'No change in timeline' for Raptors despite addition of Ingram, says GM Webster

The Toronto Raptors reshaped their roster in a significant way ahead of the trade deadline that passed on Thursday, completing three different trades that shuffled multiple veterans out of their lineup.

Toronto's biggest move was the acquisition of former All-Star Brandon Ingram from the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk.

Ingram, 27, has been sidelined with an ankle injury since early December, but considering his age and experience in the NBA, he profiles more as the centrepiece of a team expecting to compete now rather than in a few years from now. So how did Webster evaluate the trade from the standpoint of a rebuild?

"We're not putting the cart before the horse," Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said in an appearance on First Up on TSN1050 on Friday morning.

"Yesterday was a great day for the rebuild, we got younger, we opened up playing time, we were able to use a lot of the flexibility under the tax to take on contracts, draft picks, pick up some cash along the way."

Along with Brown and Olynyk, Toronto also shipped out guard Davion Mitchell to the Miami Heat and completed a minor swap to acquire cash and centre James Wiseman from the Indiana Pacers (Wiseman was later waived).

In 86 combined games played among the three of them, Mitchell, Olynyk and Brown combined to average 60.1 minutes per game for the Raptors - minutes that Webster says will now be used to evaluate the role of younger players on the team.

"We opened up a lot of playing time for our young players. People have seen with our rookies, Ja'Kobe [Walter], Jamal [Shead], [Johnathan] Mogbo, and Jamison Battle and [Ulrich] Chomche, then second- and third-year guys like Gradey [Dick] and Ochai [Agbaji] - I think the opportunity that moving some of these old guys will afford the young players, we'll see," Webster said.

"I think around the New Year we weren't playing so well, but over the past month or so, the competitive spirit, the togetherness, we start to project what [these young players] look like in a couple of years. I think for us that's the focus as we finish here."

Does Brandon Ingram have a future with the Toronto Raptors?

Ingram, who is averaging 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game in 18 games with the Pelicans this year, is due to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.

After being picked second overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2016 NBA Draft out of Duke, Ingram spent three years there before he was shipped to New Orleans as part of the deal that brought Anthony Davis to the Lakers. He signed a five-year, $158 million contract in New Orleans after one season there.

While Webster is happy to have more playing time for the younger faces on the roster, there is still a need to come to an agreement on a contract to keep Ingram in Toronto long-term.

"We're having [contract] discussions now. We wouldn't do the deal unless we felt there was a comfort level with what he was looking for, what we were able to offer, an interest level in coming to Toronto," Webster said.

"Hopefully we can get something done. When we traded for Jakob Poeltl [last year], it enables us to get the player in the system and for them to get a feel for us, we get a feel for them. The goal is to have a long-term extension with him."

As far as this season goes, Webster is already confident in the player Ingram is and can be. 

"In Brandon, we got a younger player that's sort of entering his prime. We're really expecting and hoping to see a bump coming off his time in New Orleans. I think they had a rough go with injuries and whatnot, so we're excited to see what Brandon can do with us," Webster said.

Did the Luka Doncic blockbuster on Saturday influence this year's deadline?

A trade on Saturday between the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks sent an international face of the NBA to the Lakers in Mavericks guard Luka Doncic.

As TSN's Josh Lewenberg pointed out, "Luka's a perennial MVP candidate who hasn't even hit his prime," and that the deal was "already one of the biggest/most shocking trades ever" and "could be among the most lopsided."

The trade left a mark on Webster and the Raptors' negotiating room in the days leading up to the deadline.

"I think, more than anything, what we saw over the last week - and this affects our thinking a little bit - this is not the dynasty of old in the NBA. There's an ability to navigate and build your team in different ways, and that's the fun of it," Webster said.

"If anyone tells you someone's untradeable now, you can find a few examples this week of some guys who were moved that were maybe unexpected. The NBA's changing in front of us, people thought the new collective bargaining agreement was going to restrict trades but it seems like we had the most trades ever."

The Raptors and Webster are no strangers to colossal NBA trades - Toronto traded the face of the franchise, DeMar DeRozan, away in a deal to acquire Kawhi Leonard in the summer of 2018 that directly led to the first and only NBA Championship for the Raptors just one year later.

"We're always pretty outlandish. It sort of opens your mind to [the notion that] nobody's untradeable. It allows your brainstorming sessions internally to be a bit bigger," Webster said.

Can the Toronto Raptors compete for a title in 2026?

The Raptors have long considered the term "rebuild" to be taboo inside of the team's front office.

Team president Masai Ujiri and Webster have consistently found a way to put a competitive lineup on the court year and in year out, resulting in playoffs berths in nine of the last 11 seasons. But that changed this year, with Ujiri finally labelling the team in a rebuild.

“I would use the word rebuilding,” said Ujiri, asked to characterize his club’s upcoming 2024-25 season on the eve of training camp. “Yes, in sports, you always want to be competitive and you play to win. We're going to play to win. But it is a rebuilding team. I think everybody sees that loud and clear.”

Webster echoed that sentiment on Friday, but suggested that this team could do some interesting things next year depending on how the draft process plays out.

The Raptors (16-35) own the fifth-worst record in the NBA entering play on Friday, and projected top pick Cooper Flagg out of Duke has pundits and executives very excited about potentially landing the top spot in the NBA Draft.

"Interesting to see as we add a first-round pick, add a second-round pick, hopefully able to retain Ingram, see what that team looks like, but we'll temper expectations as this team grows.

"Scottie Barnes is 23, Immanuel Quickley is 25, RJ Barrett is 24, Brandon is still just 27, so I think even from that perspective it's a young core. We'll continue the rebuild, I think this is a progress. No change in progress or timeline," Webster said.