{"id":576836,"date":"2026-02-02T07:37:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T07:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/576836\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T07:37:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T07:37:36","slug":"raptors-inconsistencies-lead-to-questions-ahead-of-trade-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/576836\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors\u2019 inconsistencies lead to questions ahead of trade deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

About a week ago, we talked about how the Toronto Raptors\u2019 West Coast road trip \u2014 mainly the success of it \u2014 had the potential to change trade deadline plans for the front office<\/a>. Since returning home from that West Coast swing, the Raptors have lacked punch. After the excellent play out West had the potential to change plans, does this recent poor stretch of basketball continue to change plans ahead of Thursday\u2019s deadline?<\/p>\n

Last Friday, the Raptors faltered in the fourth quarter against the Orlando Magic, completely losing the momentum they had built in the previous three quarters. Against the Utah Jazz, the Raptors again lacked offensive energy, not at all playing to the level they should have been.<\/p>\n

Even with the hype of Scottie Barnes finding out he\u2019s an All-Star mid-game<\/a>, the Raptors looked discombobulated as they tried to overcome an injured and tanking Jazz team. While they recovered in the 4th quarter, it was more of a skirt by a much worse Jazz team instead of the emphatic win that may have been expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is amazing, no one around the league had doubt that he deserved this,\u201d Darko Rajakovic said after the game about Barnes\u2019s All-Star nomination. \u201cThis is not the best Scottie Barnes you will ever see. I know how hungry he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that coaches around the league have a lot of appreciation for the way Scottie plays.\u201d Darko continued. \u201cI think everyone else is lacking appreciation for the way he plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t had time to think about it, but I\u2019m excited for it,\u201d Barnes said himself. The announcement from the league happened right as the Raptors game started tonight, and he found out midgame.<\/p>\n

Despite the weirdness of the game itself, the Raptors still came out with the win. In a 107-100 victory for the Raptors, RJ Barrett led all scorers with 21 points, Mamukelashvili had 20 off the bench, and Ingram had 19 points of his own. A win is a win.<\/p>\n

Still, you can\u2019t help but think about what the Raptors could be cooking up ahead of the trade deadline when things are still looking weird offensively. With only days to go until Thursday\u2019s deadline, there is still a lot of time for multiple deals to happen, but also for things to change. Everything is fluid until 3 p.m. on Thursday hits.<\/p>\n

Among the glaring needs for Toronto as we approach the deadline are depth in the frontcourt as well as shooting ability. With Jakob Poeltl\u2019s ongoing injury problems, the Raptors are lacking power and height under the rim. Yet, Poeltl\u2019s injury may be what hinders the Raptors this trade deadline most, as his lofty contract would be hard to move regardless, not to mention the fact that he\u2019s injured.<\/p>\n

RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley are other names floating around as well, two of the Raptors other big ticket contracts. Including them in any deals the Raptors do gives the team more flexibility when it comes to money.<\/p>\n

Still, as we know, this franchise doesn\u2019t like to do much moving at the deadline. The more likely scenario ahead of Thursday is for Toronto to just do a few smaller transactions and call it a day until free agency later in the year.<\/p>\n

The Raptors will now have a few days to practice and rest before they are back in action Wednesday and Thursday at home. We\u2019ll see if anything big happens before their next game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About a week ago, we talked about how the Toronto Raptors\u2019 West Coast road trip \u2014 mainly the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,6,681,46995,53472,10595,680,476,3820],"class_list":["post-576836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-raptors","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-raptors","tag-raptors-rumors","tag-raptors-scores","tag-raptors-trade-rumors","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-torontoraptors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115999897725285563","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576836","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=576836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}