2025-26 Season: Draft, Trades, and FA Ideas Thread V1.0

[MiamiSPX]

You’re smoking too much herb. (No idea if you do, but yeah - this is obviously tongue in cheek). Now on to the real: If they can trade this year’s first for Derik Queen and trade for Jordan Poole I’m gonna have to agree to disagree. Heck they traded BI for a single first rounder.

IMO the only reason you’re saying what you’re saying is because Herb is on a value contract. You’re also underrating Gradey on a rookie scale and Battle as well. An argument can be made that NOP has too many middle of the road players on smaller contracts - but even then, they have the opportunity to aggregate and be a player in larger trades as well.

No idea if this happens, but I am comfortable with my valuation.

Ingram went for as cheap as he did because of his injury history, him being expiring/in need of a new contract to the team he was traded to and his flaws as a player i.e. his defense. See also: Us not getting any 1sts for O.G. from the Knicks for similar reasons.

Herb is on one of the better contracts in the league, he's on that contract for the next 4-ish years, is a decent 3-point shooter and is one of the best defenders in the league. Call the Mikal Bridges an overpay but guys like that tend to go for several firsts and teams are oft willing to bite on that overpay.

A second is not cutting it. Be serious.

The other ridiculous notion I've seen thrown around is to acquire Jones for our bench LOL. There is no world where Herb doesn't start for us, and about 27-28 other teams.

[Lord_Zedd]

Hawks could decide to go win now, with a Giannis trade offer. Here's the flip side of that situation: They decide to sell Trae and win later.

Per ESPN, Trae, Ja and Lamelo are in trade limbo. As ATL didn't offer to extend Trae (eligible: 4 yrs / $229M), he may leave in free agency.

Since we need better scoring, Trae is a pretty good buy. I assume Raps will do due diligence ahead of time and be willing to trade+extend him, which is the way we tend to get stars.


The trade:
Trae Young
for
Immanuel Quickley, Gradey Dick, TOR '26 1st, Ochai Agbaji


The Hawks will have 3 1st round picks in the coming draft (including a top 5).

The Raptors will now be:

Trae Young / Jamal Shead
RJ Barrett / Jakobe Walter
Brandon Ingram /
Scottie Barnes / Collin Murray Boyles
Jak Poeltl / Sandro Mamu

Follow up: Trade Mogbo/Battle/Temple/2nds for a playable bench and cap savings to duck the tax, as we'll be paying the tax next year.

They can win the East.

I want no part of any of these Trae, Morants, LaMelo type PGs who make their team worse on the court.

[Psubs]

The other ridiculous notion I've seen thrown around is to acquire Jones for our bench LOL. There is no world where Herb doesn't start for us, and about 27-28 other teams.

Shead, Dick, Agbaji and Mogbo should get it done but I wouldn't do that mid-season.

[Merit]

Should we bring cp3 in for cheap?

F*ck it, we have a roster spot open. If Ed Rogers wants to give IQ and Shead a mentor for their PG rotation, get him on.

After this season? Consultation and/or coaching staff.

You’re smoking too much herb. (No idea if you do, but yeah - this is obviously tongue in cheek). Now on to the real: If they can trade this year’s first for Derik Queen and trade for Jordan Poole I’m gonna have to agree to disagree. Heck they traded BI for a single first rounder.

IMO the only reason you’re saying what you’re saying is because Herb is on a value contract. You’re also underrating Gradey on a rookie scale and Battle as well. An argument can be made that NOP has too many middle of the road players on smaller contracts - but even then, they have the opportunity to aggregate and be a player in larger trades as well.

No idea if this happens, but I am comfortable with my valuation.

Ingram went for as cheap as he did because of his injury history, him being expiring/in need of a new contract to the team he was traded to and his flaws as a player i.e. his defense. See also: Us not getting any 1sts for O.G. from the Knicks for similar reasons.

Herb is on one of the better contracts in the league, he's on that contract for the next 4-ish years, is a decent 3-point shooter and is one of the best defenders in the league. Call the Mikal Bridges an overpay but guys like that tend to go for several firsts and teams are oft willing to bite on that overpay.

A second is not cutting it. Be serious.

Ah. That’s what I was missing. His contract extension. My mistake.

