Raptors keep all their core players at trade deadline

At the end of a very, very long few weeks of speculation, the Toronto Raptors are largely who they were before the trade deadline.

Toronto made a late-night acquisition of Jakob Poeltl from the San Antonio Spurs in the wee hours of Thursday morning in exchange for Khem Birch and a series of draft picks.

But Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, Gary Trent Jr., OG Anunoby, Scottie Barnes, and Precious Achiuwa remained with the Raptors past Thursday’s 3 pm deadline.

In the end, the Poeltl trade ended up being the only trade the team made all season and their first since the acquisition of Thad Young from those same Spurs at last year’s deadline.

Via various reports, Toronto had no shortage of interest in just about every major player on their roster but ultimately stood pat at the team’s deadline.

Perhaps the most surprising player to stick around in Toronto is Anunoby, who had been rumoured for the past several weeks as coveted by several teams along the league.

And it appears that his defensive prowess at guarding elite players helped push interest in him along, with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting that teams had been taking an extra look at Anunoby to offset Phoenix’s blockbuster acquisition of Kevin Durant last night.

Toronto's talks on forward O.G. Anunoby are rolling into the final hours of the trade deadline. The landing of Kevin Durant with the Suns could escalate Anunoby's value among Western Conference teams pursuing an elite forward to defend Durant.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 9, 2023

With a record of 26-30, Toronto is currently sitting at 10th in the Eastern Conference, as they are in line for the final play-in spot.

Toronto’s first home game after the deadline is tomorrow night, when they take on the Utah Jazz. Tipoff is set for 7:30 pm ET at Scotiabank Arena.

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