While there was quite a bit of activity at the trade deadline, numerous players who were expected to be moved wound up staying put.
At or near the top of that list is the Raptors’ OG Anunoby. He generated plenty of interest around the league, with the Grizzlies, Pelicans, Knicks and Trail Blazers reportedly all in the bidding. Even the Warriors made a substantial run at Anunoby, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania (video link).
Toronto, rather than going into sell mode, brought back center Jakob Poeltl in a deal with the Spurs and kept Anunoby, Fred VanVleet, Gary Trent Jr. and Pascal Siakam, all of whom were mentioned in trade rumors. They’ll now have some hard decisions to make this summer with VanVleet, Trent, and Poeltl expected to hit the free agent market, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN notes (Twitter link).
Here are some of the notable teams who retained key players:
- Perhaps no team surprised the league more by not making a move than the Bulls, Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic tweets. It was anticipated the Bulls might blow up an underperforming roster and ship out some combination of Nikola Vucevic, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Alex Caruso, and Coby White. Vucevic will be a free agent this summer and White will also enter the market, though Chicago could make him a restricted free agent by extending a qualifying offer.
- The Pistons made a splash in a three-team swap, shipping out Saddiq Bey and Kevin Knox and bringing in former No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman from the Warriors. However, Detroit decided to hold onto Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks, Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press tweets. Bogdanovic, in particular, drew a lot of interest around the league but the team’s front office repeatedly made it clear in recent weeks it wanted to keep Bogdanovic and Burks to blend in with an otherwise young team next season.
- Another surprise was that Heat president Pat Riley failed to make a big move. Miami was unable to find a taker for some of its unpalatable contracts (Duncan Robinson, Kyle Lowry). However, the Heat will actively explore the buyout market, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link). The Heat have two available roster spots (and need to fill at least one) and have their $4.1MM bi-annual exception and a portion of their mid-level exception still available to entice free agents.
- The Cavaliers were the rare contender that decided to stand pat, Chris Fedor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer tweets. Cleveland had long been considered a prime candidate to acquire another wing. Thus, the Cavs will ride with Caris LeVert, Isaac Okoro and Cedi Osman. LeVert will be an unrestricted free agent after the season.
- The Mavericks didn’t move big man Christian Wood, Marc Stein notes (Twitter link), even though it doesn’t appear the two parties are close to an extension agreement. Wood had said he didn’t want to be traded.
- The Sixers failed to deal disgruntled wing Furkan Korkmaz, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. Korkmaz, who has fallen out of Doc Rivers’ rotation, had requested a trade.
Ujiri will have a press conference saying he believes in the players he has.
He has no choice but to extend Siakam, Trent and OG now.
FVV gets sign and trade in off-season
Teams asking prices are so high it made it hard to make trades this season. I honestly think a healthy Toronto Raptors team can be dangerous. I would’ve like to see them add a shooter.
They are in last place. They have been as healthy as any other team this year in the east. You have two players taking 50% of their shots and they’re the two players with the worst shooting percentages on the team. This is not a good team
Riley was too busy napping to complete a deal apparently as his lieutenants were trying to get him to give final approval on a deal with LA. HEAT CULTURE!
Pat Riley is a genius and he knows he just have to be patient. Believe me he will go big game hunting this summer. Just get either Russell Westbrook or John Wall off the buy out market and the Miami Heat will be good.
Im surprised OG didn’t get dealt. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them move on up the standings tho. They just had a rly good road trip & are def gonna benefit from finally having a starter level 5 again w/ Poeltl. Still think they shoulda traded OG but they can do that just as easy this summer
OG is a Raptor for life (I hope)
It’s going to take a kings ransom to pry him away
I’m not surprised, because I’m actually in the know. It would take Heaven and earth for the Raptors to move OG, and rightfully so.
No, OG doesn’t get moved this summer “just as easily”. Matter of fact, you seem to be part of the same brain dead crowd who assumed OG would be traded in the first place, or had little idea the astronomical value OG holds.
Casual on, casualty.
Bulls might have missed an opportunity to cash in on Vuc and Derozan. They’re going nowhere this year. Vuc is really surprising since he might be gone at the end of the season anyway.
This deadline could be the turning point in the Raptors near future. Trent and FVV could have been moved and instead they may get nothing. OG they likely should have capitalized on the highest level of interest he will ever have, but so be it
FVV will sign and trade.
Trent is probably staying
OG is incentivized to stay. Same as Precious and Siakam.
All Toronto is really missing is 3PT shooting. Let them get decent roll playing 3D players. Championship team
They are a badly constructed team. Every analyst and knowledgeable bball fan can see it. They have a whole bunch of the same player. How does all the young star potential get shots when the two worst shooting percentage players on the team take 50% of your shots.
How do people honestly say Siakiam is having his best season?!?! He has the worst shooting percentage of his career! He is stat filler..that’s it. He’s going to take 20 plus shots a game whether he shoots 30% or 50%. It doesn’t matter to him, he’s going to get his 20 pt average (coaches can see it too, hence no all star selection). FV is just as bad. The TO organization just got a wake up call.. your players are not as valuable as you think they are. They are a last place team, there’s a reason for it.
The Raptors could be a tax team. They hold the bird rights on all these guys. They could still put together a nice playoff run
Well raptors have Poeltl now. Maybe he can lead them to the finals
TOR pretty clearly wasn’t selling, giving an easy tell in the Poeltl trade with the FRP protection. DET was less clear on its vets, but no energy there either. Second straight deadline that buyers did have to chase. Even so, still cheaper to buy in the off season.
Raptors have dug themselves a hole.
FVV GTJ and Poeltl who stays and who goes?
Poeltl is said to be wanting 15-20mil, GTJ is likely to turn down his 18mil player option and will want 20+mil and same with FVV but in the 25-30+ region.
Then next season you’ll have have the same questions but with OG and Siakim and then Scottie. All seems a little bit to much for a team currently with more losses than wins. IMO you’ve got two many forwards with Scottie OG and Siakim, 1 had to go and OG was the most likely. If for whatever reason you really really wanted to keep him it meant FVV had to leave as he would likely be the most expensive resigning and then you move Scottie to PG.
Now this offseason it’s more than likely 1 of the 3 leaves and I doubt it’s Poeltl. Getting back a decent return will be harder via sign and trade too.
They open up 20 million to the tax line next season. There is room to resign all 3 this offseason. They haven’t been a tax team but they easily could be to start next season and make trades at next year’s deadline. There is still lots of time to make decisions and upgrade the rotation