Regardless, he’s not Mikal Bridges and that was an overpay. If we look at every future trade based upon the PG trade instead of the BI trade it’s going to be a problem.

As for “Be serious” I say “y so serious”.

[Merit]

You’re smoking too much herb. (No idea if you do, but yeah - this is obviously tongue in cheek). Now on to the real: If they can trade this year’s first for Derik Queen and trade for Jordan Poole I’m gonna have to agree to disagree. Heck they traded BI for a single first rounder.

IMO the only reason you’re saying what you’re saying is because Herb is on a value contract. You’re also underrating Gradey on a rookie scale and Battle as well. An argument can be made that NOP has too many middle of the road players on smaller contracts - but even then, they have the opportunity to aggregate and be a player in larger trades as well.

No idea if this happens, but I am comfortable with my valuation.

Ingram went for as cheap as he did because of his injury history, him being expiring/in need of a new contract to the team he was traded to and his flaws as a player i.e. his defense. See also: Us not getting any 1sts for O.G. from the Knicks for similar reasons.

Herb is on one of the better contracts in the league, he's on that contract for the next 4-ish years, is a decent 3-point shooter and is one of the best defenders in the league. Call the Mikal Bridges an overpay but guys like that tend to go for several firsts and teams are oft willing to bite on that overpay.

A second is not cutting it. Be serious.

The other ridiculous notion I've seen thrown around is to acquire Jones for our bench LOL. There is no world where Herb doesn't start for us, and about 27-28 other teams.

Cool cool. Who’s he replacing in the starting 5? It sure isn’t RJ. Herb's 6th man for us unless RJ says otherwise.

As for our bench - do they or do they not have value? I find it so weird that on one hand we are praising our depth, but on the other hand don’t think it’s good enough for a consolidation trade. Ochai and Battle are both expiring and Gradey is on a rookie scale still. They enter their rotation immediately, unless of course you think Matkovic, Hawkins and Peavy are somehow world beaters. And I actually like Hawkins!

The ridiculous notion is expecting every trade to be like what happened before. At least I’m thinking possibility.

Even more ridiculous is simply crapping on a trade instead of suggesting how it could happen or making adjustments to what was suggested.

Most ridiculous is believing Joe Dumars would be a successful GM after flaming out twice in a row, but then again I’m not senior management. Let him have his accolades and bury him somewhere within the league’s power structure if you’re so set on keeping him around. As for the pelicans, they have a bunch of contracts to move and one Zion enigma to solve.

[Duffman100]

Let's grab Chris Paul. He can run the point for us for 10-12 minutes and generate some reliable offense.

[Merit]

:D Let's grab Chris Paul. He can run the point for us for 10-12 minutes and generate some reliable offense.

His middy is still dirty. Plus, I can think of no better mentor for Jamal Shead than PG.

[Mr Swagtastic]

:D Let's grab Chris Paul. He can run the point for us for 10-12 minutes and generate some reliable offense.

His middy is still dirty. Plus, I can think of no better mentor for Jamal Shead than PG.

I doubt he wants to come here just to play Garrett Temple for the guards. Maybe I'm wrong but I think he wants a ring. I could see NY, Houston, Denver, The Lakers and a potential OKC reunion if they send Topic down for this year and have him mentor Cason Wallace and Mitchell. However I could see them going after another big though via the buyout market

[HangTime]

Call me Crazy, I would want Robert Williams III and Matisse Thybulle

play a lineup of
Scottie, Ja'Kobe, Ingram, RBIII, and MT.

Ingram can use so much more energy on offense, add The other 4 make it'll feel like it's 6 vs 5 on defence.

The off-ball movement of Thybulle,
screen setting, and lob threat of Williams

I know people will say it's a crowded fit, but i think it can chaotic for the opposing defenses, we'll get a ton of open looks, any where on the court, and a ton of offensive rebounding opportunities.

Then our defense, is super charged.

[Mr Swagtastic]

Iq, Gradey, Ochai, Jakobe, Temple, future first after this season for Giannis

Gets laughed off the phone sadly any Giannis deal is Barnes plus CMB and appropriate picks. If your removing CMB your including a lot of swaps and picks.

