It’s looming as the major complication for Toronto at the NBA trade deadline also.
First things first: the mostly likely outcome for the Raptors ahead of the last call for transactions (Thursday, 3 p.m. ET / noon PT) is, per sources, one single, boring move: getting under the luxury-tax threshold.
The simplest scenario: a minimum-contract player sent to a team that can absorb it for the price of a (likely) protected second-round pick, the wheels greased with some cash: the Raptors have the entire $7.96-million allotment teams are allowed to use to incentivize teams to get deals over the line.
A move like that — say, Jonathan Mogbo (whose minutes have been devoured by rookie Collin Murray-Boyles and free agent signing Sandro Mamukelashvilli) into the Brooklyn Nets cap space — helps the Raptors both trim the $967,000 they are over the luxury-tax threshold (and secure the roughly $14 million payout non-tax teams get) and leave them wiggle room to add players for 10-day contracts, or even a buyout candidate after the deadline without having to worry about the tax threshold.
Things can change quickly, however, as we saw on Tuesday when — after a very slow build up — the pace of transactions across the league has picked up considerably.
This was to be expected.
-
NBA on Sportsnet
Livestream 40-plus regular season Toronto Raptors games, marquee matchups from around the association, select NBA Playoffs games, the NBA Draft and summer league action on Sportsnet+.
Broadcast schedule
As one league executive said to me earlier this week: “There are enough teams that want to get under the tax, and there’s enough teams that I think are actively looking to improve because they feel like they’re in the playoff mix that there will be some moves. I think, honestly, the biggest question that’s going to hang over any other major deal is the Giannis thing. Are they going to trade him or not?”
They’re not going to trade Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Raptors. As I reported last week, the expectation is the Milwaukee Bucks would want all-star Scottie Barnes in a deal like that, and that’s not a move the Raptors would consider. But until Antetokounmpo does move, a good number of teams are in a holding pattern to see if they pick up something of value for helping facilitate the deal and then interpreting whatever shockwaves get sent through the league from that.
The biggest name I’ve heard — from NBA sources, I mean — attached to the Raptors in the past week has been Sacramento Kings centre Domantas Sabonis.
But the information has been all over the place. Just the other day, one source with a Western Conference team shared that he’s heard the Kings were exploring a trade with the Raptors featuring Poeltl and RJ Barrett, and within hours texted back to say that the Kings weren’t going to move the big Lithuanian centre.
It’s a little bit par for the course at a time of year, when it’s hard to tell whether what you’re hearing is actually something close to real, or just the NBA echo chamber reverberating on itself.
As well, my sense is that the significant drivers of the Sabonis discussion have been his representatives, who are eager to get a frustrated, quality, veteran player out what has crumbled from a legitimate playoff team to a full-blown rebuild in the space of two seasons. Attaching their client to teams where there might be some interest helps stir the pot.
The Raptors’ need for a skilled big — especially with Poeltl’s health a question mark — has made Toronto an obvious talking point.
But a source I spoke with Tuesday who was close to the situation with Sacramento stressed that the connection between Kings general manager Scott Perry and Barrett — Perry drafted the Raptors wing No. 3 overall when he was running the New York Knicks — was overblown.
Sometimes in these situations, there might be an urgency from a player — Barrett, in this case — who is going to be looking for a contract extension this summer to push for a move to a team that is willing to provide one, but I’m told that’s not the case here. Barrett has had a strong year playing alongside Barnes and Brandon Ingram and his value has in some ways been underscored when he’s been out of the lineup with knee and ankle injuries. The Raptors are 19-9 in the 27 games Barrett has played and 11-12 in the games he’s missed.
My understanding is Barrett wants to play in Toronto and is willing to see what a strong second half and playoff push will do for the value of an extension in the off-season.
Even as of Tuesday morning, I was getting texts from people close to the Kings suggesting that the Kings were open to doing something with Sabonis (and Barrett) but only if a third team could be found for Poeltl.
Which is where the rubber meets the road on so many of the potential Raptors’ trade scenarios. Things come to a screeching halt when Poeltl’s name comes up.
When Poeltl signed his three-year, $84-million contract extension this past summer (which kicks in after he final year of his four-year, $78-million deal runs out in 2026-27), he was coming off a career year, and the sense in Toronto was that either Poeltl would be a foundational piece as the team returned to competitive relevance with Ingram in the fold, or that he had enough fans with different organizations that his contract was reasonably moveable.
“Good centres are like unicorns,” said one league source. “They’re hard to find. You need bigs to win in this league.”
But you need healthy players to win too.
Poeltl is not that, at least not at the moment, so any trade scenario in which he’s involved seems highly unlikely, which means when it comes to any of the big swings the Raptors might have wanted to take by the deadline, the bat is barely off their shoulder.
