Like it or not, the Toronto Raptors plan to be patient.
It’s far too early to dive deep into trade talks. Save for the Chicago Bulls who appear ready to move on from Zach LaVine, nobody is ready to make a big move right now. Even if there teams ready to make moves, the Raptors are still trying to figure out exactly what they have.
“It's up and down for now,” Raptors president and vice-chairman Masai Ujiri said on TSN’s broadcast Friday night. “I think it's a new system, but our goal is to win. Our goal is to grow this team and asses it as it comes. We’ll see how it goes.”
Ujiri has always made it clear that his top priority is winning in Toronto. It appears, though, that that secondary goal is becoming more important these days as the Raptors slowly pivot toward a more growth-focused approach.
Toronto has expanded its rotations significantly from last year and is giving bench minutes to players with more of a developmental focus. It’s why Otto Porter Jr. has fallen out of the rotation while others continue to get minutes despite their inconsistent play.
“This is the team we have," Ujiri said. "I think building around Scottie Barnes. We have Pascal (Siakam), we have OG (Anunoby), we have young players, you know, Gradey (Dick), these guys coming up and I feel we let it sit and see how these guys progress in the new system and then we go from there.”
There’s no rush right now to make any moves. The vast majority of players who signed free agent deals this past summer can’t be traded until Dec. 15 and even then, it’s unlikely Toronto will make a move until the new year.
That said, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Raptors are a mediocre team. This group went 41-41 last year and has gone 9-11 to start this year with almost an identical roster to last season’s team.
Considering the contract statuses of Siakam, Anunoby, and Trent who are all likely to enter free agency next summer, decisions are going to have to be made within this season. That’s not to say those players aren’t talented and can’t be part of this organization’s long-term future, but the Raptors have shown over the last 100-plus games that they’re a middling team and running it back with the same group over and over again expecting a different result simply cannot be the answer.
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