RAPTORS LIKE THEIR LINEUP HEADING INTO THE PLAYOFFS
Defending champs stand pat at deadline, Canada’s Wiggins shipped to Warriors
In the midst of a franchise record 12-game winning streak, the defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors opted to stand pat at the trade deadline.
Even though Milwaukee looks superb (43-7, 6.5 games in front of the second-place Raptors), and despite both Los Angeles teams garnering better title odds in Las Vegas, Toronto’s management team decided not to push any more chips in, or even make minor adjustments. Not that they didn’t think about a number of scenarios.
“I think we had a lot of options,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said about 30 minutes after the gong had sounded to end the annual barter bonanza.
“We had long-term deals, short-term deals. Expensive deals. Mid-tier deals (being discussed),” Webster said.
“We had it all. Big trades. Tinkering. Stuff around the edges. Like I said, it was a typical trade deadline.”
But unlike in past years — including 2019, in particular, when the Raptors made a blockbuster to acquire Marc Gasol — Toronto stuck with what’s been working.
Milwaukee, Boston and Indiana did the same.
Philadelphia made only minor moves to add some desperately-needed shooting, while Miami, also in the mix for the No. 2 spot behind the Bucks, made the conference’s most interesting deal — and potentially most impactful one. The Heat brought in former Finals MVP and champion Andre Iguodala, steady veteran Jae Crowder and depth piece Solomon Hill for Justise Winslow and problem children Dion Waiters and James Johnson.
Winslow had a solid year last season, but has missed nearly this entire campaign due to a variety of injuries and was mostly redundant once the Heat brought in Jimmy Butler, who can also play point forward.
It’s uncertain how much Iguodala has left in the tank, but his defensive chops, intelligence and experience should provide a boost.
The Bucks, Raptors and Celtics all decided they liked what they have, didn’t want to surrender certain assets or simply didn’t much care for what was up for grabs.
“It was an interesting year,” Webster said. “The asking price for some of the guys out there was high, and so, like anything, in a trade you have to have both sides agree. and I think maybe the asking price this year was higher than normal, or maybe higher for a different group of players.”
Plus, why mess with success? “Yeah. There’s some of that,” Webster said. “I think there’s always that fear you want to strike the right balance between pushing yourselves to think about the team and think about the construction of the team and the future of the team, but also respecting what this team has done and respecting what they did last year and their growth this year.
“I mean, we’re sitting second in the East, which I think we’re all happy with.
“The good part of it is we know we feel like we continue to grow. We haven’t been healthy all year. So I think, where we are now, we would all take, you know, with some improvement.”
Toronto will look to the buyout market to see if improvements could come from there. Webster said the front office is still evaluating where the biggest needs are and knows it can’t promise a free agent big minutes or a massive role.
“We have probably three weeks here now before the March 1 date (which players need to be signed by in order to be eligible for the playoffs), so we’ll continue to look at it,” Webster said.
There was some action out West, though (and in the East, with Detroit basically giving away former all-star centre Andre Drummond to Cleveland for a sack of potatoes and a few hockey pucks).
Former No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins, of Vaughan, Ont., is heading to the Bay Area, along with a 2021 first-round selection, for 2019 all-star D’angelo Russell, a close friend of Karl-anthony Towns, intriguing forward Omari Spellman and little-used guard Jacob Evans.
The deal got Golden State out of the luxury tax and brought in a potential high value draft pick ( based on how wretched Minnesota has been for years).
It’s a new start for Wiggins, who will be in a winning environment for the first time next season when Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are healthy. He’ll be surrounded by driven veterans with high basketball IQS. If that can’t finally unlock his vast potential, it’s safe to say nothing will.
Minnesota had completed one of the biggest trades in NBA history a couple of days earlier, sending out Robert Covington
(to Houston), among others. It was a 12-player, four-team transaction and new Wolves president Gersson Rosas has now turned over nearly the entire roster from last summer.
Still, it’s hard to imagine much changing in the northern U.S.
It’s a different story in the Canadian North, though. The Raptors didn’t load up, didn’t unload upcoming free agents Gasol, Fred Vanvleet or Serge Ibaka, or OG Anunoby or Norman Powell. They like what they have and think this group has another long run in them.
They just might be right.