In the wake of the Toronto Raptors trading Pascal Siakam to the Indiana Pacers, the trade that sent Jakob Poeltl back to Canada once again became a topic of discussion. Many Raptors fans stand on the belief that trading for Poeltl was a wrong move on the part of Raptors president Masai Ujiri. During a press conference on Thursday, Ujiri gave a rather bizarre answer to address those claims.
“When you trade a 1st-round pick for a starting center in the NBA, in our business & for us, it's good – for now & for the future,” Ujiri said, per Josh Lewenberg of TSN. “I'm not going to sit here & cry over spilled milk. If it was a mistake, it was a mistake but it was good value for us”
In connection, Masai Ujiri set things straight as to why he chose to trade for Jakob Poeltl last season. He said that he felt like last year's group deserved the chance to see out the season. And he felt they needed a starting center like Poeltl to give the Raptors the best chance possible to compete.
On the flip side, plenty of Raps fans felt like the team needed to kickstart the rebuild last year. There were rumblings about potentially moving then-starting point guard Fred VanVleet at the deadline and Gary Trent Jr. However, instead of selling, the Raptors bought and acquired Poeltl from the Spurs and sent a 2024 1st round pick to San Antonio.
VanVleet wound up walking for nothing in free agency. Trent is still with the time, and Poeltl re-signed a four-year $78 million contract in the summer.
Fast-forward to the start of 2024, and the Raptors have finally kicked the tires on a rebuild and are welcoming a new chapter in Toronto basketball. But while the team is finally embracing this new era, there is a world where the Raptors could have gotten more value had they started the rebuild earlier.
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