The Raptors are doing this again...

Last February, the Toronto Raptors had a deal in place with the Sacramento Kings to acquire Domantas Sabonis, but at the last minute, it ended up falling apart because the Raptors couldn't find anyone to take on Jakub Poeltl's contract. Nine months later, things have gotten even more dire for the Sacramento Kings as Domantas Sabonis wants out and they continue to have another disaster class of a season. Obviously, we've been hearing buzz on this for the past couple of weeks, but now it has been affirmed as Tim McMahon came out and said Quite frankly, Sabonis wants out. And if they can move him, they would. And he's also not the only big man that Toronto pursued ahead of last year's trade deadline. As Anthony Davis was a name the Raptors were aggressively pursuing last season. In fact, a couple minutes before the trade to Washington actually happened, a big report came out about how the Raptors were close to trading for him. And last night in Detroit, Anthony Davis dropped 44 points and 13 rebounds and shot 16-21 from the field and Washington still lost. And there are more new reports coming out about Anthony Davis. Given the fact the Raptors were in on him last season and the Wizards still have not given him an extension, more eyes are on an Anthony Davis trade happening half soon. So two stars the Toronto Raptors actively pursued last season are likely to be back on the market very, very soon, if not already there. In Sabonis's case, And... We have to take a look at whether or not the Raptors should pursue these guys again and which one of these players actually makes sense. So we'll lead with the guy that we've been talking about in a lot of recent videos, and that is Domantas Sabonis, who's on a 1-10 team out there in Sacramento and 14th in the Western Conference. I do want to note, Sabonis is not the guy that's dragging this team down. Through 9 games, he's at 15.3 points per game and 14.6 rebounds and 6 assists a night. Since the 96-97 season, no one has finished a season with 15-14-6, now of course it's only been 9-ish games, and he's on pace to do that though, which is a very impressive start to the year. So even though he wants out, he's not the guy that has fallen off for this Kings team, but there's one real worry about trading for Sabonis, as has been the case with a lot of players in the Toronto Raptors right now, and that is his body. He played just 19 games last season, and this weekend against Miami, he ended up sitting with left knee soreness. He said in October that he feels 100% and through 9 games, he definitely has played like it. However, he is 30 years old and signed for this season and next and still owed $94 million. Now, even though he's expensive and does have injury history, he'd fill one direct hole out there for this team. Toronto is dead last in the NBA right now in defensive rebounds at 26.6 a game and 25th in total rebounds. Every one of those is a second shot for another team, and Sabonis led the entire league in rebounding in the 23-24 season and the 24-25 season. Jakub Poeltl is averaging about 6.6 rebounds a game this year and about 23 minutes a night. Sabonis plays about 36 minutes and grabs more than double that. But of course, as we've covered in recent videos, Toronto will not be the only team that's calling for Sabonis. Brett Siegels reported the Raptors, Hornets, Nets, and Grizzlies all have some level of interest. Now, last trade deadline, last trade season, the Charlotte Hornets balked at the Sacramento Kings asking price and went out in the offseason and traded for Naz Reid instead. And as we covered... Brooklyn is the scary team out there in the Domantas Sabonis race, as the Nets have $24.2 million dollars underneath the cap, so they can take Sabonis' salary and only send back about $21.3 million. But the Raptors have one thing that the Nets do not, and that is that they know the Kings asking price, as they almost cut a deal over the line this time last year. At the deadline, Sacramento was open to a deal built around Sabonis and R.J. Barrett. The Kings wanted a first-round pick. But Toronto offered multiple seconds. And according to ESPN's Anthony Slater, it was Jakob Poeltl's contract that ended up dooming the deal. Slater also said that Sabonis would have welcomed a move to Toronto. Nonetheless, both of those trade talks ended up flatlining, and Domantas Sabonis is still with the Kings, and RJ Barrett is still with the Raptors. Nine months later, they're still on those teams, and Jakob Poeltl is still the sticking point in pretty well every trade conversation that we've brought up. And it was affirmed by Brett Siegel that Toronto and Charlotte were the two teams that had real trade talks for him last year. Now, that interest hasn't gone away. So in February, the Kings said, hey, we'll sit on this, we'll wait, we're not in a rush to make a move, and they're sitting on this and waiting, end up costing them. Now, the team is more in a desperate spot as Sabonis wants directly out of Sacramento The team is 1-9 and all of this waiting ended up costing them. But even with that, in October, Jake Fisher was still calling the Kings asking price steep. Regardless of asking prices and trades and all this type of stuff, the money has not changed for the Toronto Raptors. The situation is still the same. Toronto is hard capped at the first apron with about $960 million of room. So to take in Sabonis' $45.5 million, the Raptors have to send out at least $44.5 million. Barrett and Poeltl together