From https://nitter.net/wojespn:
BREAKING: The Indiana Pacers are finalizing a trade to acquire All-Star F Pascal Siakam in a deal that will send Bruce Brown, Jordan Nwora and three first-round picks to the Toronto Raptors. New Orleans will be a third team in deal, sending Kira Lewis to the Raptors.
Indiana is sending two 2024 first-rounders and a 2026 first to the Raptors, sources said. New Orleans sends a second-round pick to Indiana.
The 2024 first-round picks will be Indiana’s own and the worst of Utah/Houston/Clippers/OKC, per sources.
The Pacers send their own 2026 first-rounder in deal, sources said.
The Pelicans will send a 2024 second-round pick to the Pacers in three-team deal, sources said.
I’m curious if Golden State truly wasn’t interested in Siakam. I’m assuming Kuminga + picks/moody maybe? Would’ve been a far better trade than this for both teams.
Kuminga on the Raptors would have been awesome! And I’d rather have GSW’s picks than Indy’s. Things seem so bleak for the Warriors right now, with the latest being Assistant Coach Dejan Milojević dieing shortly after being hospitalized during a team dinner that maybe they were focused on bigger things or maybe they’re exercising caution given how tough their situation looks
My guess is Siakam gave some indication to Warriors that he wouldn’t re-sign unless they got their shit together, which seems unlikely to happen. Pacers already have their shit together, so I could see him as expressing a desire to re-sign if he were to get traded there, which probably facilitated the Pacers FO being willing to trade.
As a Raptors fan, my initial reaction is one of disappointment. Pascal Siakam is one of the greatest all-time Raptors and these 3 first-round picks seem pretty paltry in comparison. Also, the return on the OG trade looks better than this one by comparison. At least we got something in return for Siakam leaving, unlike VanVleet and many others.
The OG trade looks like one of few smart moves that the Raptors front office has made since they won the championship in 2019. By all accounts they could have treated Siakam better in the last calendar year, and I wish they did. I’m happy for Siakam though, like OG he’s now on a much better team than the identity-less team we currently have in Toronto
Pascal isn’t under a long term deal, this isn’t bad really for that reason alone. Also, it depends how protected the firsts are?
I think the Pacers clearly won this trade. But I’d say it’s a bad trade from an internal Raptors asset management perspective. I think the Raptors front office should have given Siakam a max contract. Siakam fit the Barnes timeline. Win-now pieces like RJ and IQ fit the Barnes timeline. Will any of these mid to late first round picks contribute meaningfully to the Barnes timeline? How can the Raptors acquire a player comparable to Siakam to pair with Scottie after making this trade?
I love the fit for Pacers. This was the team I wanted to see Pascal go if looking from a neutral perspective. Pascal fills so many of their needs its ridiculous. HE is going to look like a second coming once they start to play together. Just watch!
The returns for Raptors SUCK. Bruce Brown and a couple of trash picks for Pascal, a top 5 PF in this league? (Pascal is signing the 5 year deal from Pacers come off season because this is his last big contract so he’s staying!) A return of 2024 picks are horrid. 2026 pick from Indy will be in the 20s at best too because Pacers will be better in 2 years’ time. We should have gotten at least a decent young player. Bruce Brown is a short non-athletic SG/SF vet who can’t shoot the 3 (32.7% this year) and can’t defend. Raptors got robbed.
The picks aren’t great for sure but in what world is Bruce Brown a bad defender? He’s one of the more versatile defenders in this league and an amazing glue guy.
