Toronto Raptors must trade Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby in-season to avoid disaster

Potential suitors for Pascal Siakam

Heading into the NBA Trade Deadline season, there’s an expectation that the market for Pascal Siakam will expand and not shrink as it gets closer. Over the last few months, the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks have been two teams linked to Siakam. I’d be shocked if either of those two teams weren’t still interested if the price was right.

Other potential fits around the league could include the likes of the Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, and even a dark horse team like the Oklahoma City Thunder. The big question is whether or not any of those teams would be willing to take such a gamble on a player who may not initially agree to a contract extension.

Among other things, you’d have to imagine that the Raptors have had a difficult time weighing their trade options for Siakam at least in part because of his interest in testing his free agent market next summer. And he has every right to do so, but it makes trading him that much more difficult for the Raptors.

But maybe there’s a team out there that can get a soft guarantee from Siakam and his agent through some good old-fashioned back-channeling. At this point, the Raptors might need to be secretly hoping for that.