come to $49.1 million, and that works out for Toronto. Another way to match is adding Quickly and Poeltl out, which is about $52 million, but in February, the Kings said they don't really want either of those contracts. We covered earlier this week how things got more real when the Kings ended up trading away Nick Clifford on Sunday to the Oklahoma City Thunder, so they now sit at $6.4 million under the tax, and this deal only adds $3.6 million. It also fixes their roster situation as well, as Sacramento currently sits at 13 players on their active roster, and after this trade, assuming the framework, the package of an if an RJ Barrett-Jakob Poeltl deal ends up going through. They're back up to 14, which, you know. And the reason this is attractive is, of course, because RJ Barrett, he's a guy that's an expiring contract, an expiring salary, a guy that can provide some talent out there for that team as well if they are looking to have a good scoring piece. And he's making $29.6 million free agent this summer. But obviously, the reality for any Toronto Raptors trade is Jakob Poeltl is the catch. And even though he's been playing a little bit better as of late, he still owed $81.3 million guaranteed over the next four years and same contract Sacramento passed on in last February But this time, the Kings, they are in a tougher spot than they were before, so they either have to swallow that Jakob Poeltl contract, or Bobby Webster is going to give in and throw in that first round pick that he wouldn't give up last season. So do you think the Raptors should make this a bonus call again? Let me know in the comment section down below. Reports are looking like Anthony Davis wants out as well, as Sean Devaney reports that all indications are that Anthony Davis still wants out of Washington, and that he could force the Wizards hand out there at the trade deadline. As I mentioned earlier, there was a lot of smoke about an Anthony Davis trade last year, as Toronto, quote, definitely had registered interest in him last December, according to Mark Stein. By January, rival teams believed the Raptors had moved some combination of Emmanuel Quickly, Jakob Poeltl, and RJ Barrett for him. But he was hurt at the time with a legitimate injury in his hand, and the talks really cooled off. Then, of course, the Washington Wizards came in at the last minute and stole him away ahead of the trade deadline. The Raptors have already seen the Washington Wizards version with Anthony Davis on this team once. On October 23rd, they held him to 9 points on just 25% shooting and won. But since that point, Anthony Davis has been a completely different player. He's shooting 60.9% from the field over his last 5 games, up from 44% before that. Through 9 games total, he's at 25.7 points per game and 9.7 rebounds a night. Even though he's playing this well, the Wizards are 4-7 and they still haven't extended him. Both sides pushed extension talks to later into the season on purpose. Shams Charania reported that Davis wanted to see how competitive Washington would be and the Wizards wanted to see his health. Which makes sense on both sides because last season he only played 20 games because of that hand injury. The Wizards want to confirm that he is a guy that's capable of being healthy before they commit long-term money to him. Winhors said directly, if he doesn't get a contract extension, then you're going to see his name out there in a bunch of different trade proposals on the market. Washington's 20th game is on November 28th, and its 30th is on December 26th. Prediction markets already have him as being a 50% chance of getting traded. Ahead of the trade deadline, so we'll see if that actually happens. But the price, at least financially, would be very steep for the Toronto Raptors. Davis makes $58.5 million a season with a $62.8 million player option for next year. So the Raptors would have to send out at least $57.5 million. Given our roster construction it is doable, Barrett and Quickly together are about $62.1 million. That is our starting backcourt for a 33-year-old big man that has dealt with injuries over the course of his career, and he hasn't been fully healthy this season. He missed a game last week due to an ankle issue. For Washington, that pitch looks a lot like the Sacramento one. Barrett needs $29.6 million coming off the books next summer around a team, the Washington Wizards, that are building with Trae Young. And there's already a report that's come out saying Anthony Davis would be keen on rejoining the Los Angeles Lakers. Windhorse called a trade back to LA, very unlikely as the Lakers don't really have any pieces whatsoever that they're able to send out to make a trade work, but it is another team with noise around Anthony Davis. With all this smoke, all this noise coming out, one thing is becoming more and more clear. RJ Barrett is going to be the price for any of these trades we're hearing about AD, Domantas Sabonis, or any other stars that are bound to pop up over the coming weeks. Anyone that's watched this channel knows I've been an avid supporter of RJ Barrett and have not wanted him traded whatsoever. The reality is with Kawhi Leonard out and recently Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley out, RJ Barrett's been our most reliable guy. After 10 games, he's averaging 21.3 points a night. He's scored at least 19 points in 9 of 10 of our games so far this season. The only miss was a 9-point game against the Magic on October 30th. I want a team that's five and