If winning is the goal, the path to achieve that goal is a murky one, and one the Toronto Raptors will need to navigate in the days ahead.
Some teams would say that winning as many games as you can every season is the goal. Teams like the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers have eschewed tanking in favor of trying to place the best possible team on the floor year after year.
Other teams would say that winning a championship is the goal, so they will subject their franchises to years of intentional losses in order to maximize their chance of building a championship team. The Philadelphia 76ers and Oklahoma City Thunder are prominent examples of this view.
The Toronto Raptors find themselves at a crossroads. They have a young core supported by a few veterans and the optionality to either sell off those veterans and completely embrace a rebuild, or add players who can help them win now and try to push back into the postseason mix as early as this season.
Toronto could try to be competitive as early as next season
If the latter path is the one they take, the Raptors will use their trade assets and cap space to add players who fit with their current core and can elevate the team’s play right away. That doesn’t mean pushing the chips in for aging veterans just to try and chase 44 wins instead of 42, however; the Raptors can still target young players who fit their goals for now and can be a part of what they are building.
With that in mind, let’s look at one trade and one signing Toronto can make to be competitive next season.
1 Trade: Bruce Brown for Kevin Huerter
On the surface, if the Toronto Raptors want to be competitive next season, retaining a veteran player who was recently a key part of a championship would be the play. It’s possible that Masai Ujiri and the Toronto front office talk themselves into that reality and keep Bruce Brown on the team.
What last season proved, however, is that Brown is not a particularly good fit with this Raptors team. His lack of consistent shooting and value with the ball in his hands is negated playing alongside Scottie Barnes, and even more so when the non-shooting Jakob Poeltl likewise shares the court. Even in lineups with more spacing, Brown was consistently bad for most of his tenure in Toronto.
The Raptors would be better served moving Brown to a team that needs his defense, rebounding and playmaking and getting back a shooter in return. One team and player that fit the bill are the Sacramento Kings and movement shooter Kevin Huerter.
Huerter is a bomber, averaging at least five 3-pointers per game in each of the last five seasons and is probably a player who could even increase that volume further. He is a career 38.2 percent 3-point shooter, but he shot a career-worst 36.1 percent last season and found himself moved out of the starting lineup at times for the Kings.
With Keon Ellis taking a step forward and the team trying to re-sign Malik Monk, Huerter could be a player available for the right offer. He could step in and start for the Raptors this season, then transition into a bench shooter role as Gradey Dick develops. Win now, win later.
Still just 25 years old, Huerter would help open up the floor for Barnes and Immanuel Quickley and drive the Raptors toward wins as early as next season.
1 Signing: Isaac Okoro
The Toronto Raptors have stout interior defense with Jakob Poeltl and roving havoc defense with Scottie Barnes. Their backcourt defense is more in the “adequate” range, however, between Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and whoever is retained around and behind them. There is no difference-maker to put on opposing guards to ruin their day.
Enter Isaac Okoro, one of the league’s premier guard defenders. He can pick up an opposing point guard in their backcourt, harry them the length of the court, slither over screens to stay glued to them and contest the shot brilliantly if he hasn’t already knocked it free with quick hands. If you need someone to slow down an opposing point guard, Okoro is your guy.
Unfortunately for Okoro and the Cleveland Cavaliers, they have a lot of guys, and their team is only going to get more expensive. The payday that Okoro is looking for may not be coming, and if that is the case, he could be vulnerable to another team stepping in and signing him away from Cleveland.
The Raptors could bring him off the bench to wreak havoc on opposing guards or even start him in certain matchups to take on All-Star point guards from the jump. His outside shooting has improved but is not a weapon; what is a weapon is his smart cutting, something that will help Quickley and Barnes grow as passers. Defensively he fills a role that Toronto desperately needs to fill.
Neither Kevin Huerter nor Isaac Okoro are game-changing additions. The Raptors would obviously be even more competitive if they signed Paul George and traded for Joel Embiid. These moves represent a realistic path forward, one the Raptors can choose to take to propel them back into the postseason next year.
