Brandon Ingram is a Raptor!

 Wow I realized I haven't been on here in a while! Whirlwind in Spain involving a robbery and an injury that left me not feeling like writing as much. I haven't reacted to the Luka trade yet either but honestly there's so much content about that and I guarantee I don't have a different opinion from the vast majority of people. Today I thought I'd jump in and give my initial thoughts on my beloved Raptors trading for a star level player in Brandon Ingram!

Welcome BI

Since Kawhi left after 2019, the Raptors haven't had a true go-to bucket getter. There's been guys with scoring chops, Pascal was great in the post, Scottie has shown flashes and is developing a go to move, FVV and IQ could shoot and RJ can get to the bucket, but nobody on this team was talented at breaking down a defender, taking and making a tough shot since Kawhi Leonard. All of that changes now with Brandon Ingram. BI is not without his flaws as a player. He's injury prone and hasn't played more than 65 games since his rookie season. He leaves a lot to be desired on the defensive end at times and his shot diet isn't the most analytically pleasing. What he does bring though is an iso scorer for the Raptors to go to late in games. The biggest problem early this year was the offensive system playing so great for 44 minutes then not being able to generate the same open looks down the stretch. Now when the Raptors are in close games they can toss the ball to BI and have him create. I'll leave it with this, BI has shot over 50% from 10-16 feet for the last 4 seasons in a row. He is a true mid-range assassin and has a skill set at a size that the Raptors totally lack. There's a lot of mouths to feed on the BI Raptors and it'll be interesting to see how they all fit, but I am a fan of the move and can't wait to see BI play. 

Thank You Kelly and Bruce

Short stints with the Raptors, but true pros. Bruce came here pretty much knowing he was trade bait and yet he still endeared himself to his teammates, played hard when he was on the court and gave us some sweet cowboy outfits to admire when he was off. Kelly did his thing for the Raps and was a stabilizing presence on some not very stable teams. I won't forget how excited Kelly was to come back home talking about how he's been a Raptors fan his whole life, things like that are awesome to see. While you pull the trigger on a trade like this every time, I'll miss those guys and hope they do great wherever they ultimately end up!

Pascal Trade Revision

Wow, so after Siakam was traded for 3 firsts and Bruce Brown (and some scraps), the fanbase was pretty underwhelmed myself included. The Raptors subsequently traded 1 of the firsts for Kelly Olynyk and Ochai Agbaji. Ochai started off looking frankly terrible and Kelly was old, so fans were even more frustrated. Then this season came, Ochai has shown real strides and has maintained his level of play this entire year. He's been a 40% 3 point shooter and the eye test at this point tells me he's just got that skill down. He's also one of the Raptors better defenders and can fit in almost any lineup combination. The Raptors used one of the picks they got on Ja'Kobe Walter, while he hasn't played much this year, he's looked awesome in the minutes he has gotten. Only 19 (or 20?) years old, Walter has shown some real shot creation and playmaking ability to go along with some impressive defense. There's already Gradey Dick vs Ja'Kobe Walter debates brewing which only figures to be a positive for the Raptors long term. Finally now the Raptors trade the 3rd pick they got in the deal along with Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk for Brandon Ingram. The Pascal trade in total ends up being Siakam for a promising young guard in Ja'Kobe Walter, a versatile young 3&D player in Ochai Agbaji and a shot maker with star level upside in Brandon Ingram. If you told me from the start that this is how it would end up, I'd be thrilled with the return! Goes to show, we should trust in Masai. 

That's all for now, little rusty but wanted to get my hype out here! I will likely be back next week with some more thoughts including a Superbowl recap, until then GO RAPTORS!