{"id":389500,"date":"2026-01-05T12:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/389500\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T12:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:16:07","slug":"how-can-raptors-land-a-star-or-duck-the-nbas-luxury-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/389500\/","title":{"rendered":"How can Raptors land a star or duck the NBA\u2019s luxury tax?"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 So much for the concept of trade season, huh?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been three weeks since Dec. 15, when most of the players who signed with new teams in the offseason became eligible to be traded. We\u2019re a month out from the Feb. 5 trade deadline and there have been zero trades. The last NBA player to be traded, as you surely remember, was Kobe Bufkin, back on Sept. 16.<\/p>\n

That will change sooner than later, although NBA teams, much like college students, generally need a deadline to get some work done. The Toronto Raptors, stuck in the morass of teams fighting for playoff\/Play-In Tournament seeding, would surely rather finish higher rather than lower. Even if they have exceeded preseason expectations, the hardest part of their schedule remains, and they have shown themselves to be thin up front and on the wing.<\/p>\n

As such, it is time for the in-season edition of my twice-annual trade tiers. This is not an opinion column \u2014 I wrote last month why I think that anything the Raptors should do should be on the smaller side<\/a>. This is a division of the roster designed to inform you of the scenarios that could lead to a player being traded.<\/p>\n

To remind you: The groups are not ranked by the likelihood of each scenario playing out. However, within each group, the players listed at the top are more likely to be traded, and the players listed at the bottom are less likely to move. (All salary details include the 2025-26 season. I\u2019ll direct you to my colleague John Hollinger\u2019s final note in his column<\/a> from last week to explain Mo Bamba\u2019s salary situation and the Raptors\u2019 dance with the luxury tax.)<\/p>\n

Offseason 2025 trade tiers\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Practically untouchableScottie Barnes (five years, $224.2 million remaining)<\/p>\n

Last January, Luka Don\u010di\u0107 got traded, without requesting a trade, with a season and a half remaining on his contract. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to call any player \u201cuntouchable\u201d ever again.<\/p>\n

Sure, there are some players the Raptors would surely trade Barnes to acquire. I doubt Giannis Antetokounmpo, at 31, is one of them. I know Anthony Davis is not one of them. If the Timberwolves want to get out of the Anthony Edwards business or the Pistons want to move Cade Cunningham? Sure, Barnes could move. In other words, he\u2019s not going anywhere.<\/p>\n

Only for a notable upgradeBrandon Ingram (three years, $120 million remaining, player option for 2027-28)<\/p>\n

Another player who isn\u2019t going anywhere. Raptors fans have seen the good and the bad with Ingram, but he\u2019s been on the floor and been a reliable scorer for the team. You could probably make a case that now is the time to sell high on Ingram, as this has been his longest uninterrupted string of play in a long, long time. But his contract is still pricey and the return wouldn\u2019t be much different than what the Raptors gave up for him at this time last year.<\/p>\n

Matching salaryRJ Barrett (two years, 57.3 million remaining, extension eligible in offseason)Immanuel Quickley (four years, $130 million remaining)Jakob Poeltl (five years, $123.1 million remaining, $5 million guaranteed for 2029-30)<\/p>\n

Before the year started, I would have said Barrett was the most likely player in this group to be traded. I would have cited his potential fit with Barnes and Ingram as the most likely reason for that. His knee injury has prevented him from disproving that definitively, although the Raptors sure missed him when he was out. To the point, though, he is now the most likely of this trio to be moved (still not very likely) because he is on the most team-friendly deal of the three. The league craves flexibility, and Barrett\u2019s contract is the shortest. He has also shown that he is a low-maintenance scorer with at least some untapped defensive potential.<\/p>\n

Quickley is a good NBA player. Take a look at the difference between the Raptors\u2019 net rating with him on the court and off of it. When he gets on a heater, it opens up the world for the Raptors. He just doesn\u2019t do it consistently enough to be paid like an above-average starting point guard. He is an adequate defender for his position, which means opponents can pick on him. There is plenty of time for Quickley to make his deal value-neutral, or maybe even better.<\/p>\n

The preseason Poeltl extension presently looks like a long-term albatross. Hopefully, Poeltl can put his back woes behind him and return to playing like a competent starting centre who does all the little things. He\u2019s still a non-shooting big man on the wrong side of 30. He would have to defy typical age curves to make that contract team-friendly, and he\u2019s not off to a good start.<\/p>\n

Minimums worth more to the Raptors than other teamsJamison Battle (two years, $4.3 million remaining, not guaranteed for 2026-27)Sandro Mamukelashvili (two years, $5.3 million remaining, player option for 2026-27)Garrett Temple (one year, $2.3 million remaining)Jamal Shead (two years, $4.5 million remaining, team option for 2027-28)<\/p>\n

Is Shead the second-least-likely Raptor to be traded? I mean, I don\u2019t think so, but there\u2019s a fun little case to be made. A second-year, 6-foot-nothing point guard is one of the emotional leaders of an NBA team. It\u2019s a cool story.<\/p>\n

None of these guys is going anywhere unless we see a 4-for-3 trade or something like that. As Battle\u2019s deal is non-guaranteed, perhaps he is the most likely to be traded, since that could be valuable to any team. Plus, he is good at shooting, which is a nice skill.<\/p>\n

SweetenerJa\u2019Kobe Walter (three years, $13.3 million remaining, team option for 2027-28)Collin Murray-Boyles (four years, $28.8 million remaining, team options for 2027-28 and 2028-29)Gradey Dick (two years, $12.1 million remaining)Jonathan Mogbo (two years, $4.5 million remaining, team option for 2027-28)<\/p>\n

This group is the hardest one to order. Murray-Boyles has the most value, which means the Raptors would most want to keep him around, but he\u2019s also the most attractive to other teams. I put Walter on top as he has shown enough to be a rotation player for many teams, and also is easy to fit in as a shooter\/slasher with some defensive chops on the wing.<\/p>\n

Dick has struggled so badly that teams might view his contract as onerous, although I\u2019m sure some teams would be willing to take him on and see if he can find his shooting stroke that has abandoned him for most of his career in Toronto. Mogbo has done too little and makes too little money to be anything but a throw-in in a trade.<\/p>\n

Most likely tax casualtyOchai Agbaji (one year, $6.4 million remaining)<\/p>\n

Agbaji is a fine eighth or ninth man. But the Raptors are above the luxury tax \u2014 slightly more so after signing Mo Bamba as insurance for Poeltl \u2014 and Agbaji is a restricted free agent after this season. It is not as if they have no use for him, as his defence and ability in transition are nice traits.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, his 3-point shot has fallen off a cliff from last year, and the Raptors have Dick and Walter, who have similar positional profiles, on rookie contracts beyond this year. Agbaji would have had to vastly outplay the pair in order to work his way into the Raptors\u2019 long-term plans, and he hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

I believe the Raptors will move him, along with a second-round pick, to a team with cap room or unused midlevel exception space to duck the tax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 So much for the concept of trade season, huh? It\u2019s been three weeks since Dec. 15,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82,10676],"class_list":{"0":"post-389500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-toronto-raptors"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}