Raptors mailbag: Does Canadian centre Zach Edey make sense as an NBA draft target?

Another great week folks, and we even cut things off early to help with my travel. Remember, if you want in on the fun, all it takes is an email to . I don’t think the trade necessarily assures a Siakam departure and I can make a case that he and Barnes are thriving together. But who knows, right? What will he get on the market? I think a two time all NBA selection, a two time all star and a guy who puts up numbers that equal MVP calibre players is a max player.

And you can’t say that, if the Raptors re signed Anunoby, it would be an overpay because we have no idea what the numbers would be. The Barrett Quickley availability was on New Year’s Day at a time that couldn’t be predicted because it was post shootaround and those things always vary in length.

It’s all about a hypercompetitive drive and a stunning level of self confidence. They — the good ones, at least — fully believe they can and will win every game they play, even if that is an impossibility. It’s what I’ve come to understand separates them from most of us mere mortals. Not sure who you’re referring to but Precious Achiuwa, I think, is more a four or a wing than a centre and since he was miscast, it wasn’t hard to put him in the trade.

If you’re referring to Jakob Poeltl, who leads the entire NBA in field goal percentage, is top 25 in rebounds and top 20 in blocked shots, he’s still here. There might not be a ton of depth but I think Chris Boucher can give them enough off the bench. Strictly by record, which is why it’s widely expected the Raptors will have the 31st pick in 2024, first in the second round, courtesy of Detroit through New York.

No, no “team meetings” yet, thank whichever deity you worship because I can’t handle the fake fallout from them. There is a roster spot and I imagine they’ll wait until after the deadline to even contemplate filling it, although they can now sign guys to 10 day deals. There’s a little bit of floating trade stuff to gauge reaction but not from teams as much as from agents.

There are some in the organization who today doubt that Edey will ever be an NBA rotation regular anywhere. And as a guy outside the organization joked this week, “he looks good dunking on six foot six kids.” That said, circumstance and opinions can change in six or seven months and Edey certainly has worked hard on his game.

Today, I would say no. The Raptors already have a seven foot centre whose shooting range extends to the restricted zone semicircle and he’s got three years and $60 million (U.S.) left on his deal. Can’t see any way they add another. But we’ll talk again in late June when we have a clearer picture of the draft and Toronto’s needs.

There is no “story there” with Porter. The Raptors knew they were taking a risk when they signed him because he’d been hurt off and on for about three years and, lo and behold, he’s hurt again. This sounds harsh but it’s true: He is not part of the long term future and his value is his contract if it can be aggregated in a bigger deal.

And he knows it as well as we do. Dennis was, as I mentioned Thursday, a bit put out at losing his starting job originally but now that Quickley’s here, he’s fine with his backup role, one he’s played a lot in his career. and the followup I did on Schröder last week kind of laid that out. Who handles Embiid and Antetokounmpo well? It’s nice to think OG did — and he did it better than most — but it’s not like the Raptors wiped them out.

What they need to do now is double team some, throw different looks and players at them and hope they have bad nights. As about 28 other teams do. A: As I type this, it’s been two games and while they looked good in large portions of each, it is just two games. That said, the muddle in the middle of the East is not going to be resolved and, regardless, I think the Raptors were always going to stick around and be in the fray.

That opinion hasn’t changed but there are moves that could be made in Toronto and a handful of other cities that will have an impact on how things end up. There sure was a bit of spin — “This is the roster we’ve got, how do we make it look better than it actually is” — there was a belief that the game was headed in that direction and maybe they could get ahead of the curve.

As it turned out, they never got the right mix of personnel to make it work. I’ll check but I can bet that it’s that we can't be everything to everybody even though we'd like to be, and manpower, technological, time and cost issues always arise. The lawsuit is, and always has been, a nuisance suit spurred on by James Dolan and it’s still wending its way through the slow court process, as I type this.

I kind of spoke to the Anunoby future in , I’d be absolutely stunned if there hasn’t been a wink and a nod deal set through back channels that gives everyone in New York plausible deniability when he eventually re signs. 1,000 per cent..