Grade the Trade: Pacers land Pascal Siakam in 3-team blockbuster deal
By Jack Simone
Grade the Pascal Siakam trade for Raptors
Heading into this season, it always seemed as though the Toronto Raptors were going to be sellers at the deadline, as rumors indicated as such for the past few years.
Masai Ujiri never acted on the rumors until this year, though, and once he did, he decided to completely alter the future outlook of the organization, pivoting to a restructuring plan around Scottie Barnes.
Earlier this season, he traded OG Anunoby to the New York Knicks for RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, and a second-rounder in this year’s draft.
Now, Pascal Siakam is heading to the Indiana Pacers, and they got back two solid draft picks and one selection destined to be late in the first round of this year’s draft.
Add in Bruce Brown as a quality rotation piece and Jordan Nwora and Kira Lewis Jr. as youngsters to take a chance on, and that’s a pretty good haul for a guy who will be a free agent this summer.
The likelihood of Siakam re-signing in Toronto wasn’t very high. While he may have liked to stay, the Raptors are clearly heading in a younger direction right now.
To get that much value out of a guy who almost definitely wasn’t going to be around next year is a win for the Raptors, especially after losing Fredd VanVleet for nothing in free agency this past summer.
Grade: A-