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Just more than a year ago, the Toronto Raptors traded their 6-foot-9 All-Star forward.
It was time — beyond time. The Raptors had already traded OG Anunoby, so Pascal Siakam had to go next to truly hand the franchise over to Scottie Barnes, then in his third year.
After the trade, Raptors president Masai Ujiri was clear on what was coming next.
“I don’t know (whether) to call this a rebuild or a reset or however we want to put it, but a normal rebuild with other teams takes … five, six years. Do we have the patience for that?” Ujiri said. “Do we have the patience for three to five years, building our team? Someway, somehow, we are going to have to have patience. And one of the things that I’m telling you, a hundred percent, I’m not going to BS anybody on it, is I am patient.”
Ujiri’s thinking has changed sometime between then and now. Late Wednesday night, the Raptors acquired Brandon Ingram — he’s only 6-foot-8, hurting the symmetry — from the New Orleans Pelicans for Kelly Olynyk, Bruce Brown, a second-round pick and, funnily enough, the final of three first-round picks the Raptors got for Siakam. It is the Pacers’ 2026 pick, top-four protected. When a member of the Raptors front office speaks on Thursday after the 3 p.m. ET NBA trade deadline, he will say that Ingram’s talent made the cost palatable.
Brandon Ingram trade grades: Pelicans finally part ways with one-time All-Star
That might end up being true, which doesn’t make the timing less bizarre for the Raptors, who will be in the lottery again. They entered Thursday’s games with the league’s fifth-worst record. They have a very easy schedule down the stretch, making them likely to jump a team or two ahead of them. Still, they would have had decent chances to move up and change their outlook.
They still could, but the picture becomes muddier. The 27-year-old Ingram hasn’t played since Dec. 7 because of a severe ankle sprain. The Pelicans had not announced he was approaching a return, although he should be available soon enough. When he plays, he should help the Raptors win more games, which up until the trade, seemed largely beside the point of this season.
Ingram is a fine enough fit. He is the midrange ace the Raptors don’t have, shooting 48.1 percent from between 10 feet away from the rim and the 3-point arc, well above league average, last year. The Raptors lack a player who can get his shot at the end of a lost possession, and Ingram can do that in a way Barnes cannot. Ingram also has improved his playmaking over the years, settling right around six assists per 36 minutes over each of the last four years. He’s a middling 36.3 percent 3-point shooter for his career, but was up to 37.4 percent to start this year on far higher volume.
He has had a reputation as a ball-stopper at times, and we will see how that fits within coach Darko Rajaković’s offence. He has the length to be an impactful defender, but he has merely been fine for his career.
The potential on-court issues do not feel especially pertinent. Ingram is in the heart of his prime and is entering unrestricted free agency. This is the second time in three years that the Raptors acquired a starting-calibre player before the deadline who meets that description while they were outside even a Play-In Tournament spot in the standings.
In 2023 with Jakob Poeltl, there was some logic to it. The Raptors had a veteran core with an obvious hole at centre. It was the front office’s attempt to see if that group could be salvaged.
With these Raptors, the future should be ahead of them. Ingram is by no means old, but he has missed at least 27 games in three of his last four seasons and has played in more than 80 percent of his team’s games just twice in nine years.
The past doesn’t dictate the future, and Ingram could be healthier in Toronto. Still, the Raptors will have a delicate financial dance to do, even though getting off Olynyk’s $13.4 million for next year helps. Without Ingram, the Raptors owe about $137 million to nine players next year — that is without accounting for their first-round pick, too, assuming they keep it. Very few teams are likely to be significantly under the salary cap next year to make Ingram a big offer, but the Raptors also don’t have a history of squeezing their own free agents. Since they gave up a first-round pick to get him, you can expect them to make a strong offer, and that would conservatively come in around $35 million annually.
If the league’s salary cap (and, accordingly, the tax threshold) go up by the maximum of 10 percent, the Raptors will have some room to maneuver. With the NBA’s new TV contracts kicking in, that seems likely. Still, the Raptors will have to think long and hard about whether committing to both Ingram and RJ Barrett, another wing who isn’t a 3-point specialist, makes sense. Barrett is extension-eligible this offseason, although he still has two more years left on his deal.
The hope is that a healthy Ingram helps improve the Raptors’ tepid half-court offence, and the backline of Barnes and Poeltl and can make up for some defensive shortcomings on the perimeter. If Ingram plays his best basketball, the cost of the acquisition will seem reasonable.
It is jarring that the Raptors felt the need to make this move, even surrendering modest pick equity, a little more than a year after they had finally settled on a rebuilding path. The team’s ceiling doesn’t feel high enough to warrant it. Not only does it call to mind the Poeltl trade because of the stage of career the player was in, but also the Rudy Gay acquisition from 2013, when the Raptors added a good but not top-tier talent to a roster that was not ready to win.
These Raptors are not ready to win. They are 16-35. Injuries explain some of that, but not the majority. The Raptors could still get some lottery luck, and then perhaps they will be able to have it both ways, with the capability to have moderate success in the short-term while developing high-potential talent behind Ingram. Perhaps they will move Barrett and reorient the core. There are ways for this to make more sense soon.
Still, this situation called for patience. The Raptors are better today than they were yesterday. They are not better positioned, though.
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(Photo of Brandon Ingram against the Raptors in 2024: Matthew Hinton / Imagn Images)