“He’s a really hard to guy to trade right now,” said one source who has been monitoring the situation. “He’s hurt and he’s locked in for five years.”
The Boston Celtics, as example, have long been fans of Poeltl, going back to the 2023 trade deadline. They still held hold him in high regard and were monitoring his situation this season, but even with the big Austrian beginning to take live reps at practice with the Raptors after basically being out of the lineup since Dec. 15, Boston instead pulled the trigger on a deal for Chicago Bulls veteran big man Nikola Vucevic, with Anfernee Simons going to Chicago.
Could the Raptors have been involved if Poeltl was healthy?
A three-way trade where Simons ends up in Sacramento, Sabonis in Toronto and Poeltl in Boston was doable, depending on which secondary salaries were included.
Another team that I heard Poeltl mentioned with was the Indiana Pacers, who are looking for a quality big to round out their lineup for next season when Tyrese Haliburton is presumably healthy.
My fake trade: Poeltl to the Pacers for Jay Huff, Benedict Mathurin and Ben Sheppard. Huff is a back-up-level, rim-protecting big who can spread the floor and is among the league leaders in blocked shots. He could help bolster the Raptors frontline now and next season on a deal that pays him $2.35 million this year and $2.67 million next, with a team option for $3 million in 2027-28. Mathurin is looking for a contract extension and it’s widely assumed the fourth-year wing won’t get one from the Pacers. Sheppard makes the salary work.
Given that the Pacers are playing for lottery balls at this point, you can envision the Raptors talking them into taking on Poeltl since they’re not worried about him playing any time soon. And Poeltl does have fans there. But big enough fans to take on a player who has missed more than half the season and is on the books for four years after this?
The Raptors have been active in the weeks up the deadline. “They’re always aggressive, it feels like,” said one Eastern Conference general manager.
But it could all add up to nothing, in large measure because Poeltl isn’t playing, with no firm deadline for his return from this wonky back problem.
“There’s nothing structural, there’s no nerve issue, it’s just a confusing injury,” said one source close to the situation.
It’s at least helped clarify the Raptors build-up to the deadline, however. In a different set of circumstances, Poeltl might have been the foundation piece of a trade package or been playing so well, the Raptors wouldn’t think about moving him. But the way things are now, it’s certain he’s staying put, and the Raptors can only hope the most important trade they make this year is one they can’t make:
“There’s one guy that I really, really like that I would like to join our team,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic said the other day about his trade deadline wishes. “His name is Jakob Poeltl; that guy can definitely help us.”
Darko to the World: He didn’t announce it himself. While Rajakovic was recognizing the various Raptors scheduled to participate in all-star weekend, he didn’t mention that he had been named the head coach for the World Team at the All-Star Game. It was assistant coach Jama Mahlalela who told the team about the honour. The Raptors were very excited for their head coach, who started his NBA career in humble circumstances as a G League head coach in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2012-13 and has worked his way up through four organizations and will at the epicentre of basketball on Feb. 15.
“It is amazing honour to represent Serbia, to represent Canada, to represent the whole world at the All-Star Game,” he said. “Obviously, it’s the best of the best, and it’s going to be a lot of fun to see all of those international guys being on the same team. There’s going to be three or four guys that speak my language, so it’s gonna be pretty fun. Nikola Jokic, he’s celebrating his birthday around that time as well, so we’ll have a good time.”
They really like him: To a man, the Raptors were happy for the recognition Rajakovic earned, but perhaps no one has thrived more under Rajakovic than Sandro Mamukelashvili, the journeyman who has emerged as an essential piece in the Raptors rotation. “(He) just allows you to be you and just not think too much. Just play hard,” the Georgian big man said. “(He) gives you freedom to decide on the court how you want to play. And only thing he asks from you is every day to bring 110 per cent of intensity, work hard and just be coachable. But on the court, he just gives you that freedom, which is great for a player, because it just makes you be you, and it helps you, and also he has a very unselfish style of basketball, so it’s kind of built towards you.”
Cover duty: The Raptors were pretty excited about Ingram and Barnes being featured on the latest edition of Slam Magazine, the culture-setting hoops publication that has produced covers that routinely end up as collectors’ items. Mamukelashvili and Rajakovic both wore T-shirts featuring the cover art, and the Raptors had images of the cover displayed across the wall of the practice court. Jamal Shead was excited about it, but saw some humour in it too — Barnes and Ingram are posed to look a fierce, and Shead, whose locker sits adjacent to each of them, wasn’t really buying it. “I think it’s cool … (but) it’s just really funny, because it’s Scotty and B.I., I think everybody sees it as, ‘Oh, yeah, the Toronto Raptors, the two best guys’. But it’s funny because it’s Scottie and B.I., and they acting a little tough.” Emphasis on acting, was Shead’s inference.
