NBA Trade Rumors: Options for Toronto Raptors as Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol prepare for free agency
After a promising regular season that saw them finish second in the Eastern Conference, the Toronto Raptors crashed out of the NBA playoffs with a disappointing defeat against the Boston Celtics. According to NBA trade rumors, the Toronto Raptors front office has now already started making moves and is expected to be quite active during the off-season.
NBA Trade Rumors: Toronto Raptors planning a double swoop for bigs in the off-season
After losing Kawhi Leonard to LA Clippers and Danny Green to LA Lakers in the last off-season, the Toronto Raptors are set to lose two more members of their 2019 NBA championship-winning side as per NBA trade rumors.
The Spanish center duo of Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol is hitting free agency and is expected to leave the Raptors. Ibaka is likely to join a competitor while Gasol is expected to sign with a European team.
With the exits of both Ibaka and Gasol, the Toronto Raptors will lack size in the frontcourt. The only way to address the same will be by getting in reinforcements. in this regard, the Canada-based team are looking at Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter who will hit free agency this off-season.
The Toronto Raptors ranked seventh in the league in the defensive box-out percentage, getting proper positioning on 92.2% of opportunities. However, they fared poor in other areas.
The Raptors ranked just 22nd in the league in defensive-rebounding percentage, which suggests a lack of natural ability to simply track the ball and recover it. They also ranked a lowly 24th in offensive rebounding percentage.
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The addition of Kanter and Favours or at least one of them should help their cause as Nick Nurse's men look to mount another challenge for an NBA championship. The Raptors have a backup power forward in OG Anunoby who showed his ability to play in multiple positions this season.
Toronto Raptors' President of basketball operati Masai Ujiri is known to be the best in his business in the league, and the Raptors will hope that he is able to sign a championship-caliber center this off-season.
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