There are always going to be health concerns surrounding Ingram, but this was a risk the Raptors had to make considering where they are in the roster-building process. Some might frame this move as a mistake, but Ujiri definitely deserves the benefit of the doubt for being an aggressive team at the trade deadline instead of being just a run-of-the-mill seller like many expected them to be.

Should Jakob Poeltl have been moved?

Jakob Poeltl has been playing very well for the Raptors all season long. In fact, he’s in the middle of the most productive season of his career, tallying 14.2 points, 10.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.3 blocks. There was an opportunity for Toronto to sell high on the veteran center, and perhaps even recoup the draft assets they lost in trading for him.

There was no shortage of teams looking to beef up the center position; in particular, the Los Angeles Lakers are in dire need of a new starting center in the aftermath of the Anthony Davis-Luka Doncic trade. They were willing to trade two first-round picks (one being a swap) for someone with questionable health like Mark Williams; perhaps the Raptors could have convinced them to trade that pick as well in exchange for Poeltl.

Poeltl’s contract, however, is very team-friendly, so it’s not too difficult to understand why the Raptors were reticent to part ways with him. It’s just fair to wonder whether or not it would have been in their best interest to trade the 29-year-old center away at his highest value to a team with a very urgent need at the position.

Where do the Raps go from here?

The most pressing order of business for the Raptors is to win the lottery and find themselves a franchise talent, with that person perhaps being Cooper Flagg. They are still playing the long game after all, and the hope is that the lottery gods finally smile upon them for once.

They have been assembling a solid young core with Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, and Immanuel Quickley, while the likes of Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji, among others, have been earning their keep. Adding someone like Flagg would give the Raptors a versatile two-way cast of young players that should soon blossom into a fearsome core.

The addition of Ingram complicates matters a bit for the Raptors on the roster-building front, but again, this only speaks to the front office’s willingness to arm themselves with the requisite assets to trade for the next available superstar talent on the market. Ingram should also now have a platform to prove himself worthy of the contract the Raptors gave him, if only to prove the New Orleans Pelicans wrong in their decision to not invest in him.

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