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

Tripod · Post #261 » by **Tripod** » Fri Jan 9, 2026 5:20 pm

^^^^^Yak can impact the offense too given his ability to set screens. IQ, Shead, hell Gradey, can all benefit from it.

Or look at those bullet Barnes passes that only Yak seems to be able to catch for easy inside buckets.

PushDaRock · Post #262 » by **PushDaRock** » Fri Jan 9, 2026 5:32 pm

RoteSchroder wrote:
causal_fan wrote:Pelicans have been playing Yves Missi more recently - are they showcasing him?

Queen and Zion together can’t play defense

They have a few really good individual defenders like Alvarado, Murphy and Jones but so many atrocious level defenders surrounding them that it doesn't even matter.

CazOnReal · Post #263 » by **CazOnReal** » Fri Jan 9, 2026 9:43 pm

Welp, looks like AD is off the menu for trade.

Read on Twitter

Mark_83 · Post #264 » by **Mark_83** » Sat Jan 10, 2026 12:01 am

Celtics fans seem keen to dump Garza and just running with Queta and Williams down the middle. He sucks defensively, but he'll rebound, set screens, and hit open shots. Not sure Boston would be in the business of helping us though.

Watch on YouTube

ArthurVandelay · Post #265 » by **ArthurVandelay** » Sat Jan 10, 2026 12:38 am

[x]

Read on Twitter

[/x]

This summer free agency and trade market should be quite different than last season.

Much more cap space among more teams this summer.

Live Free · Post #266 » by **Live Free** » Sat Jan 10, 2026 5:35 pm

Porzinges anyone? I know he’s not healthy but would be interesting If he was for the playoffs

bballsparkin · Post #267 » by **bballsparkin** » Sat Jan 10, 2026 6:08 pm

^^He makes an awful lot of money. Who would we traded for KP? IQ works but that doesn't really help the team other than to dump salary.

KillaSham23 · Post #268 » by **KillaSham23** » Sun Jan 11, 2026 3:07 pm

So no one wants IQ or Yak? We're in trouble. Toxic contracts

Clutch0z24 · Post #269 » by **Clutch0z24** » Sun Jan 11, 2026 3:40 pm

KillaSham23 wrote:So no one wants IQ or Yak? We're in trouble. Toxic contracts

Who would? I mean if these two were on different teams and lets say we had an all star....Would you want to trade that all star for IQ/Yak at them contracts?....Them would be the last players i would want in a deal.

bartron_44 · Post #270 » by **bartron_44** » Sun Jan 11, 2026 9:12 pm

How do you know no one wants them? Poeltl only became eligible like a couple days ago, and there is still plenty of time before the trade deadline.

The Raps look pretty good too when they are fully healthy…. Its just been extremely rare.

If they simply move Poeltl to the bench when he returns..I like their roster.since Shead is more of a natural PG and better on ball defender…and Quickley more of a scorer…Move Quickley to a 6th man role to improve the bench scoring even more and you have:

Barnes/Poeltl
Mamu/CMB
Ingram/Battle
Barrett/Walter
Shead/Quickley

Or use two of their best 3pt shooters so far this season…

CMB/Poeltl
Barnes/Mamu
Battle/Walter
Ingram/Quickley
Barrett/Shead

Syd-TK3 · Post #271 » by **Syd-TK3** » Sun Jan 11, 2026 9:50 pm

I know the obvious positions of need are upgraded PG and real C

But is there any big 3/D wings available under the radar. That can basically do what Darko thinks Ochai can do while providing more size

Mark_83 · Post #272 » by **Mark_83** » Mon Jan 12, 2026 2:31 am

Gradey Dick to Utah for one of their stagnant young players: Cody Williams, Scottie's buddy Taylor Hendricks, or Sensebaugh.

Mark_83 · Post #273 » by **Mark_83** » Mon Jan 12, 2026 6:08 am

My preferred center acquisition for Toronto.

Watch on YouTube

KillaSham23 · Post #274 » by **KillaSham23** » Mon Jan 12, 2026 3:45 pm

Mark_83 wrote:My preferred center acquisition for Toronto.

