Raptors Spoon Fed a Golden Opportunity...

This summer, the Charlotte Hornets traded LaMelo Ball to get Nas Reid. 11 games later, reports are coming out the possibilities of Nas Reid getting traded again. And the Raptors need exactly what Nas Reid brings to the table. Toronto's making just 32% of its threes, which is 27th in the entire NBA. And obviously, our starting center, Yaka Pirtle, has not made one this entire season. A big who takes seven threes a game would open up this entire offense. The big question is if he can hold his own out there on the defensive end within the Toronto Raptors schemes where they end up driving a lot of people to the rim with their aggressive ball pressure, then he would be absolutely the perfect fit for the Toronto Raptors. So when the deal for Nas Reed went down on June 25th, Shams reported that Charlotte was already getting calls on Reed, but the plan was to keep him. Charlotte also got a 20-33 first round pick, three pick swaps, and three seconds in that deal with Minnesota where they obviously they sent out LaMelo Ball. But it seems that plan to keep him only lasted 11 games. Charlotte is currently 4-7 on the season, and nobody in the NBA scores less efficiently, just 103 points per 100 possessions, which is dead last. He's started all 11 games for the Hornets, and Charlotte has won just 4 of them. And it isn't Reid, he's putting up career highs, 17.4 points per game, and 8.5 rebounds a night. He dropped 28 in Brooklyn last week, and 25 points with 13 rebounds and a win over Cleveland on Monday. But on October 28th in Detroit, Charles Lee sat him for the entire second half. Lee said he didn't meet their standards in the first half, and Scott Fowler reports the two have mended fences since. But the Charlotte Hornets are 4-7 right now. 11 games in the season, they're already butting heads with the head coach, Nas Redar. Of course, this team is built around Conk and Nipple and Brandon Miller. And if there was speculation about him trading as soon as he got there, and then this stuff is already starting, More and more reports are going to come out about Nas' trade possibilities. The market's already there. Reports have indicated that Boston has already tried to chase him for months, and his name came up in their Jalen Brown trade talks in Charlotte this summer, but before, of course, he was dealt to the Philadelphia 76ers. So the Toronto Raptors are going to jump in on this. The price is going to be pretty significant. But nonetheless, the fit that he'd be out there on this Raptors roster, if the Charlotte Hornets are making him for sale, the Raptors have to be calling. Nasri does the one thing on this Raptors roster that basically no one else on this team can do. This season, he's taking 6.73s a game and making 36.5% of them. And for a big man, that is a huge value add. Against the Miami Heat last month, he made 5 for 8 of his 3-point shots. And in the 23-24 season, the year he won the 6th man of the year award, he actually shot 41% from 3 on 5 attempts per game. It held up when it mattered as well. He shot 40% from 3 in last spring's playoffs. And then we can look at Toronto. Last season, the Raptors are 21st in three-point percentage, and this season they are 27th, and they're 22 second in attempts at 35.9 a game. This is not just some cold stretch to start off this season. The Toronto Raptors are objectively a rough shooting three-point team. Now, Kawhi Leonard has only played two of 11 games so far, so the best shooter on paper hasn't been there to fix it. And a couple of their guys that shoot a high volume are... Shooting below their career averages. I mean, RJ Barrett's making just 26% of his threes this season, and Emmanuel Quigley is just at 31. There's only two players out there in the regular rotation shooting above 35%, and that is Jacoby Walter and Jameson Battle. Obviously, Scotty Barnes is having a great season scoring the basketball, but not specifically shooting it. And most of his buckets are coming in the lane. I mean, he's taking close to 17 two-point shots a night. Which is, you know, most of his shots are going up straight in those crowds. Which, honestly, I don't mind. I've been on rants about this in these videos. Of course, when you have a player as effective as Scotty Bards, you don't mind him scoring in the paint. But you want players around him that complement your top guys. And one of the big standouts, you know, in terms of this discourse is Jakob Pertl, who doesn't shoot the three ball whatsoever. So unless the Raptors get crafty on offense, the defender just leaves Yaka Pirtle and he sits in the paint waiting for his Barnes to throw a handoff. Then you get dropside help and it's not the ideal offensive structure and offensive balance. But if you put Nas Reid out there at the big man position, then his help defender is either going to help in the paint and leave him open from behind the three point line or stick to Nas Reid and then give up open lanes for Scottie. And Nas Reed can play the four or the five. So even if they end up keeping Gakka Purtle, there are moments when they could play both those guys together. Because Nas Reed is definitely mobile enough to catch the ball out there at the three-point line, drive past the defender, do different stuff. We've seen that with the Minnesota Timberwolves for years. But if the Raptors are going to make a trade like this, the defense is going to matter significantly in terms of the decision-making of making this move happen. On some great defensive teams