Raptors set to end rebuild early with trade for Brandon Ingram

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So long Raptors rebuild, we hardly knew you.

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Just over a year after the Raptors traded away franchise stalwarts Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby, signalling a shift into a building phase, the organization decided to pivot, striking to land Brandon Ingram from the New Orleans Pelicans, NBA insiders Chris Haynes and Shams Charania first reported not long after the Raptors lost to the Memphis Grizzlies. The deal is expected to become official before Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET NBA trade deadline.

Ingram, who turned 27 in September, was the second pick of the 2016 draft, averaged 23 points a game in six years in New Orleans as the key return of the (first) Anthony Davis trade and 21.3 points overall in nine seasons. Ingram excels in the mid-range, but is only a 36% career three-point shooter and since playing in 79 games as a rookie, has missed 32, 30, 20, 21, 27, 37 and 18 games, and all but 18 this season due to an ankle injury. He last played on December 7 and will become an unrestricted free agent this summer.

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In exchange, Toronto surrenders Indiana’s 2026 first round pick (Top 4 protected), soon-to-be free agent Bruce Brown and Canadian veteran Kelly Olynyk, who is owed $13.445 million U.S. next season thanks to the extension he signed with the Raptors after being acquired a year ago from Utah.

Basically, the deal to send Siakam to Indiana became Ingram, Ja’Kobe Walter (drafted with another first rounder acquired from the Pacers) and Ochai Agbaji (acquired along with Olynyk at last year’s deadline for the third first rounder the Pacers surrendered). Toronto will also send New Orleans a second round selection.

It’s easy to see the appeal for New Orleans. They’ve been at a contractual impasse with Ingram for ages now. Trey Murphy III has eclipsed him in the franchise’s pecking order and is younger with a cleaner bill of health (albeit Murphy has battled plenty of injuries himself). Olynyk is a theoretical floor spacer for Zion Williamson. They have done a good job of collecting first round picks and now add another to the war chest, plus get Early Bird rights on Brown, giving them a leg up on other prospective suitors for the former champion, though Toronto gets full Bird Rights on Ingram. While it’s possible Toronto lets Ingram walk after the season, it seems silly to throw away a first round pick and a second and whatever they could have received by peddling Brown on his own. Ingram’s probably part of the plans then. But what is the plan?

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It was supposed to be get franchise player Scottie Barnes a similar caliber of player via this year’s draft by being terrible this season (the Top 3-5 players are all considered potential difference makers). But assuming Ingram comes back soon from his latest injury, the team likely wins more games with the leading scorer from his draft class (a player who also has averaged more than five assists a game with the Pelicans). Unless they don’t plan to rush him and will shut down Jakob Poeltl (who like Ingram and Siakam comes from the 2016 draft class), they are going to win more games and decrease their odds significantly. There’s also the questions of Ingram’s long-term fit on the court and on the payroll.

Assuming he commands somewhere around the $36 million he’s making this season, he’d trail only Barnes in annual salary and with Immanuel Quickley also making north of $30 million, RJ Barrett nearly there, Poeltl needing a new deal after next season if he’s in the long-term plans (they have no other options at centre at the moment), plus the incoming lottery pick’s salary, Toronto will be around the luxury tax, even without dipping into the mid-level exception. With no guarantees of being a contender.

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Plus, a team that desperately needs three-point stalwarts (Toronto is second-last in three-pointers per game and 21st in three-point percentage) instead is opting for a mid-range dynamo. Barnes already thrives in the mid-range. Maybe they can convince Ingram to step back a bit. After all, he averaged 6.4 three-point attempts in his 18 games this season, an increase of more than 50% from the last three season’s averages. Toronto already has a point forward in Barnes and Barrett has become a dangerous play-maker too, plus actual point guard Quickley. Now Ingram will be added to the mix and will be asked to pick up Darko Rajakovic’s pass-heavy, quick decision-making system. It’s not a seamless fit on paper.

Ingram is versatile though, having spent some seasons mostly as a jumbo-sized shooting guard, others as a small forward, with a bit of power forward thrown in. But those injuries can’t be overlooked. Ingram has battled a larger than usual number of ailments, including knee, ankle, toe and Achilles issues. Ingram also missed time while with Los Angeles due to a blood clotting issue, but that has since been cleared up through surgery and shouldn’t be a concern for the Raptors. But his skinny frame and propensity to miss time should have cooled their interest.

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This is a strange one for the Raptors. It’s a bet on talent winning out over any concerns fit or injury-wise.

When team president Masai Ujiri made his two blockbuster trades last season he spoke of how the deals would accomplish “a couple of things, like that we’re trying to do if you put them together, young player picks and flexibility of our team going into the future. And that’s how strategically we have to look at this,” he said at the time.

“(The new CBA) does play into it and for us having flexibility I think maybe speaks louder you know like for us in terms of what could become available in the future, we have to think that way as we move forward,” Ujiri said.

They eventually turned that flexibility into Walter, who has looked like a great selection at 19 overall, Agbaji, the team’s most improved player this season, intriguing rookie Jonathan Mogbo (acquired with the 31st pick, which came in the Anunoby trade), plus the acquisitions made from Sacramento last summer with the extra cap flexibility from the prior trades (these became Davion Mitchell, Jamal Shead and Portland’s 2025 second round pick).

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Ujiri had warned the Raptors might not have the patience to wait out a long rebuild, but few expected such a significant pickup to be made so soon.

“And to beA honest what does a rebuild take? I don’t know if to call this a rebuild or a reset or however we want to put it but a normal rebuild with other teams takes 6,5,6 years. Do we have the patience for that? Do we have the patience for 3-5 years building of our team?” Ujiri had asked.

We now know the answer.

No.

@WolstatSun

WHO IS OUT?

Brown arrived in January 2024 from Indiana in the Siakam trade. The veteran who had started some games and been a key piece of Denver’s championship team the previous season, was expected to draw heavy interest at last year’s trade deadline. But Toronto wanted a first round pick for Brown and couldn’t close a deal for one and decided to pick up their team option for 2024-25 worth $23 million U.S. after not finding a trade in the summer before having to make that call.

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Brown had mixed results in 34 games for Toronto post-trade, 11 of them starts, looking strong at times, not himself at others. As the year ended, he said he was playing through a knee injury that at times left him feeling like he was trying to compete on one leg. A summer of rest didn’t fix the problem and he had to undergo surgery on the eve of training camp, delaying his season debut until December 29. Brown has looked far more athletic and disruptive defensively this season than last and that had teams again convinced that he could help them.

The veteran Olynyk was thrilled to come home at last year’s deadline and quickly signed an extension with the Raptors. But the end of last year was a write-off for the whole team and Olynyk was hurt for a large chunk of his first full year with the Raptors.

But the former Canadian national team captain, who struggled in limited playing time at the Olympics, appeared to have found his form again in recent weeks. He shot 47% on his three-point attempts and 52% from the field overall.

A popular presence in the locker room, Olynyk’s future is uncertain. He could help New Orleans, or he could be flipped to a contender as a floor spacer on Thursday or sometime before next year’s trade deadline.

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