Getty Pascal Siakam, Gary Trent Jr. and OG Anunoby
Following the Brooklyn Nets blockbuster trade that sent All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks, Nets owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks may not be finished making deals ahead of the February 9 NBA trade deadline. Per NBA insider Brian Windhorst, the Nets could use the assets they recouped from the Irving trade to land Toronto Raptors small forward OG Anunoby.
“If the Nets could flip some of this stuff that they got and pry OG Anunoby out of there, you may have something there with the Nets, but I don’t know if they’re going to be able to,” Windhorst said to NBA Insider Zach Lowe on the latest episode of “The Hoop Collective”.
“I’m just telling you the Nets’ offering ability with what Toronto has is suddenly very interesting. I’m just going to leave it at that.”
On the season, Anunoby averages 16.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.1 steals per game.
The Brooklyn Nets are interested in trading for OG Anunoby, per @RealGM
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Nets Could Target Raptors Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam
Last season the Raptors were the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference standings and gave Joel Embiid, James Harden, and the Philadelphia 76ers all they could handle in the first round of the playoffs before being eliminated in six games. But this year, the Raptors have looked like anything but a contender sitting in 12th place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 25-30.
With the Raptors’ lackluster season thus far, any hopes of them being a contender now or in the near future seem slim. As a result, many expect team president Masai Ujiri to have a fire sale at the trade deadline and start a rebuild in Toronto. If that does happen, NBA insider Marc Stein believes the Nets could also have an interest in Raptors starters Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam.
“Among the possibilities for expanding the Kyrie Irving-to-Dallas trade before this evening’s scheduled trade call: League sources say that Brooklyn has explored the feasibility of packaging Spencer Dinwiddie and draft capital to Toronto in an attempt to acquire Fred VanVleet,” Stein tweeted on February 6.
“The Nets have also been described to me as a team with Pascal Siakam interest … although the signals entering the final week of trade season have reflected a reluctance from Toronto to this point to make Siakam available.”
Nets Primed To Make More Trades Ahead of Deadline
Whether the Nets will complete any available deals with the Raptors remains to be seen, with the February 9 trade deadline approaching quickly. But one thing has seemed to be apparent. Brooklyn is not finished making moves to improve their roster as they prepare for the playoffs.
On the February 6 edition of ESPN’s “Get Up!” NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski said the Nets’ goal heading into the week of the NBA trade deadline is to use some of the assets acquired in the Irving deal to surround star forward Kevin Durant with the necessary talent to compete this season.
“Both Brooklyn and Dallas were motivated to move quickly, get that deal done, once they really started to talk on Sunday. Dallas might have wanted to put a little less draft capital in that trade, but they didn’t want to lose Kyrie Irving. They didn’t want a deal to end up elsewhere. So, they moved to get it done Sunday,” Wojnarowski said.
“They did that with Brooklyn, who now wants to take the assets from that trade — both draft capital and perhaps Spencer Dinwiddie — and see what else is available out there in the marketplace to continue improving this roster around Kevin Durant but the deal, as it stands now, satisfies the needs Brooklyn had with a point guard in Dinwiddie and a really versatile, perhaps underrated, player in Dorian Finney-Smith, one of the best perimeter defenders who can defend multiple positions for you.”
With the trade deadline approaching quickly, it will be interesting to see what the Nets do next.