Were Raptors wrong to trade Siakam, Anunoby, with both now thriving?

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Just before 2024 arrived, after years of hemming and hawing, the Toronto Raptors finally gave up on the notion that their post-championship core could rise again as a contender. In under a month, the team dealt away top defender OG Anunoby and scoring leader Pascal Siakam, turning the keys over to Scottie Barnes on the court and to then first-year head coach Darko Rajakovic to oversee a rebuild.

Fair arguments have been made, including from this corner, that Masai Ujiri, Bobby Webster and Co. should have pulled the cord far earlier on the group and charted a new path, but what’s done is done.

With Siakam excelling for the upstart Indiana Pacers, now ahead 2-0 against East-leading Cleveland after a miraculous comeback Tuesday, and Anunoby contributing perhaps the best offence of his career, while still locking things down defensively, it’s easy to think that maybe the Raptors should have held on to at least one of them and tried to make it work. Also fair, but Anunoby had his eyes on New York and a bigger role and the organization clearly wanted to move on from Siakam, which still makes little sense, given how good he is and his home-grown Raptor backstory.

Even if they didn’t believe Siakam and Barnes could lead them anywhere because both had been mediocre, at best, shooters, they still treated Siakam oddly on the way out. And it’s interesting to note that Siakam has made an unlikely leap as a shooter since joining the Pacers. He hit 38.6% of his three-pointers after the mid-January 2024 deal, his best mark in eight seasons in the NBA, and was slightly better, at 38.9% on nearly twice the attempts this season. Siakam also helped the Pacers win two playoff rounds last year (including one against Anunoby and New York), shooting 54% from the field during that run. Indiana is 6-1 so far in these playoffs and Siakam has shot a shocking 43.5% on three-pointers, one of the best marks of any player, while averaging 18.3 points. Playing fewer minutes (33.1 a game vs. 38 per game and a whopping 43.3 under Nick Nurse in his final two playoffs was a Raptor), Siakam’s efficiency has sky-rocketed. Injury-ravaged Cleveland is already on the ropes, and Siakam could be playing in the Eastern Conference final for a third time and second year in a row. Not bad. The Pacers hadn’t made it that far since 2013-14 and moved for Siakam in large part with the belief that he’d be an ideal running mate for star point guard Tyrese Haliburton.

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Toronto’s initial trade of Siakam looked like one of the worst in franchise history, but the organization has salvaged it with some strong follow-ups. The Raptors initially got veteran Bruce Brown, two bit parts, a pair of 2024 first round picks and Indiana’s 2026 first rounder for Siakam.

Not being able to get Canadian guard Andrew Nembhard, or solid wing Aaron Nesmith or something else from the Pacers at the time seemed like a big miss and those guys have gotten even better since, but at least management turned one of the 2024 firsts into Ochai Agbaji, maybe the most improved Raptor in 2024-25 and Kelly Olynyk, who was later dealt with Brown and the 2026 first to New Orleans for Brandon Ingram, a former all-star who becomes the best offensive player on the team. Plus the other first Toronto acquired was used to select Ja’Kobe Walter 19th overall last June and that’s looking like a coup, while some of the savings in the deal created the flexibility to land other players like Jamal Shead, who has an outside chance at making the all-rookie second team.

If Ingram manages to stay healthy and productive, the Raptors might even win the Siakam deal in the end, which seemed impossible at the time. But if the Pacers march to the Finals or even give Boston or New York a long series in the conference final, it will be hard to say that. Indiana has already done well in the deal regardless of how things go from here. They got Siakam for next to nothing. Again, it’s only Toronto’s follow-ups that saved it from their end.

As for Anunoby, who just set a playoff career high with 29 points in a Game 1 win over Boston and had three of his other seven best playoff scoring games last round against Detroit before laying an offensive egg in another win Wednesday (he did counter that with four steals and a blocked shot), both sides likely come away satisfied from that trade.

The Knicks were not going to be able to optimize either Immanuel Quickley or RJ Barrett because they had better players demanding the bulk of the offensive touches and badly needed an elite two-way player like Anunoby. They also didn’t want to pay Quickley, a former sixth man of the year runner-up, starter’s money. In pairing Anunoby later with Mikal Bridges, New York found an ideal answer to Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown and good complements to star guard Jalen Brunson. Add-in Precious Achiuwa helped them last year but is now out of the mix.

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Toronto needs Quickley to be healthy to be worth his hefty new contract, and he has to be a lot better defensively moving forward, but Quickley’s impressed in flashes and looks the part of a fine fit next to Barnes and Ingram. All Barrett has done is lead the team in scoring the last two years, while getting considerably better as a player.

Moving forward, the question will be whether Toronto can afford this roster. More likely, one or both of Barrett or Agbaji will have to be moved to keep the Raptors under the luxury tax and away from the league’s dreaded salary cap aprons. If either do go, it will add yet another layer to last year’s pair of mega-deals.

@WolstatSun