To KD or Not to KD That Is the Question

 Finals off day #1 and I am already going back to talking about trade rumors. Even though I am part of the problem, I do hate this with NBA coverage. I don't know another sport where in the middle of the finals a major trade can go down and the talking heads can talk about that. Then they can move on to speculating about more major trades. Then if there's enough time maybe they can break down the actual basketball that was played. I had a whole conversation today where someone tried to convince me that these finals haven't been fun, which is crazy to me. Anyway, even though I hate it I can't think of anything else for today so we're talking KD lol. 

The Case Against Trading for KD

The sports gods are already forcing me to watch a past his prime superstar who tore his Achilles in Aaron Rodgers with the Steelers, will they force me to watch another in KD with the Raptors? I guess I'd be a hypocrite to be happy about Rodgers but upset about KD but the difference is Rodgers fills a definite hole for the Steelers on a 1 year deal. I refuse to be mad about a 1 year deal, if it doesn't work out then you just move on the next year it's simple. KD likely wants another big pay day at 37 years old and has grown unhappy with every situation he's been in in the NBA. The scenario I most likely see playing out for KD's future team is they trade for him, extend him for all the money, have him play well for a couple of years then grow angry and ask out while on a worse contract at an even more advanced age. 

To match salaries in a KD trade, the Raptors would need to ship out 2 starters. Assuming Scottie and BI are off the table, you're looking at packaging either RJ Barrett or Immanuel Quickley with Jakob Poeltl to make the trade work. Without another move, the Raptors would now be back to having no center and maybe no point guard. We just saw KD play in Phoenix with no center and no point guard and despite having an all-NBA caliber teammate in Devin Booker, the Suns finished with just 6 more wins than the Raptors. So now on top of trading 2 starters for KD, you're looking at likely needing to trade more assets to get a starting caliber center at least. I don't see a way to make this happen without gutting the depth of the current team, and that just leaves the Raptors in the same situation KD is asking out of. 

Finally, people like to compare this situation to the Kawhi situation, but I don't think it's close. Don't get me wrong, I love Jonathan Mogbo, Jamal Shead, Ja'Kobe Walter, Gradey Dick, Jamison Battle and Ochai Agbaji and I hope they all have promising futures in the NBA. The fact is they haven't proven they can contribute to a winning team yet, and if we're trading multiple starters, and likely one of these guys, we're elevating them into big roles on a win now team right away. The Kawhi trade came when we had Fred VanVleet who just proved to be a great backup PG, Pascal Siakam who at the time was a long and athletic energy big, Norman Powell who had been in playoff rotations before, OG Anunoby who just came off a series defending LeBron plus vets in Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka, Jonas Valanciunas who could all be trusted to win you games in the regular season. The current Raptors have none of that infrastructure in place. These young guys need to learn how to win together first, jolting them into big roles before they've proven they can do it could result in disaster. 

The Case for KD

He's KD! I mean I can go on and on about how the timing isn't right, how the fit doesn't make much sense, how the cost is too high and the risk is not worth it, but at the end of the day this is KD. He's coming off a season where in 62 games he averaged 27/6/4 on 53/43/84. He can score from anywhere on the court, whenever he wants, and should be able to continue to do so given his shooting and height. The Raptors biggest issue last season was they didn't have a guy who could create for himself reliably, and that showed late in games. They went out and got Brandon Ingram to try and address these issues, but KD is just a better version of that. Even if at 37 he's not the defender he once was, and can't be relied upon as the every play ball handler, KD is still a baller and is going to look awesome on whatever team he's on. I posed the question in my head yesterday, in 2 years who will be better: KD or RJ Barrett? Given the age of each I could hear the argument that RJ will be the better player in 2027, but are we certain? No matter what, if the Raptors did pull the trigger on this, they'd be relevant in the NBA conversations again. My group chat would finally be back watching the team again instead of just wanting to fast forward to the offseason. I guess similar to the Rodgers situation, it might not be the best move, but it certainly will be fun. 

That's that, just my quick thoughts on KD. I am not buying that the Raptors are offering all that they are. I bet if there's a 3rd team involved and the price gets low enough, Masai would actually pull the trigger, especially if it only costs 1 starter and limited draft picks. Ultimately though, I think there's better situations for both KD and the Raptors and I can't really see it happening. People have to remember that the Raptors front office has never been one to leak plans. Seeing all these reports on trades that they're supposedly in on doesn't match up with the history of Masai and Bobby, I suspect there's a lot of teams using them as a bargaining chip right now. I think there's a lot of frustration in the fanbase right now because the season last year wasn't one to remember. I watched those games though and I promise you they wouldn't have lost as many games as they did if they weren't desperately trying to. I get that people are antsy and want to make a big move, but lets be patient, it's worked in the past and it will work again.