five right now and more importantly has dealt with so many injuries and have ongoing injury risks with a lot of their players. A guy that's as reliable as RJ Barrett can't be just a throw-in piece that you throw in to make a trade work. He wouldn't be the only piece going out. In the Anthony Davis version of the trade Emmanuel quickly would go as well and he's averaging 17.4 points per game 5.8 assists. Sure he's inconsistent but he'd be pretty weak out there in terms of depth at the point guard spot with him on the way out. You put two of those guys together, that's 38.7 points a game, going out for Davis's 25.7. And in the Sabonis version of the trade, Poeltl's going out as well. I know people. Would dream of getting off of that Jakob Poeltl contract, do not get me wrong, but especially as of late, Jakob Poeltl has been a bit better defensively for the Toronto Raptors, and he's put in 37 points, 18-26 shooting over his last two games. This isn't me campaigning to keep Jakob Poeltl, but he has definitely been better as of late. If you put two of them together, RJ and Poeltl, Toronto's a plus 8.4 with Poeltl and Barrett on the court, and a minus 10.6 when Poeltl plays without him. But the most important thing about all this discourse is the roster is already stretched thin. Kawhi has missed the last eight games for the Raptors. With Kawhi, Scottie Barnes, and Immanuel Quickley all in the lineup, the Raptors are 2-0. But when they are out, this team, or at least when Kawhi is out, the team is 3-5. This is a reality the Raptors are going to have to deal with this entire season. There's a lot of injury-prone guys, a lot of older guys. There's also questions about the depth on this roster that May have plucked its head up out there in that Memphis Grizzlies game that the Raptors are really going to have to reconcile over the coming months. Now there's one upside to these types of deals and that is the money side. Either deal sends out about $3.6 million more than it brings in. So Toronto has room under the apron. It grows from 1 million to about 4.6 million, which allows them to sign a minimum contract player. And open up a two-way spot, give a two-for-one, there's a lot of options, there's a lot of things the Toronto Raptors could do with that extra space. But I do want to briefly touch on the biggest name of them all, as rumors are starting to escalate around one of the league's best players. As there was a headline that came out of Denver today, revealing that Nikola Jokic signing is an open thing and is definitely not guaranteed. On the same breath of this report, it said that Jokic is very likely to go back to Denver. And Jokic said it himself out there at media day, I'm going to sign next year if they want me. Of course, every team in the NBA would want Nikola Jokic. He put up 32 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists against the Raptors last week, and a 19-point Denver win. Sure, Denver's only 5-4, 10th in the Western Conference right now, and that slow start is the only reason this is becoming a headline at all. But Jokic, has never turned down these extensions he's never turned down this kind of money and the nuggets can offer him five years 359 million dollars and denver's the only team that can offer that fifth year but while there was moments maybe where it looked more possible the reality is at this time Jokic leaving Denver is extremely unlikely and the Raptors actually being the team It's probably a fantasy. So these reports for big men are going to land him as a hard-capped roster to continue to come up for the Toronto Raptors, with Sabonis and Anthony Davis being the two realistic options out there on the market. Personally, I think it'd be stupid for the Toronto Raptors to make one of these decisions right now. This might contradict what Sacramento just did, trading away Nick Clifford and opening up that roster spot and the extra flexibility to make a deal happen within the next two weeks because they need to get back to 14 players on the roster or else they're not abiding by the league's rules. So the signs are pointing to a trade with the Sacramento Kings, at least the Kings trading away Sabonis, given his current frustration with the organization, that feels all the more likely by the day, but personally, I'm just not sold on giving up RJ Barrett, even if it gets you off of Jakubrdo's contract, I'm just not a big believer in that being the move that changes this team. The AD one is an even bigger risk because of course he can just walk out there if he chooses to in the offseason, but more importantly he's looking for a massive extension and the Raptors extending him for multiple years at just a ludicrous contract. Puts this team in an even worse spot than they probably were with Yak, RJ, or whatever combination of players you'd have before it. I'm not saying a Sabonis deal wouldn't make sense, you know, come closer to the trade deadline, but right now, that Grizzlies game was a real eye-opener in terms of the depth of this roster, and giving up two pieces for the price of one, given how many injuries this team has had, and they're going through, and they're going to be going through over the course of the season. I'm not sold on this being the perfect move here right now. Let me know in the comments if both are available to you tomorrow. Would you go after Domantas Sabonis or Anthony Davis? I want to hear from you in the comments. And if you want my reaction to the Raptors-Memphis Grizzlies game, check out this video right here.