2018-19 Trade Rumours and Discussion - Deadline February 7th 2019

[Primer]

I'm confused as fuck on the Monroe trade and the Malachi trade. What purpose did those trades serve? We gave away 2nd round picks to free up roster spots. That seems like a hefty price to pay to free up a roster spot. Could we have just cut them instead?

[Raptor Jesus]

Early returns; Masai wins another one

[3inthekeon]

Memphis side

Memphis Grizzlies: C

I doubt this is exactly the kind of return the Grizzlies were envisioning when they formally made Gasol available for trades a few weeks ago. While keeping Gasol made little sense from a basketball perspective, his important role as part of the best era of Memphis' NBA history set the bar a little higher than usual for a player of his current value.

On the plus side, the Grizzlies avoided taking on truly awful salary. Given the limited value of centers on the market, Valanciunas is overpaid at $17.6 million next season, but he's a solid player who can keep Jaren Jackson Jr. from having to move to center full-time if Memphis wants to delay that transition.

Miles also is bad salary, though a strong veteran leader in the locker room who might be able to rebuild his value if he can get back on track from long distance. (Both Miles and Valanciunas have 2019-20 player options, but given their high salaries they appear likely to exercise them and stay on the books.)

It will be interesting to see how the Grizzlies handle Wright's restricted free agency, which may depend on whether they trade starting point guard Mike Conley by then. If so, Wright has shown enough with the Raptors to potentially be a low-end starting point guard to bridge the gap to Memphis' starter of the future. All told, this makes this perhaps a slight upgrade on just keeping Gasol. I'm not sure that's enough to justify moving on from a franchise icon.

[charlesnba23]

why did we just trade JV for Luis Scola ? i'm tripping

Oh man are you for real? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXqq5nJdEkY

[3inthekeon]

Fire away. What he say?

Toronto's side

Toronto Raptors: B-plus

At this stage of his career, Gasol can no longer be considered a star player. At a position where players are scoring more efficiently than ever -- the average center has a true shooting percentage of .595 this season -- Gasol has become a volume scorer, with his .541 true shooting percentage worse than the league average across all positions (.558).

That makes the Raptors an ideal fit for Gasol, assuming he's ready to accept a smaller role. When he plays with Toronto's starters, Gasol won't need to create much of his own offense. The Raptors have plenty of other options for that, and his playmaking from the high post and floor spacing will fit in well with the offense Nick Nurse wants to run.

Toronto may turn Gasol loose offensively with the second unit, the role Valanciunas played before he was sidelined by thumb surgery in mid-December. (Amazingly, Valanciunas' usage rate of 25.6 percent this season is higher than Gasol's 22.6 percent usage.) There, he should benefit from far superior floor spacing -- compared to what he saw in Memphis -- and the opportunity to feast on lesser defenders. According to Second Spectrum tracking, Valanciunas was double-teamed on just 7.1 percent of his post-up opportunities this season, as compared to 12.8 percent of Gasol's post-ups drawing help.

There's no question that Gasol is an upgrade from the more limited Valanciunas, particularly at the defensive end of the court. The concern is whether Gasol will be amenable to the kind of role reduction Valanciunas accepted this season, when Nurse moved him to the bench in favor of the starting frontcourt of Serge Ibaka and Pascal Siakam that has been so effective for Toronto.

In certain playoff matchups, particularly against Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers, starting Gasol next to either Ibaka or Siakam will probably make sense for the Raptors. But whether Gasol starts or not, he's probably not going to be the right choice to finish games against the stretchier East bigs, Al Horford of the Boston Celtics and Brook Lopez of the Milwaukee Bucks. Toronto didn't have to worry about sitting Valanciunas in those situations. Will Gasol be OK with it?

That concern noted, the structure of this deal made it one the Raptors almost had to make. They didn't have to give up a draft pick of value, leaving impending restricted free agent Wright as the only value Toronto is surrendering. With Fred VanVleet already under contract for 2019-20, re-signing Wright was no sure thing. The Raptors also benefited by moving Miles' $8.7 million 2019-20 salary. Mired in a shooting slump that has seen him make just 31 percent of his 3-pointers this season, Miles had moved to the fringes of Toronto's rotation.

Amazingly, the Raptors managed to cut their luxury-tax bill from nearly $30 million to $26.5 million with this trade. (That figure includes Gasol's trade bonus.) That will go up when Toronto fills out the roster, having dropped to 12 players after dealing Malachi Richardson to Philadelphia in a tax-saving move Wednesday ahead of this three-for-one deal. The Raptors could be aggressive in pursuing buyout candidates using their taxpayer midlevel exception, which they did not dip into last summer.

For all the talk of Toronto being all-in on this season ahead of Kawhi Leonard's free agency, this trade -- like the one for Leonard -- allows the Raptors to build a veteran-laden team competing for the championship now without sacrificing their young core of Siakam, VanVleet and OG Anunoby. Toronto has few long-term salary commitments -- only Anunoby and Norman Powell are under contract beyond next season -- and plenty of flexibility if things don't work out for this group.

[c-troop]

why did we just trade JV for Luis Scola ? i'm tripping

I understand we dumped DW who would be a RFA, we couldnt just dump him and a 2nd for a mediocre shooter?

fuckin stupid, and when kawhi leaves we'll be pick-less, thin, with loads of cap and no reason to come here...
we'll be the knicks without picks...

man wtf masai.

[DogeLover1234]

Boy, this makes an interesting season more interesting. Hopefully JV is unleashed in Memphis.

Hopefully this trade resurrects both gasol and lowry, if they return to form this is a talented team.

[BrydenB]

Anyone post Pelton's take on the trade? Anyone interested?

It's up on ESPN. But I don't have the + to read it

[3inthekeon]

Don't you have to trade for a player or pick though? Isn't that part of the CBA rules? Even if its the rights for some Euro player?

Raps getting cash.

[MixxAOR]

Anyone post Pelton's take on the trade? Anyone interested?

Fire away. What he say?

[3inthekeon]

Anyone post Pelton's take on the trade? Anyone interested?

[c-troop]

I'm feeling Thibs take, if this is anything like Pau going to LA we the chip boys

Except JV is Pau Gasol because Pau went to LA when he was 27 years old.

[G__Deane]

Wait this is normal right?!

Raptors-Grizzlies are getting on a trade call with the league for the Gasol deal, source tells ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 7, 2019

The League wants to know why we over paid lol

[Mack North]

Kanter and Gortat have been bought out.. Either one would be a huge upgrade over Moose. But both would want playing time which we can't offer.

Pretty sure Kanter said he doesn't care about PT if the team is winning.

[Raptor Jesus]

never thought i would agree with Paul Pierce. Ugh

I'm feeling Thibs take, if this is anything like Pau going to LA we the chip boys