Watch on YouTube

I don't think we have anything they want

Trilogy · Post #275 » by **Trilogy** » Mon Jan 12, 2026 5:33 pm

The Raps ought to just free up space to sign Charles Bassey, you won't get anyone better without probably dealing a 1st. He's had a lot of knee problems but is back playing the G-League well. He was trending pretty clearly into being a good backup C for the Spurs before tearing his ACL. Then had patella and MCL issues.

Obviously, they basically can't sign anyone with the tax issue present. They need to expedite a Agbaji or Dick deal to facilitate that type of thing.

In all honesty when it comes to Dick a looming issue is the fact that he'll make 7.1M next year for a guy who may not be a NBA player ultimately. With the team's cap situation so tight near the tax with all the contracts it has moving off that would be ideal.

We'll have to see if they can swallow their pride and cut bait on Dick even though he was a lotto pick. Raps haven't been particularly good when it comes to sunk cost in the past. Dick/Agbaji/Walter are basically getting minutes over Martin/Lawson/Battle because of their draft/acquisition cost right now, which you hate to see.

Van_Trump · Post #276 » by **Van_Trump** » Mon Jan 12, 2026 5:55 pm

Apparently we're doing so well, we're facing "win now" pressure.

Merit · Post #277 » by **Merit** » Mon Jan 12, 2026 11:29 pm

Clutch0z24 wrote:
KillaSham23 wrote:So no one wants IQ or Yak? We're in trouble. Toxic contracts

Who would? I mean if these two were on different teams and lets say we had an all star....Would you want to trade that all star for IQ/Yak at them contracts?....Them would be the last players i would want in a deal.

You’re underrating both IQ and Jak.

Merit · Post #278 » by **Merit** » Mon Jan 12, 2026 11:39 pm

Trilogy wrote:The Raps ought to just free up space to sign Charles Bassey, you won't get anyone better without probably dealing a 1st. He's had a lot of knee problems but is back playing the G-League well. He was trending pretty clearly into being a good backup C for the Spurs before tearing his ACL. Then had patella and MCL issues.

Obviously, they basically can't sign anyone with the tax issue present. They need to expedite a Agbaji or Dick deal to facilitate that type of thing.

In all honesty when it comes to Dick a looming issue is the fact that he'll make 7.1M next year for a guy who may not be a NBA player ultimately. With the team's cap situation so tight near the tax with all the contracts it has moving off that would be ideal.

We'll have to see if they can swallow their pride and cut bait on Dick even though he was a lotto pick. Raps haven't been particularly good when it comes to sunk cost in the past. Dick/Agbaji/Walter are basically getting minutes over Martin/Lawson/Battle because of their draft/acquisition cost right now, which you hate to see.

I mean, going into this year, we were sold development. Gradey playing aligns with that.

I don’t know why Gradey can’t hit contested shots, but maybe another team can unlock him? He’s young enough to be worth the effort. Don’t get me wrong, I’m impatient with his development too. But I refuse to undervalue him as an asset, especially given his rookie-scale contract and the fact that he’s shown flashes in the past.

Merit · Post #279 » by **Merit** » Mon Jan 12, 2026 11:49 pm

Smaller trades involving Ochai/Gradey/Mogbo:

Gradey for Alvarado + 2nd or Missi + 2nd via NOP
Ochai and Mogbo for Alvarado and Missi via NOP

Ochai + Mogbo for Lively and Powell via DAL
Ochai, Gradey and Mogbo for Gafford via DAL
Ochai and Gradey for Russell and Powell via DAL

Gradey and Mogbo + 2nd for Carter and Ellis (provided he re-signs) via SAC
Gradey for Carter + 2nd. via SAC

Not quite sure about the pick valuation above, but they all work in the checker.

Merit · Post #280 » by **Merit** » Tue Jan 13, 2026 3:23 am

One more player to consider: Jeremy Sochan via SAS. Might be more useful in a 3-team trade, but a straight-up deal of Ochai for him works. Having said that, I think that the Raptors are more likely to trade someone for salary cap space to sign one or more of our G-League players to a proper contract.