Initial thoughts on Brandon Ingram trade | Toronto Raptors Trade Deadline

Brandon Ingram was traded to Toronto late Wednesday after a week of speculation that he was a target.

If you missed it, the Toronto Raptors made a late night trade on Wednesday, acquiring Brandon Ingram from the New Orleans Pelicans. For Ingram, they sent Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, a 2026 first round pick, and a 2031 second round pick.

Now, this was not the biggest shock. There had been reports for a week or so coming from Stein, Fischer and company about Toronto being interested in Ingram. At first it seemed like just general conversations, but as they continued to materialize throughout the week, it became more clear that this could happen.

Once the Jimmy Butler trade, and the will they/won’t they of Toronto’s involvement was settled, it seemed pretty clear Ingram to Toronto could happen. Then, of course, it did.

Now that more Raptors moves are coming in, and surely more to come with hours left until the deadline — I will preserve full judgement on Toronto’s moves until we are clear what the entire vision is. For now, let’s just stick to Ingram’s fit.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the Raptors could not even last a full season of rebuilding before switching their direction yet again. The clear consensus about four weeks ago was that Toronto was in deep tank mode, hoping for a top three pick. Then they start winning a lot, THEN they trade for Ingram among other moves.

Is the intention to manage Ingram’s injury for the rest of the season, hope to sign him in the off season, and then be competitive next year? Is there confidence he will resign?

If that’s the plan, I do feel better about it. Yet, if the plan is to try and get Ingram into this lineup ASAP, you’re really jeopardizing your draft capital here. Toronto is about 8ish wins from missing out on top-three draft odds, yet I don’t see them making a playoff run in this state. So then you waste the season just to not get a great pick.

There is also the money aspect of it all. Sure, moving Olynyk helps them to be able to sign Ingram in the off season. Yet, they still have Scottie, IQ, and Barrett on big contracts — so the idea is trying to get Ingram on a bargain?

I think overall what I most want to hear from Masai or Bobby later on today is, shocker, what direction this team is going in this season. Here we are again with no idea what this team is right now. “Supposed” to be tanking, but not really, but also not good enough to be a winning team.

In the time it took me to write this, the Raptors have already traded again (Mitchell for Tucker and picks) so again, we gotta wait until the deadline is passed to really figure out what’s going on.

For now, it’s just… odd?