Giannis at worst is closer to the top 5 especially if you factor in both his defense and offense and they are not moving him to a eastern team to make them better as well

[Mr Swagtastic]

Call me Crazy, I would want Robert Williams III and Matisse Thybulle

play a lineup of
Scottie, Ja'Kobe, Ingram, RBIII, and MT.

Ingram can use so much more energy on offense, add The other 4 make it'll feel like it's 6 vs 5 on defence.

The off-ball movement of Thybulle,
screen setting, and lob threat of Williams

I know people will say it's a crowded fit, but i think it can chaotic for the opposing defenses, we'll get a ton of open looks, any where on the court, and a ton of offensive rebounding opportunities.

Then our defense, is super charged.

That's the worst spacing team in the league. Like instead of lob city were brick city. You have Thybulle who is okay for 1-2 3's a night but RW3 is a pure backup at this point and time. I feel like he's been overhyped after that one good year in Boston. Especially after the injury he's not the same guy

[HangTime]

Call me Crazy, I would want Robert Williams III and Matisse Thybulle

play a lineup of
Scottie, Ja'Kobe, Ingram, RBIII, and MT.

Ingram can use so much more energy on offense, add The other 4 make it'll feel like it's 6 vs 5 on defence.

The off-ball movement of Thybulle,
screen setting, and lob threat of Williams

I know people will say it's a crowded fit, but i think it can chaotic for the opposing defenses, we'll get a ton of open looks, any where on the court, and a ton of offensive rebounding opportunities.

Then our defense, is super charged.

That's the worst spacing team in the league. Like instead of lob city were brick city. You have Thybulle who is okay for 1-2 3's a night but RW3 is a pure backup at this point and time. I feel like he's been overhyped after that one good year in Boston. Especially after the injury he's not the same guy

The defence will carry the lineup. If it's a low scoring game, that favours us.

The spacing doesn't worry me at all.

This lineup is designed to get extra possession, and breakouts. The half court will be fine.

[CazOnReal]

If you gut the team for Giannis, you're just turning the team into "Bucks North" and giving Milwaukee a big bailout since he can leave the team in free agency for nothing in 2027. And if the team isn't competitive, he probably will.

Like setting aside the Scottie Barnes discussion of it all, there is no championship window if you have to give up the entire team to get Giannis. It's frankly stupid to even suggest this team should go all-in when we're still not sure if this team is in "we're back" territory or not.

Remember that when we traded for Kawhi, we won damn near 60 games. Does this team win 50 games this season? That's TBD.

[UnbelievablyRAW]

Call me Crazy, I would want Robert Williams III and Matisse Thybulle

play a lineup of
Scottie, Ja'Kobe, Ingram, RBIII, and MT.

Ingram can use so much more energy on offense, add The other 4 make it'll feel like it's 6 vs 5 on defence.

The off-ball movement of Thybulle,
screen setting, and lob threat of Williams

I know people will say it's a crowded fit, but i think it can chaotic for the opposing defenses, we'll get a ton of open looks, any where on the court, and a ton of offensive rebounding opportunities.

Then our defense, is super charged.

Maybe RWIII but we moreso need a consistent scorer off the bench. Literally combining Dick/JKW/Ochai barely gets to RJ's ppg average

[PushDaRock]

Williams is made of glass lol last dude we should be targeting

[Merit]

:D Let's grab Chris Paul. He can run the point for us for 10-12 minutes and generate some reliable offense.

His middy is still dirty. Plus, I can think of no better mentor for Jamal Shead than PG.

I doubt he wants to come here just to play Garrett Temple for the guards. Maybe I'm wrong but I think he wants a ring. I could see NY, Houston, Denver, The Lakers and a potential OKC reunion if they send Topic down for this year and have him mentor Cason Wallace and Mitchell. However I could see them going after another big though via the buyout market

Agreed. Just outlining why the raps would be interested. I think all the teams you mentioned would be great, but I have a soft spot in my heart for OKC and I hope that CP gets his chip. If he heads their way it’d give me one more reason to root for the team I cheer for other than the Raptors (and historically the spurs as well).

[Merit]

If you gut the team for Giannis, you're just turning the team into "Bucks North" and giving Milwaukee a big bailout since he can leave the team in free agency for nothing in 2027. And if the team isn't competitive, he probably will.

