{"id":553965,"date":"2026-01-22T21:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T21:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/553965\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T21:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T21:08:18","slug":"raptors-willing-to-part-with-several-starters-in-trades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/553965\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors willing to part with several starters in trades"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, we talked about what the Toronto Raptors could do at the deadline<\/a>. Knowing Bobby Webster, but actually knowing his mentor Masai Ujiri, tells us that it\u2019s a real possibility for the Raptors to not do anything spectacular at the deadline. Instead, they could wait for the summer to make moves. Yet, there is that little possibility that Webster starts his tenure as leader of the Raptors with a bang and makes a big trade before Feb. 5th\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n

As Josh Lewenberg of TSN reports<\/a>, the Raptors seem willing to part with more than one of their starters. Webster has apparently been on the phone with several other teams, tossing around possibilities, and doing what Lewenberg calls his \u201cdue diligence\u201d on checking in on several targets around the NBA. This is definitely a move reflective of Masai\u2019s tactics \u2014 staying extremely informed but not necessarily doing anything. It\u2019s why the Raptors usually end in a ton of trade reports this time of year, because the Masai-now-Bobby method usually involves picking up the phone and having a chat about literally every player whose name is floating around. It\u2019s less about wanting to make a move and more just knowing what options are out there in case you decide you might want to make a move. Something Lewenberg details in his reports as well. We all know the deal in this front office by now.<\/p>\n

Can you see why I hate the trade deadline now?<\/p>\n

Another good point Josh makes above is that sometimes these little check-ins turn into something more \u2014 take Brandon Ingram a year ago. I would have been one to tell you there\u2019s no way the Raptors pull the trigger on that one, and they did. Mind you, the price ended up being lower than expected, which was nice. Another thing about Masai and Bobby \u2014 they know how to negotiate.<\/p>\n

Now, another thing Lewenberg says is that if the Raptors don\u2019t make a move at the deadline, its more because their \u201chands are tied\u201d than anything. Makes sense, given their maybe most valuable asset is an injured Jakob Poeltl. The new-ish part in Lewenberg\u2019s reporting is that the Raptors seem to be willing to part with any or all of Poeltl, RJ Barrett, and Immanuel Quickley. Take this with a grain of salt, though, as the Raptors aren\u2019t ones to leak themselves, and these speculations are more coming from other teams\u2019 sources. As we all know, it\u2019s these players (well, their salaries) that are the most valuable in trades for Toronto, and also prevent the Raptors from making any big signings now or in the summer.<\/p>\n

If I had to make an educated guess, I would say Quickley was the most likely to be moved at the deadline, if anyone does get dealt. I would say Poeltl, yet his precarious injury situation doesn\u2019t make me as confident that teams will bite. With Barrett, I\u2019m sure it\u2019s not off the table to include him in the deal, but it would have to be the right deal. If Barrett is traded this season, it\u2019s because it\u2019s the only way the Raptors get their top choice guy, in my opinion. He also still has a year left on his contract, so it\u2019s a big undertaking for any team trading for him.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned in last week\u2019s update, most of the players that maybe would have been Toronto\u2019s big targets (Young, Davis, Sabonis) are either gone, too expensive, or hurt. Or multiple of those options. We\u2019ll have to see if anything comes up in the next few weeks as teams head into the final days before the deadline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few days ago, we talked about what the Toronto Raptors could do at the deadline. Knowing Bobby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,6,681,46995,10595,680,476,3820],"class_list":["post-553965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-raptors","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-raptors","tag-raptors-rumors","tag-raptors-trade-rumors","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-torontoraptors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115940799733859697","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}