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It was somewhat surprising to see the 16-35 Toronto Raptors in a buyer’s position with a Wednesday trade ahead of Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline, but they reportedly have a plan in place.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported they traded Bruce Brown Jr., Kelly Olynyk, one first-round pick and one second-round pick to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for Brandon Ingram.
“For the Raptors, they’re trying to have Scottie Barnes there,” Charania explained on SportsCenter (3:25 mark). “They want to really build around him. For Brandon Ingram, last year of his contract, he’s going to find a home, potentially, for the foreseeable future.”
That meant dealing a solid role player in Brown, but it always felt like a precursor to a future trade when the Raptors picked up the $23 million team option on his contract ahead of the 2024-25 season.
Toronto also signaled a rebuild was coming around Barnes last season when it traded both Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby. The team seemed to be building around Barnes, R.J. Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Gradey Dick, Davion Mitchell and Ja’Kobe Alter, with an eye toward the future.
Brown, meanwhile, is the sort of player better suited to a supporting role around star players on a contending team. The 28-year-old averaged 9.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 52 games (11 starts) with the Raptors the last two seasons. And in 33 games with the Indiana Pacers last season he averaged a career-best 12.1 points per game.
He was an important role player for the Denver Nuggets in the team’s championship run during the 2022-23 campaign, averaging 11.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game while shooting 35.8 percent from the field.
In the two seasons prior to that, he added vital depth and versatility for the Brooklyn Nets before the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving experiment blew up.
Yet the Raptors needed more than that around Barnes if they are going to develop into an Eastern Conference contender in the near future, and Ingram provides a much higher ceiling.
It will first require signing him to an extension, but Charania’s report suggested the front office will look to do just that. At his best, Ingram can give the Raptors another go-to scorer, and he is averaging 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game this season.
Durability is a concern seeing how he hasn’t played since Dec. 7 and hasn’t played more than 64 games since his rookie campaign in 2016-17, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Toronto take it slow with his return to make sure he is fully healthy.
After all, his real impact could be beyond 2024-25 as a building block alongside Barnes if the team is able to keep him long term.
