The Toronto Raptors have been one of the better teams in the NBA for close to a decade, but things have seemed to start to trend downwards over the last year or so. After they won their first championship in team history in 2019, Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green both departed Toronto, then the likes of Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka and others left last offseason.
Still, the Raptors were left with Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby and others to try and remain a threat in the Eastern Conference, but injuries and healthy protocols seemed to end their season before it began. Toronto finished the 2020-21 season with a 27-45 record, their worst since the 2011-12 season when they went 23-43.
Now, after holding onto Kyle Lowry at the trade deadline and deciding not to trade him, the Raptors find themselves without their leader as he went to the Miami Heat via a sign-and-trade earlier this month. The Raptors did bring back Gary Trent Jr. and Khem Birch, but overall, there are a lot of questions being asked about the future of this franchise.
The Raptors could still end up being a solid team in the Eastern Conference with VanVleet and Siakam leading them, but overall, these two guys are great secondary talents and are not primary, perennial All-Star talents like Lowry was. As a result, could Toronto take this opportunity now to rebuild quickly and make themselves a championship contender once again?
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Pascal Siakam’s name has come up a lot in NBA trade rumors over the last few weeks and while the Kings seem to be a team “in love” with the idea of adding him via a trade, the Minnesota Timberwolves are definitely a team to keep an eye on.
Minnesota wants to add more talent and they feel that they are one piece away from being a special team in the Western Conference, so pursuing Siakam should he become available could end up being that “final move” the T-Wolves need to make.
Trading for Siakam would not be cheap for the Minnesota Timberwolves to do, but they do have the young assets and some draft picks that they could include in a deal for the Toronto Raptors forward. Let’s take a look at what the hypothetical deal could wind up looking like.
