Best/Worst Trade in Raptors History?

[Joey]

Was talking about this with a buddy the other night, and thought it was an interesting conversation for the forum ... what do you guys think was the best trade ever made for the Raptors? And whats the Worst?

Since the Kawhi trade will obviously most likely come up as #1, we'll say excluding the Kawhi trade.


It all started with my contention that trading Rudy was the most important trade ever made for the Raptors, outside of the Kawhi trade.

[Puffer]

Was the Vince Carter trade the worst? It must be. A couple of guys named Williams and a no-show. I'm terrible at remembering these kinds of details. trading for Hakeem may have been the most disappointing. Acquiring Lowry needs to be #1 best trade, outside of Kawhi. Maybe Gasol comes in #2 best..

[LJ2]

Trading Gary Forbes and a 1st round pick for that chubby guy was a good one.

The VC one for the Williams' was bad but VC had hit his peak with the Raptors and wasn't going to take us any further with that roster. On the other hand if they had kept T. Mac happy for a few more years both he and VC could have changed the NBA landscape together. So I'll go with trading T. Mac as the worst trade in Raptors History.

[DanH]

The VC trade is horrible in hindsight (especially as we've gotten more information about him rescinding his trade request), but they did get multiple 1st rounders and just screwed them up in the draft. As a whole that deal was a mess and definitely worthy of consideration, but I don't think a slam dunk.

Meanwhile, Lowry is by far the most value ever acquired by trade for the Raptors. But don't look too closely at what they gave up for him... Muddies the waters on that trade a bit.

T-Mac wasn't traded, he walked in FA.

Hedo was maybe the worst acquisition, and was technically done via trade, but that trade was actually really good, because we were going to sign Hedo straight up anyway, and turning it into a 4 team double sign and trade allowed the team to hold onto the MLE to add to the team that summer.

The JO trade certainly didn't pay off, and early on it looked like we paid a big price (pick used to draft Hibbert) but then Hibbert kind of had a short shelf life in the end and the idea behind the trade at least made sense (Bosh had been vocal about needing rebounding help, and it was the kind of relatively low risk trade with a lot of upside if JO's health came through, not entirely unlike the Kawhi deal).

For best trades, besides Kawhi, and Lowry if you don't look too closely, the best deals were probably all smaller deals. Swapping Vasquez for Norm and the pick that became OG is a damn coup. Bargs for a 1st is crazy. Getting Amir for Delfino was a huge value add. Swapping Hedo for Barbosa worked out nicely and limited the damage of the Hedo deal to some degree.

For worst trades... I dunno. A lot of flawed trades above but nothing blatantly terrible. I guess the VC one might win by default for the damage it caused the franchise.

[Apollo]

The VC trade was the worst trade ever for the Raptors. He played a power move and threw games at the same time against a GM who was in over his head, incapable of doing a difficult job, who didn't have autonomy and rather had to answer to a group of executives who didn't know basketball. The result was a complete disaster of historical significance.

Babcock gets 100% of the blame from most people but in my humble opinion it truly was the MLSE board who deserved the blame. They hired Babcock and they got in his way (due to lack of faith caused by a hasty decision?). They created a unfavorable situation, they hastily hired someone as a bandaid to cover the unfavorable situation they created and that led to total disaster. Arguably this event was also the most positive event in Raptors history because it led to the team hitting rock bottom, it needed to happen, and in turn it made it painfully obvious what the problem really was at the heart of it all. Things changed for the better once Colangelo arrived and got exponentially better once Ujiri took over but unfortunately for Babcock the trigger event cost him a GM career. The morals of the story are:

1. Don't marry the first girl you meet
2. Sometimes wisdom can only be born out of the violent collision of reality intercepting ignorance.

[LJ2]

The VC trade is horrible in hindsight (especially as we've gotten more information about him rescinding his trade request), but they did get multiple 1st rounders and just screwed them up in the draft. As a whole that deal was a mess and definitely worthy of consideration, but I don't think a slam dunk.

Meanwhile, Lowry is by far the most value ever acquired by trade for the Raptors. But don't look too closely at what they gave up for him... Muddies the waters on that trade a bit.

T-Mac wasn't traded, he walked in FA.

Hedo was maybe the worst acquisition, and was technically done via trade, but that trade was actually really good, because we were going to sign Hedo straight up anyway, and turning it into a 4 team double sign and trade allowed the team to hold onto the MLE to add to the team that summer.

