Toronto Stuck in the Middle?

        The Toronto Raptors are a team that aren't good enough to compete for a championship but aren't bad enough to tank for a high lottery pick. Ever since 2019, when the Raptors won their first championship in franchise history, the Raptors have not made it back to the Finals or even reached the Eastern Conference Finals. This past season the Raptors finished 9th in the Eastern Conference which means they qualified for the Play-In Tournament and had home court advantage for the first game against the 10th seed Chicago Bulls. The winner of this game would face the Miami Heat and play for the final spot for the playoffs. The Raptors were the team favored to win the matchup but instead fell to the Bulls thus ending their season. The Raptors led as many as 19 points but just could not hold on. The biggest talk of the game was the Raptors going 50% from the free throw line, 18-36, which is not great especially in a win or go home game. Bulls fans have Diar DeRozan to thank for her infamous screaming whenever a Raptors player went to the free throw line. This would be the longest off-season for the Raptors in the Masai Ujiri era which means the Raptors had some time to think about which direction they want to go from here. 

        They say in the NBA you do not want to be stuck in the middle. The Toronto Raptors seem to be in the middle because they aren't a title contender but they aren't tanking for high lottery picks neither. This off-season the Raptors didn't really do anything to put themselves in position to contend. So the Raptors re-signed Center Jakob Poeltl on a 4-year, $78 Million contract after trading for him in last seasons trade deadline. Poeltl had a solid time in his second stint with the Raptors. This was a bit of a surprise to me, Guard Gary Trent Jr opted into his player-option for the upcoming season. He will be making $18.5 Million. Gary Trent Jr has been a solid player for the Raptors on both sides of the court and he has expressed how he is much happier playing in Toronto than when he was in Portland. I was expecting Trent Jr to opt out of his contract and re-sign with Toronto on a bigger deal but extension talks can wait between Trent Jr and the Raptors. The Raptors signed Guard Dennis Schroder on a 2-year, $25.4 Million contract. Schroder is coming off a Western Conference Finals appearance after his second stint with the Los Angeles Lakers. They also signed Forward Jalen McDaniels on a 2-year, $9.2 Million contract after playing with the Philadelphia 76ers after the trade deadline. The Raptors also added Guard Garrett Temple who hadn't seen much playing time in his last couple seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans. Temple and Toronto agreed on a 1-year, $3.1 Million contract. No insult to the new additions because they are some solid players but they don't move the needle for Toronto. 

        Damian Lillard has requested a trade this past summer after being the main and biggest piece for the Portland Trail Blazers in his eleven year career. Lillard's preferred destination has been consistently Miami and Miami only. However Masai Ujiri is not afraid of taking risks such as trading for a star player despite having no desire to play for Toronto as Toronto has been named a "dark horse" destination for the All Star Guard. Of course the biggest example is the Kawhi Leonard trade. Now we all understand the risk worked out perfectly for Toronto since they ended up winning the championship but Damian Lillard is a different situation. The biggest difference is the asking price. If you go back to the Kawhi Leonard trade the Raptors did not have to give up so many pieces. The Raptors sent Forward DeMar DeRozan, Center Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 first round-pick to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Forward Kawhi Leonard and Guard Danny Green. In a Damian Lillard to Toronto trade scenario the Raptors would have to give up a lot of young players, you can automatically assume Forward OG Anunoby is a part of the deal, and of course multiple draft picks. Then you pair up Damian Lillard with Pascal Siakam but then what does the supporting cast look like? Whatever it would end up looking like it doesn't look good enough to contend for a title. So Dame to Toronto does not make sense. 

        Pascal Siakam has made it clear he wants to stay in Toronto. However the All Star Forward's future is up in the air, sort of. Siakam has been mentioned in some trade talks this past summer and the team to be in constant communication with the Raptors are the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks have shown a lot of interest in Pascal and have made an offer of Forward De'Andre Hunter, Guard AJ Griffin and draft compensation however the Raptors rejected the offer. The Raptors would want more from Atlanta in exchange for Pascal but it might be tough for Atlanta to budge on their offer because Pascal has made it known he is unwilling to sign an extension with any team that trades for him. Pascal Siakam is on the last year of his deal and there didn't seem to be any talks on a contract extension between Siakam and the Raptors which could potentially backfire on the Raptors because Siakam could be eligible for a 5-year, $307.23 Million contract extension if he makes an All-NBA team this upcoming season. Toronto is in a tight spot right now because they aren't good enough to compete for a title and are not bad enough to get a high draft pick so Toronto needs to look at themselves and think what are they doing going forward.