Toronto Raptors May Look to Trade Draft Pick; Not Happy at No. 5
With the Toronto Raptors moving down in the draft, Bryan Colangelo has now stated that we may look to trade our pick.
"“I’m not happy that we moved from three to five,” admitted Colangelo. “I think after the first two picks, which are fairly clear-cut at this point, it’s pretty murky with respect to who’s three, who’s five, who’s seven . . .but I do like a number of players in this draft in the top seven or eight and it’s pretty clear that we’re going to get one of them if we stay the course at five. A lot of things are in play with trade conversations, preparing for free agency, so we’ll have to spend the next four or five weeks preparing for this process and drilling down to try and really find out who the right pick is for us. It might be the best talent or the best fit for us position-wise. We do have some glaring needs, but we have a very young team and I think we can be strategic with respect to what type of player we’re going to pick. At five you have a little bit different type of pick. Maybe it’s more of a project type of player versus a guy who’s going to come in and maybe be ready immediately. I do think we’ll get a nice players at five. Whether it’s a shorter-term piece or a longer-term piece, we’ll have to see. The silver lining is that the cap charge is a little bit less for the five spot than it is for the three spot, so we’ll try to make the most of that.”
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By reading between the lines, we can reason that Bryan Colangelo already had his heart set on Enes Kanter and is actually disappointed he will have to take either Kemba Walker or Brandon Knight. Hopefully this is because he believes in Jerryd Bayless, who averaged 22.5 points and 5.6 assists down the stretch for the Raptors.
Should we trade our pick?
If the right deal presents itself.
Yes.
What is the right deal is the real question, and does this deal involve us simply trading down or trading out of the draft all together?
Fortunately for us, Bryan Colangelo is the right man for the job and we should be counting our lucky stars that we have B.C to lead us through the draft process this year.
Trade Up or Trade Down?
First and foremost, Bryan Colangelo has to get on the phone with David Kahn and the Minnesota Timberwolves. The T-Wolves are looking to move down at the moment as they are not yet sold on Kanter at No. 2 overall and no other player makes sense with Beasley already their franchise player at small forward.
The T-Wolves are reportedly going to make Jonny Flynn available as well, so some sort of blockbuster could potentially go down between the Raptors and T-Wolves that involved No.5, Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargnani, Leandro Barbosa and a future first rounder for the No. 2 pick, Jonny Flynn and some contracts to make the math work. Not likely, but there is a chance.
If we decide to trade down, we should move no farther back than No. 7 or No. 9 in a trade with Sacramento or Charlotte. A deal with one of these teams would likely involve Jason Thompson or Tyrus Thomas, though a larger machination involving Bargnani may get discussed with the Bobcats.
Obviously, we would all love to trade up, but it is not yet known if the T-Wolves are actually interested in any of our players not named DeMar DeRozan. Trading down should only happen if both Knight and Kemba are on the board at No. 5, which would virtually guarantee us getting him at seven if the Kings took Knight at No. 5. We could take Kemba at No. 7 as the Wizards do not need a PG with John Wall in town. With that said, the Wizards will be looking to move their pick in an effort to move down as well which will cause some havoc.
The Pacers are already discussing a deal for the No. 2 pick that includes Danny Granger going to the T-Wolves.
What does our big board look like now?
Our big board will currently look like this:
Enes Kanter
Brandon Knight
Kemba Walker
Kawhi Leonard
Jonas Valanciunas
Bismack Biyombo
Alec Burks
Chris Singleton
Tristan Thompson
Kenneth Faried
Its going to be an interesting few weeks.
