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With the basketball world coming up with possible trades involving the Toronto Raptors and Giannis Antetokounmpo, some people wonder what the offseason plans are for the team. While the Raptors are headed into a crucial offseason, ESPN's NBA insider Brian Windhorst hinted that it could be an exciting summer for the franchise.
Led by team president Masai Ujiri, he and the team will look to vastly improve the roster after finishing with a 30-52 record, which put them 11th in the Eastern Conference. Windhorst would say on “The Hoop Collective” show that the team has begun to “make noise within the league about looking for a big fish.”
“I don't want to get too far afield from this, but since this has come up, the Raptors are a team that is starting to make noise within the league about looking for a big fish,” Windhorst said. “If you're an Eastern Conference team that's in the middle of the pack, you're looking at the teams in front of you going, ‘Some of them may not be able to come together, may be able to stay together.”
“Boston is hurt, and so there are some teams that sniff the ability to make a move, and I think Toronto is one of those teams,” Windhorst continued. “And so naturally, any team that wants to make a move this summer, especially a team in the Eastern Conference, you're going to have Giannis on the board.”
Raptors could be a part of an “explosive summer” in the NBA offseason
As the Raptors' vision seems unclear at the moment, Windhorst says that he has heard around NBA circles that the team is expected to make their names known around big players that could be available. The biggest name seems to be Antetokounmpo, but he has not officially requested a trade, but even Windhorst said that this offseason could make for an “explosive summer” with Toronto being one of the teams included in that.
“But Toronto, I think, is going to try—from their initial conversations, teams in the league are getting the impression that Toronto is going to try to do something,” Windhorst said. “I had an executive tell me yesterday that he thinks this could be—could be, could be—an explosive summer. You know, just as Shams [Charania] said the other day, but like, this—you know, this is the whole league.”
“People are saying that this—the amount of activity and calls happening in the league right now is at a much higher volume than has been in years past,” Windhorst continued. “I know it does not mean it's going to happen, but Toronto is one of those teams that is sitting there on the balls of its feet, which is interesting.”
Whomever they try to get, one imagines that the goal is to pair alongside Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram, though the latter has experienced an immense amount of bad injury luck.