in those Minnesota Timberwolves squads. The Wolves are first in defensive rating in the 23-24 season, they were 6th the year after, and 8th last year. Now the easy answer to say is, oh it was all those elite wing defenders and of course Rudy Gobert out there in the paint. But in all three of those seasons, Minnesota actually gave up fewer points with Reed on the floor than with him off. And in his 6th man of the year season, it was 108 points per 100 possessions with him and then 111 without. Now, the Wolves loved playing Nas Reed and Rudy Gobert together, so that should be noted. It definitely tells you that he wasn't a leak out there on the defensive end. But now he's gotten to the Charlotte Hornets, and obviously there's no multi-time defensive player of the year behind him. And this season, the Hornets give up 116 points per 100 possessions with Reed on the floor versus 114 with him off. His blocks are also down to start off the season to just half a game and half of what he had last year in Minnesota. His defensive box plus minus went from plus one last season to minus 1.4 this year. So this is a pretty clear indication to who Nas Reid is on the defensive end of the floor. He's not the anchor that's going to uplift your defense, but he can be an effective partner to anyone out there that's a good defensive squad. Next to a real rim protector, Nas Reid has been a crucial piece to three seasons of top 10 defenses in the NBA. But if he's asked to be that anchor, asked to be that core piece, then. He's not going to live up to those expectations. Realistically, if the Toronto Raptors are going to make a move for another big man center, we know Bobby Webster, Darko Rajakovic, they're going to want someone that's going to be able to protect the paint. Because in theory, Jakub Pertl is supposed to be that guy, but obviously hasn't lived up to the expectations himself over the past season or so. But even with how bad Pertl has been over the past couple injury riddled seasons, last season, Toronto had the fifth best defense in the league, three spots ahead of Minnesota. Obviously, Pertl was injured for a chunk of last year, but he was still the defensive anchor for that team. This season, they have slipped to 12th, however, and just from the eye test, you can see where having a more elite rim-protecting big man would be such a crucial piece to this Raptors defense, given how aggressively they hawk the ball. In theory, you could say, hey, the perfect fit, the perfect matchup would be Nas, Reid, and Jakob Pertl out there on the court together. Might not be the vision a lot of people have when they look at Nas read trade rumors and picture Stretch 5 that could open up the lanes for Scottie Barnes. But in theory, it might not be the worst idea in the world. In theory, it could help the Toronto Raptors rebounding, help them out there on the defensive end where they foul so much, so having another big body to throw in there at the 4 and 5 could be an effective piece. And obviously, you're still getting that shooting, so you could, whatever possession you want, throw them out there at the 5 and have that floor spacing for your guards. The Raptors have made this exact same kind of move before. At the 2019 trade deadline, the Raptors sent Jonas Valanciunas to Memphis for Marc Gasol. With all due respect to the mantra of death taxes and JV threes, Jonas Valanciunas was a big man that lived mostly in the paint, and they ended up acquiring a guy that was more of a floor spacer out there, Marc Gasol. Obviously, that season, Marc Gasol made 44% of his threes in 26 regular season games in Toronto. And it held up in the playoffs too, as Gasol shot 38% on almost four attempts a game out there in the postseason, while guarding Joel Embiid and Giannis. Kawhi had room to work, Pascal had lanes to drive through, and we all know how that ended up working out for the Toronto Raptors back in that 2019 season. But it needs to be noted that Nas Reid is not Marc Gasol. Gasol was a former defensive player of the year, and on top of the elite shooting was a great passer and a guy that was the perfect fit for that team. So even though the idea is the same, you're not getting that same upside you had when you made that move back in 2019. Obviously, that Gasol trade cost the Raptors their starting center. There's permutations of this deal that might not be as expensive for the Raptors. And that's the second reason this fits, because the Toronto Raptors right now are in really rough shape health-wise. Purtles played 50 games, 57 games, and 46 games over the past three seasons. That's 93 games missed in three years. While Nas Reed has kind of been an Ironman out there for the T-Wolves, playing in 81 games, 80, and 77, missing just 8 games in that same 3-year span. But Pirtle's still on this roster after a Nas Reed trade, then Reed can slide in there right at that 5-man position and give us that floor spacing even if we sacrifice some stuff out there on the defensive end. And we've talked about big man depth a ton over the course of this season. Behind Pirtle right now, it's CMB. Rookie Alan Graves has been playing the big man spot randomly over the course of the season. And then, of course, Trace Jackson Davis, who is a guy that Darko Ryokovic just doesn't give a lot of opportunities to. As we know, CMB is not the most elite three-point shooter. Graves has been hitting more as of late, but both of them are under 32% from the three-point line this year. Trace Jackson-Davis doesn't shoot them at