Like setting aside the Scottie Barnes discussion of it all, there is no championship window if you have to give up the entire team to get Giannis. It's frankly stupid to even suggest this team should go all-in when we're still not sure if this team is in "we're back" territory or not.

Remember that when we traded for Kawhi, we won damn near 60 games. Does this team win 50 games this season? That's TBD.

I don’t think we gut the team. We still have to meet the minimum standards in terms of roster. Iq/jak/Gradey/Ochai + firsts for Giannis/rollins/prince and converting AJ or chucky or whoever to a full contract makes sense to me. I would rather have battle be a pure shooter for us than be more patient with Gradey, who has way more upside as a movement shooter and more but to date has been far less consistent. Hard not to love getting Giannis though. Edit: I can see CP3 being interested in Toronto if we have Giannis.

[ConSarnit]

Call me Crazy, I would want Robert Williams III and Matisse Thybulle

play a lineup of
Scottie, Ja'Kobe, Ingram, RBIII, and MT.

Ingram can use so much more energy on offense, add The other 4 make it'll feel like it's 6 vs 5 on defence.

The off-ball movement of Thybulle,
screen setting, and lob threat of Williams

I know people will say it's a crowded fit, but i think it can chaotic for the opposing defenses, we'll get a ton of open looks, any where on the court, and a ton of offensive rebounding opportunities.

Then our defense, is super charged.

That's the worst spacing team in the league. Like instead of lob city were brick city. You have Thybulle who is okay for 1-2 3's a night but RW3 is a pure backup at this point and time. I feel like he's been overhyped after that one good year in Boston. Especially after the injury he's not the same guy

The defence will carry the lineup. If it's a low scoring game, that favours us.

The spacing doesn't worry me at all.

This lineup is designed to get extra possession, and breakouts. The half court will be fine.

Absurd.

The half court offense would be terrible. You realize that for his career Thybulle averages less than 1 cut possession per game? Our spacing would be terrible.

As for Ingram “saving energy for offense”: do you actually watch the games? Do you think Ingram is currently over exerting himself on defense? He’s already half assing it right now.

We’ll have offensive rebounding opportunities because of all the shots we’ll miss but you also forgot to factor in: RW3 is not any better than Poeltl in that regard and Barnes is an average offensive rebounder for his position. Ingram is a terrible offensive rebounder for his size. Who is going to grab these offensive rebounds? We wouldn’t be any better at offensive rebounding than we are now and we’re currently 18th.

I’m sorry but many of the justifications you give as to why this lineup would work are not realistic given the theoretical lineups skillset.

[JRoy]

Williams is made of glass lol last dude we should be targeting

True.

High IQ, high impact player but he will miss a lot of games.

[HangTime]

That's the worst spacing team in the league. Like instead of lob city were brick city. You have Thybulle who is okay for 1-2 3's a night but RW3 is a pure backup at this point and time. I feel like he's been overhyped after that one good year in Boston. Especially after the injury he's not the same guy

The defence will carry the lineup. If it's a low scoring game, that favours us.

The spacing doesn't worry me at all.

This lineup is designed to get extra possession, and breakouts. The half court will be fine.

Absurd.

The half court offense would be terrible. You realize that for his career Thybulle averages less than 1 cut possession per game? Our spacing would be terrible.

As for Ingram “saving energy for offense”: do you actually watch the games? Do you think Ingram is currently over exerting himself on defense? He’s already half assing it right now.

We’ll have offensive rebounding opportunities because of all the shots we’ll miss but you also forgot to factor in: RW3 is not any better than Poeltl in that regard and Barnes is an average offensive rebounder for his position. Ingram is a terrible offensive rebounder for his size. Who is going to grab these offensive rebounds? We wouldn’t be any better at offensive rebounding than we are now and we’re currently 18th.

I’m sorry but many of the justifications you give as to why this lineup would work are not realistic given the theoretical lineups skillset.

Even if it result in a low offencive out put. The defence is main focus.
I get why people would want to gouge their eyes out on offence, but this lineup seems fascinating to me.


Also, I think all our good defender could learn something from Matisse Thybulle's style of defence because it's so different.