Why This Trade Makes Sense For The Toronto Raptors
Kyle Lowry is not getting any younger and while he is a beloved member of the Toronto Raptors organization, all good things must come to an end at some point. Lowry is in the final year of his contract and is really not worth $30M+ a year anymore, which is why it would be wise for Toronto to trade him now while his value is still very high.
Danny Green and Mike Scott are both role players who can log important minutes for Toronto this season, but they also would free up about $20M in cap space entering next offseason. Not only does this give Toronto money to help re-sign key role players to long-term deals, but it allows them to potentially go out in free agency and be aggressive in their pursuit of a reliable frontcourt talent.
Seth Curry on the other hand could be a key three-point specialist that the Raptors could utilize for many years to come. The Raptors are the 8th best three-point shooting team this season and with the addition of Curry, the second best three-point shooter of all-time based on three-point shooting percentage, they could become a deadly perimeter-oriented team.
Toronto also receives two immediate first-round picks from the 76ers in this trade scenario, giving them the ability to continue drafting high-level, young talents to build a sustainable young core around their star players. While they have a lot of experience, this Raptors team is actually quite young.
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Kyle Lowry and Aron Baynes are the only players on this roster over the age of 30 and almost everyone on this roster has yet to reach the primes of their careers. Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell, O.G. Anunoby and Chris Boucher are all high-level talents that are continuing to get better and could be the core of the Raptors moving forward.
With these five guys playing at a high-level, the draft picks they get in this trade allows Toronto to continue adding young players to the mix and developing even more talent in their pursuit to make it back to the NBA Finals.
Trading away Kyle Lowry would definitely be tough to do, but there are ultimately more pros than cons in doing so. If the Raptors want to set themselves up for long-term success, then the right move to make would be to trade their veteran, All-Star guard in this trade.
