The Toronto Raptors have stubbornly continued their attempt to make their current core of Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, and Scottie Barnes work. This, however, hasn't reaped them any rewards. At the moment, the Raptors have a 10-14 record, which, if the season ended today, would be good enough for a finish in the play-in tournament. But that, simply, is not good enough relative to where Masai Ujiri wants the team to be.

Thus, both Siakam and Anunoby continue to draw interest on the trade market, with the former entering free agency by season's end and the latter having just one more season (after this one) on his current Raptors deal. Now, the Sacramento Kings are expected to be one of the teams that will be in hot pursuit of one of the Raptors' two talented forwards, as both are marked upgrades over either Keegan Murray or Harrison Barnes.

However, the Raptors, ever difficult to trade with, may be looking to extract a trade return from the Kings that Sacramento ends up finding too expensive. According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, the Raptors “are expected to seek sweet-shooting Keegan Murray in exchange for either of their talented forwards.”

Fischer then added that trading Murray away isn't exactly in the Kings' plans, with Sacramento being more willing to dangle third-year guard Davion Mitchell instead.

Mitchell, however, may not be good enough to function as the centerpiece for any prospective deal between the Raptors and the Kings involving either Pascal Siakam or OG Anunoby. The 25-year old point guard has shown flashes of being a quality NBA rotation piece, but he has fallen out of the Kings rotation at multiple points this season.

Currently, Davion Mitchell is shooting 34.2 percent from the field and 27.9 percent from three, and he has seen his minutes dip as well. On Thursday night, during the Kings' 128-124 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Mitchell didn't even play a single minute, ceding minutes to rookie Keon Ellis instead.

The Kings have all of their future first-rounders except their pick next year (which they owe to the Atlanta Hawks via the Kevin Huerter deal), so they could entice the Raptors with that anyway. But the Raptors are notorious for being tough to negotiate with, so receiving Pascal Siakam or OG Anunoby will boil down to the Kings' willingness to part ways with Keegan Murray.