Raptors mailbag: Trade Brandon Ingram? We have some thoughts

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The Western Conference playoffs are starting to get mighty interesting, the East, not so much and NBA draft preparations continue. Now seems like as good a time as any for a Toronto Raptors mailbag. Part 2 will follow in the near future.

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Thanks as always for the questions.

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Ed Helinski (via X): “In your opinion, how many roster changes should be made in the offseason in efforts to upgrade the team?”

RW: There are already nine Raptors signed for next season and the team will surely pick up a 10th, the team option on Jamal Shead. They’d love to make it 11 by signing Sandro Mamukelashvili after he opts out of his small player option and I’d think young big man Trayce Jackson-Davis sticks around on a cheap team option. The jury is out on the futures of Garrett Temple, who might finally retire as an active player, Jonathan Mogbo (who rarely played this season) and Canadian A.J. Lawson, who has proven he should be on an NBA roster.

The 19th pick of next month’s draft will also take up a roster spot. There’s also last year’s second-round pick Alijah Martin, as well as Chucky Hepburn to consider, along with whoever they take in the second round this year. That doesn’t leave a lot of roster spots, whether we’re talking standard NBA contracts, or two-way deals.

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The Raptors won’t really have enough money to sign more than one impact player unless a trade is made to free up some cap, so it’s probably either Mamukelashvili, or another crack at the low-budget free agency options hoping to strike gold again.

Circling back, how many roster changes should be made? As many as it takes to land a quick guard who can get into the paint and score and/or reliably hit pull-up three-pointers, and a 7-footer who can defend the rim (with an outside shot being a bonus).

Spencer Smith (via X): “(Pascal) Siakam, OG (Anunoby), Fred (VanVleet) and Scottie (Barnes) are all awesome players.

Why didn’t it work?”

RW: It’s on everyone to some degree. Barnes is arguably now the best of any of them, though that might be doing Siakam, a champion and two-time finalist and All-NBA player a disservice, but wasn’t at the time. But he wanted to be higher in the pecking order and that wasn’t going to happen with proud veterans around him. VanVleet needed the ball in his hands and liked things done a certain way. Siakam believed he had established himself as the top dog. Anunoby wanted a bigger role, especially on offence. Masai Ujiri and VanVleet have said there was some “selfishness” too, which is true. They just didn’t all click.

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Flippydogg (via X): “Are other teams interested in trading for Brandon Ingram?”

RW: More than anytime in the last few years for sure, but my sense is the Raptors don’t have any interest in moving him. Barnes is a big fan and likes the way Ingram helped him on offence and Ingram is also a popular teammate. If you put me in charge I’d pursue what’s out there for Ingram because I don’t trust his health history, but even if they wanted to, his recent heel surgery, coupled with missing most of the 2024-25 season, might scare off some teams. Either way, can’t see Ingram not being a Raptor on opening night.

Jordan, Jsspropert27387 (via X): “If you had to bet on which transaction window would be the one Bobby Webster would likely use to engineer a significant trade, would it be summer ’26, trade deadline in Feb. ’27 or in summer of ’27?”

RW: Summer of ’27, mostly because Webster, like Ujiri before him, tend to wait until the latest window possible. I’d peg this summer as least likely. As mentioned above, don’t think Ingram goes anytime soon and optically, an RJ Barrett trade after his playoffs would be a hard sell to the public. They also don’t seem keen on moving off of Gradey Dick, with Webster defending him at the season-ending media availability when I asked why things went of course with Dick this season. That said, they need to free up cap space and finding a team that sees Dick as a “second draft” candidate is one of the easier ways they could theoretically do that.

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The trade deadline also makes sense if they’ve determined by then they won’t be able to agree to a new deal with Barrett. They could re-visit options like the ones they had at February’s deadline.

Dan M. (via email): “Who should Scottie Barnes have replaced on the NBA’s all-defensive first team?”

RW: I wrote a whole column about why it was so egregious that Barnes got snubbed. Victor Wembanyama was obviously the unanimous defensive player of the year and is unquestionably a better and more impactful defender than Barnes, but Barnes was right there with everyone else behind Wembanyama. That includes Chet Holmgren, Ausar Thompson and four-time winner Rudy Gobert. Gobert remains one of the best defenders ever and Holmgren had monster rim protection numbers, but Barnes is way more versatile and was surrounded by inferior defensive teammates (especially compared to Holmgren’s legion of Oklahoma City Thunder standouts).

There’s really no argument for Boston’s Derrick White making it over Barnes (and voters even had Barnes fifth and White sixth in the separate defensive player of the year voting). White’s an excellent player and an uncanny shot-blocker for a guard, but he’s not Barnes. I’d put Anunoby’s defensive season ahead of White’s too and maybe Bam Adebayo’s.

On X: @WolstatSun

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