One trade the Phoenix Suns could complete on draft day with every team

Toronto Raptors

It’s actually too bad that free agency occurs after the draft because if Kawhi Leonard does walk the Raptors would immediately be thrust into a rebuild.

Sure, Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka and co. could  keep the Raptors competitive and even a a top team in the East (think about that – in the West that team wouldn’t even make the playoffs), but no Kawhi or even DeMar DeRozan and their is no repeat championship.

And even then, (presuming that Gasol picks up his player option) he, Ibaka, and Lowry are all entering the final year of their deals making everyone of them solid trade pieces come the trade deadline to real  championship competitors (ahem…in the West).

If Kawhi was gone by the draft and the writing was then on the wall, Raptors General Manager Masai Ujiri could start a fire sale and begin the rebuild immediately.

Unfortunately the two players the Suns would want back would be Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam (my preference would be Siakam), yet at only 26 and 25-years-old respectively, they’re the only two players Toronto would likely want to hold onto to sit at the core of the rebuild.

However, James Jones could offer a grandfather deal of sorts for either one of them, giving up the sixth overall pick and Milwaukee’s 2020 first rounder (Toronto’s 2019 first is in the possession of the San Antonio Spurs), plus a flip of T.J. Warren for Ibaka or Gasol, saving the Raptors money this offseason (if they wanted – although then they add about $10 million for the next three seasons).

That said, Warren is much younger than Danny Green and too could fit into that Raptor rebuild.