The trading season is rapidly approaching. Though teams can make trades at any time, the trade market truly opens up on December 15th, when free agents signed in the summer become tradeable. This could be extremely beneficial to a team like the Toronto Raptors.
The Raptors were mentioned frequently as a potential trade partner in the Damian Lillard sweepstakes before the Portland Trail Blazers traded him to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Obviously, that did not happen for the NBA’s lone Canadian team, but a trade could happen and help them before the February trade deadline.
At the trade deadline last season, Toronto re-acquired Jakob Poeltl from the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for a top-six protected first-round pick. Being competitive this season is very much in the Raptors’ best interests.
So, who could assist the Raptors in becoming more competitive in 2023-24? A couple of guards from the NBA could assist with this.
LaVine Zach
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, there is ‘an increased openness from both sides about exploring a trade’ between the Chicago Bulls and All-Star guard Zach LaVine. It all makes sense.
The Bulls aren’t going anywhere; their big three of LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic has been more mid-sized than big, and the Bulls only recently extended Vucevic’s contract.
Unless they start a fire sale, they’ll be stuck with a mediocre team.
With Shams Charania’s tweet, a fire sale could potentially be on the way, and if it does, the Raptors should be first in line to inquire about LaVine. LaVine has flaws as a player; to put it mildly, he is not the best defender in the NBA and is a good but not great playmaker.
He is, however, one of the NBA’s best scorers and shooters. According to NBA.com, he ranked 12th out of 36 players in effective field goal percentage and 13th in true shooting percentage among players with at least 20 games played and a usage rate of at least 27% last season. LaVine has the ability to score with the best of them.
The Raptors desperately need that boost in scoring and shooting. Players like Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, and Scottie Barnes can all score, but only Anunoby is a deep threat. He and Gary Trent Jr. may also be the Raptors’ only consistently solid proven NBA shooters at the moment.
The Raptors have the NBA’s third-worst three-point percentage (33.3%). Is the sample size small? Yes, but their three-point percentage was 33.5% a year ago. They desperately need shooting. Zach LaVine is an excellent source.
Buddy Hield
Zach LaVine may be the best scorer available in the trade market, but he may not be the best shooter available in the trade market. That’s Buddy Hield, who is available.
Shams Charania reported a few months ago that the Indiana Pacers and Hield had’started dialogue to work on finding a potential trade’ after the two sides couldn’t agree on a contract extension.
Buddy Hield is one of the NBA’s best shooters. He has a career three-point percentage of 40.2% on just under eight attempts per game. Outside of the Bay Area, that’s one of the best clips you’ll find.
Hield will almost certainly be more expensive than LaVine. Buddy Hield would be a great place to look for more shooting to improve the Raptors’ offense, which currently ranks 27th in the NBA.
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