LATEST:TORONTO NEWS:Star of the Raptors Scottie Barnes’ emotional response to the transfer of Pascal Siakam…
Scotties Barnes began hisNB A career as a member of the Toronto Raptors, where he played with Pascal Siakam. Barnes found it difficult to remain unbiased upon learning about Siakam’s move.
In exchange for Siakam, Toronto traded three first-round draft selections to the Indiana Pacers. Barnes is aware that trades occur in the NBA and that it is a business. He is sorry to see Siakam depart, but he understands he has to take the reins and guide the Raptors without him, according to Sportsnet’s Savanna Hamilton.
“I held him in high regard. Having spent his whole life here, he had great significance for this organisation. All of his hard work, devotion, and effort in this situation. He was always kind towards us. As a brother, I adore him. Even if it hurts, you have to keep battling and going on.
Toronto is still at 16-25 on the season, despite their most recent victory against the Miami Heat. As the Raptors prepare for a gradual rebuild, they had already dealt away OG Anunoby. Given that Siakam will become a free agent after the 2024 season, a trade looked imminent.
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A look at the rosters of the Bulls and Raptors: chaos vs continuity
Among the several alarming statements made by Arturas Karnisovas, I often revisit this one after the Bulls’ inaction at the most recent trade deadline:
You may learn from history that many moves made around the trade deadline don’t benefit you in the long run. (Trades) will most likely benefit you in the summer and during the draft as they provide you more time to assemble the club.Making these kinds of adjustments is challenging because you have games remaining when you need to be consistent and the guys you bring in are still shocked.
Though AK gave an example of his own trade for Nikola Vucevic three years ago, I would suggest, “please resolve this past trauma from an in-season trade so it helps you do your job.”
Clearly, a terrible choice, despite his valiant attempts to convince himself differently. However, the player objective is more important than the idea behind it. You need to get a stronger player than Vuc if you want to invest future assets to advance to the playoffs and keep betting on yourself to devalue those draft selections. Additionally, it’s critical to already have a superior player on your squad.
It takes us to the news of the significant deal that occurred yesterday between the Toronto Raptors and the Indiana Pacers, who play the Bulls today. The counterpart of Vuc in this transaction is Pascal Siakam. I felt that the Pacers had overpaid, similar to the Bulls’ purchase of Vuc, but there are two significant differences: Siakam is a stronger player than Vuc, and Tyrese Halliburton, the team’s current star, is a better player than Zach LaVine was for the Bulls in 2021.
From the look of the sellers in that transaction, the 2024 Bulls and 2024 Raptors are similar. There are a few significant distinctions between LaVine and Siakam, but the Bulls still need to decide on a big-money experienced player (::KC scoffs, “No! Zach is under contract and a good teammate, he can be moved in the offseason!”::). Once again, Siakam is superior (or at least has a more valuable/rare skill set) and is not saddled with a massive three-plus year deal. Thus, it makes logical that the Bulls are attempting to thread this needle of being cheap and naive while he will have a higher trade value and make it easier for the Raptors to transfer him.
You might also argue that both the LaVine-Bulls and the Siakam-Raptors would be better off without their “star.” This is another way in which the two teams are similar. The absence of LaVine has given Coby White, who is in a similar situation, more opportunities, as we have seen, and the Raptors were almost begging for it with Scottie Barnes.
(There’s another distinction in this case: Barnes is a much greater potential than Coby. I swear, before these Raptors transactions, I heard a Bulls fan podcast bemoaning Barnes’ perceived lack of progress—just as Patrick Williams was lately.
Over the previous several seasons, the mediocrity of the Raptors and Bulls has been associated with each other. However, their front office produced an NBA Champion*, while AKME produced a few entertaining games in that same year.
An further advantage to Siakam’s trade worth over LaVine’s is his stellar team reputation.
With Siakam’s departure and the trade last month to acquire Immanuel Quickley, a superior point guard, the Toronto front office seems to be taking a much more daring and skillful turn in their approach.
The Raptors are younger and have gained a lot more shooting after these deals. They are 2.5 games behind the Bulls after shockingly dominating the Heat last night. With Barnes and Barrett so unreliable, it’s unlikely that they will make a breakthrough, especially with Poeltl out and his big man depth limited to Had Young, the backup centre. stings a lot, but if they can get over the “shock” of these moves and go to the play-in round, I wouldn’t be too shocked.
However, the Bulls’ “consistency” on the roster will probably be a big benefit tonight. It’s unlikely that the freshly acquired players will be available for the Raptors this evening.
Injury Report: is still pending, hence the aforementioned assumption is based on reasonable guesswork.
The Bulls’ injury report is less clear. While Patrick Williams may not participate due to his ankle injury, which prevented him from playing in the last game, Ayo seems to be OK.
Plan factor: Last night’s game featured the Raptors! I got them. While the Bulls had to make an arduous trip from Cleveland back to Chicago and again to Toronto because of the weather, they were at home for both games.
Inferred final score: TOR 113, CHI 115; oddsmakers’ analysis: Bulls favoured, but not by much; -135 to win
The game starts at 6:30 p.m. Central on TNT? Return tomorrow for the OPEN THREAD.
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