Contending in the NBA playoffs has been the standard for the Toronto Raptors for years, but things seem to be trending in the wrong direction for this franchise. Not only did they finish with their worst record since the 2011-12 season, but the Raptors ended up losing their leader, Kyle Lowry, in free agency.
Lowry was an unrestricted free agent and he decided to sign with the Miami Heat in free agency, which was arranged via a sign-and-trade between Toronto and Miami. This was a big blow to the Raptors because they could have traded away Kyle Lowry at this past year’s NBA trade deadline for a lot more value.
The Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, and Los Angeles Lakers were all offering some intriguing trade packages for the 6x All-Star guard, yet Toronto backed out of all of these deals at the last minute in order to keep Lowry.
Well, this completely backfired on them because now they will be left with just Precious Achiuwa, as Goran Dragic is expected to either be traded or bought out of his contract.
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With Lowry now gone, the Raptors are left with Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet as their two main leaders. There is a real case to be made that pursuing a rebuild is the ideal approach. Siakam is a player that has been drawing a solid amount of interest and one team who could look to add him is the Sacramento Kings.
This is a team that has been looking to move Buddy Hield for a while and with De’Aaron Fox emerging as an All-Star-like talent, they are looking to “buy” high-level players to pair with him in attempts to end their 15-year playoff skid.
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Could the Kings actually pull off a trade for Pascal Siakam? If so, it may take time for Scottie Barnes to develop before Toronto is comfortable making such a move.
Let’s take a look at what this trade could end up looking like and what the Raptors could get out of trading arguably their best player now that Kyle Lowry is no longer with the team.