The JO trade certainly didn't pay off, and early on it looked like we paid a big price (pick used to draft Hibbert) but then Hibbert kind of had a short shelf life in the end and the idea behind the trade at least made sense (Bosh had been vocal about needing rebounding help, and it was the kind of relatively low risk trade with a lot of upside if JO's health came through, not entirely unlike the Kawhi deal).

For best trades, besides Kawhi, and Lowry if you don't look too closely, the best deals were probably all smaller deals. Swapping Vasquez for Norm and the pick that became OG is a damn coup. Bargs for a 1st is crazy. Getting Amir for Delfino was a huge value add. Swapping Hedo for Barbosa worked out nicely and limited the damage of the Hedo deal to some degree.

For worst trades... I dunno. A lot of flawed trades above but nothing blatantly terrible. I guess the VC one might win by default for the damage it caused the franchise.

"T-Mac wasn't traded, he walked in FA." - That's right, forgot about that.

"Bargs for a 1st is crazy" - Which became Jacob and an important part of the Kawhi trade at that.

[Rudy Bargnani]

In my opinion:
VC is the worst.
Vasquez for Powell and the OG pick is the best. Imagine if the bucks had those 2 guys?

[Apollo]

The Kawhi Leonard trade is the best trade all time. I think second place is: Gary Forbes + 12th Overall Pick for Kyle Lowry.

[golden]

The Kawhi Leonard trade is the best trade all time. I think second place is: Gary Forbes + 12th Overall Pick for Kyle Lowry.

The Kawhi trade is really untouchable, especially when you consider the initial reactions:

"He's not even gonna report. Fire Masai!"

One of the ballsiest trades in the history of pro sports.

[planetmars]

The Kyle trade is great.. but we could have had Giannis if we didn't make that trade. So I can't have that as the best, even though Kyle is the GROAT and really turned our franchise around (with Masai's help of course).


I think the best after the Kawhi one is the Vasquez for Norm/OG trade. Because that's just so good.

The Bargnani trade was delicious because it was with the Knicks and we some how got a first, that helped us get Kawhi. It was the gift that just kept on giving.

Sending Gay to Sacramento and bringing back the bench was the start of the WeTheNorth era. And should definitely be mentioned as one of the best trades we ever made.


Two really bad trades other than the VC one were the O'Neal for Marion trade and the Memphis Gay trade.

The O'Neal one because we gave Miami the cap space to sign Bosh. We ended up flipping Marion for Hedo which just makes it worse.

The Gay era was so ugly. It did give us some high level comedy though. Remember the banning of the stat sheets from the locker room. And it was really the beginning of the end for Bryan's tenure here. So sort of worked itself out.

[KeonClark]

The Kawhi Leonard trade is the best trade all time. I think second place is: Gary Forbes + 12th Overall Pick for Kyle Lowry.

Yep

I haven't seen anyone mention the trade that instantly started the we the north era, gay for the 4 kings

edit: planetmars beat me to it by 2 minutes

[golden]

The Kyle trade is great.. but we could have had Giannis if we didn't make that trade. So I can't have that as the best, even though Kyle is the GROAT and really turned our franchise around (with Masai's help of course).


I think the best after the Kawhi one is the Vasquez for Norm/OG trade. Because that's just so good.

The Bargnani trade was delicious because it was with the Knicks and we some how got a first, that helped us get Kawhi. It was the gift that just kept on giving.

Sending Gay to Sacramento and bringing back the bench was the start of the WeTheNorth era. And should definitely be mentioned as one of the best trades we ever made.

Two really bad trades other than the VC one were the O'Neal for Marion trade and the Memphis Gay trade.

The O'Neal one because we gave Miami the cap space to sign Bosh. We ended up flipping Marion for Hedo which just makes it worse.

The Gay era was so ugly. It did give us some high level comedy though. Remember the banning of the stat sheets from the locker room. And it was really the beginning of the end for Bryan's tenure here. So sort of worked itself out.

From what I recall, Colangelo was pretty much dead set on offering Rudy Gay a max contract extension and making him the face of the franchise. Not sure who BC's enemy at MLSE was that intervened and pushed BC out just in time, but whoever you are.... you are the man.

[Apollo]

Swapping Jamison for Carter might be #3. That said I think Jamison would be a more impactful player than he was back then if he was entering the league right now.

[DanH]

Swapping Jamison for Carter might be #3. That said I think Jamison would be a more impactful player than he was back then if he was entering the league right now.

That was more a paperwork trade, both teams wanted the players they got and just swapped consecutive picks to save a little money for the team that dropped a spot.

[Apollo]

That was more a paperwork trade, both teams wanted the players they got and just swapped consecutive picks to save a little money for the team that dropped a spot.

Thanks for the memory jog.