all. With Kawhi Leonard's knee injury still keeping him out for an undefined period of time, and he'll be in and out of the lineup this entire season, boosting up the frontcourt would definitely help the Toronto Raptors. So that's one of the biggest, most valuable pieces, in my opinion, to acquiring Nas Reid, because the Raptors are filled with guys that are in and out of the lineup constantly, and the track record shows it. Maz Reed is a player that, knock on wood, has stayed healthy for most of his entire career, especially over the past few seasons. The Raptors need a guy like that that can eat innings for your squad and not risk injury. This is definitely the kind of player that you pay for, but what would the cost actually be? This is where it gets tricky, because Toronto's hard capped at the first apron, $209 million for the rest of the entire season. Less than a million dollars under that line, the Raptors have to send out at least as much money as they take back. Nasreed makes $23.3 million a season and then $25 million then $26.7 million with a $28 million player option after that. Now honestly I don't think that contract is that bad whatsoever but the issue is the Raptors have a lot of long-term money on the books so fitting him in out there to this squad can be a bit tricky and handcuffs you a little bit for future seasons. Obviously the first name that people look at for these potential trades is Yaka Pirtle going out and another big Big man coming in. And if I thought Yaka Pirtle had a bit more trade value, I'd be more bullish on that trade actually happening. But if we're getting Nas Reed, I think it has to be another permutation of this package because. I don't see us getting Nas Reid and getting off of Jacoperto's contract without adding multiple picks, which would make this a little bit tougher for the Raptors. There's two contracts we're looking at that could actually make this work. The first option is Emmanuel Quickly at $32.5 million a year through 2029. If you swap him for Reid, Toronto saves $9.2 million, enough to drop under the luxury tax. That also matters to the rest of the rosters. Toronto's carried 14 players all season because they had no room under the apron to sign a 15th. So if you drop 9 million bucks, then that roster spot's gonna be easy to fill. Now, Quickly is scoring 16.7 points a game, and he's making just 31% of his threes this season. And Reid's guaranteed money ends the same summer as Quickly's in 2029, so Toronto isn't adding any years to this deal. Next season alone, Reid would cost $7.5 million less than Emmanuel Quickly. Obviously, the catch in this is the Hornets already have Kobe White, they have Dennis Schroeder, who isn't any team's long-term option, but they do have a couple guards already on this roster, so quickly three years is a harder sell. Option two for the Raptors in this case is RJ Barrett, who is an expiring contract. This is, of course, the player that other teams are going to be most interested in, as a 4-7 team has the opportunity to get money off the books and also a very high-quality player to integrate in their current roster. They'd have turned LaMelo Ball into picks, swaps, and a clean summer to build around Miller and Knipple, and Toronto would still save $6.3 million and get under the tax. So again, that's the deal the Hornets are really going to push for, but you know how I feel about trading RJ Barrett. So I'm personally really pushing for a manual quickly deal, and then the Raptors attach some draft pick compensation because we know that's what the Hornets are really interested in stockpiling after that LaMelo Ball trade. In either of these cases, Charlotte can take on the money. With dead money, they're looking at $179.8 million, about $29 million under the same apron. The Raptors have three tradable second-round picks, so the Raptors are able to attach all of those and Emmanuel quickly out there to the Hornets, take on that Nas Reed contract. That's a deal that I would run with if I'm the Toronto Raptors. And again, that's going to require Bobby Webster to have some motion out there in the negotiations out there with the Hornets front office. And this Hornets team. They are stockpiling draft capital, so you need to play to their needs. Quickly in pick scenario, the Raptors would keep RJ Barrett. They'd also have the potential of a decent defense of frontcourt out there with Pirtle and Nas Reed, assuming Yaka Pirtle could stay healthy, and they'd duck under that luxury tax. Of course, Yaka Pirtle is no Rudy Gobert whatsoever, but that style of defense has been effective for one of the best teams in the Western Conference. We'd have to be trusting in Jamal Shedd, Jacoby Walter to carry the guard load. Obviously, Scotty Barnes would be the de facto point guard for a lot of these stretches as well, but it puts the Raptors in an interesting spot. My only worry is teams like Boston, other squads out there in the league are going to try to trade for Nas Reed and jump onto this, so the Raptors might be forced to jump in with a first round pick in order to make a deal like this happen. Let me know what you would send out there for Nas Reed. Would you trade Emmanuel quickly in a first round pick to acquire him, or would you give Give up RJ Barrett and. A couple seconds in order to make that deal go down. Let me know in the comments down below or your other trade packages. I love hearing what you guys have to say. And if you want some of the latest news from the Raptors, check out this video right here.