Lost in the reshuffle of NBA trade madness was an agreement that sent Brandon Ingram of New Orleans Pélicans to the Raptors of Toronto. Ingram has been a candidate for trade for some time, but there was never noise as for the teams interested in him or if he was even exchanged before the deadline on Thursday.
Suddenly, in Swoops Les Raptors with an agreement that sent Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, a choice of first round and a second round choice in Pélicans. He’s a bit like a head scratch for a team that has won only 16 games this season and seemed to be a choice among the next 5 in the next NBA draft. If Ingram soon returns from his spraining from the left ankle, this would probably guarantee that the Raptors would be played in a top 5 choice, because the Brooklyn Nets seated just a match in front of them, and the Chicago Bulls – after exchanging Zach Lavine – Be in store for additional losses along the way.
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Sam Quinn
But despite the trade, when they were asked for his reflections on the next draft, the director general of Toronto, Bobby Webster, reiterated on Friday that the team always has great value to withdraw the best possible player in the NBA 2025.
“I think it’s strong. You know that I cannot speak specific to any of the players, but have these players recover for several years, I think that we have identified the draft this year as particularly strong at the top, but also everywhere”, ” Webster said. “So for us, this is the mission n ° 1 now, let’s go out and travel around the world and discover which of these guys – brings me a little tampa year when you start to identify Scottie (barnes) around The time and in a way, how many differences in difference are in the draft.
This is not a Tanking declaration by Webster, and obviously, the addition of Ingram shows that the team does not plan to tank the games for the rest of the season. It actually talks about Toronto’s plan in the future. They now hope that Ingram will immerse themselves well next to Barnes, then they will try to get another high -value player throughout the draft this summer.
But that raises the question of whether it was the best route for Toronto. With as talented as the first three, four players are in this next draft – led by the alleged n ° 1 Cooper Flagg – you would think of the Raptors, as well as all the other teams which are near the bottom of the ranking, I would like Do everything that is possible to position yourself well to get this choice n ° 1. This means not to exchange for Ingram.
Obviously, however, Webster and the rest of the Toronto front office estimated that it was a better idea to get Ingram now. This gives them their rights to birds and allows raptors to re -sign it this summer for more money – and years – than any other team.
The agreement to regain a signage will not be cheap, and if the lottery balls do not go like Toronto Hope, it has now essentially locked up a future of Barnes and Ingram, as well as RJ Barrett, Gradey Dick and Immanuel quickly . We will see if this core of the players are equivalent to something in the future or if the Raptors will regret not to tanking a little more to obtain a more secure place at the top of the draft.
