The Toronto Raptors are reportedly monitoring the market for available big man on the trading front following their subpar showing on their recent six-game road trip and the recent move the Cleveland Cavaliers to beef up their defense.
Basketball Insiders writer Steve Kyler mentioned the Raptors on the list of teams (Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers) expected to burn the hotlines ahead of February 19 trade deadline.
Toronto's rise to the upper-echelon of the Eastern Conference certainly caught everybody by surprise, including its general manager Masai Ujiri. However, after a lackadaisical performance on their latest road trip in which they went 2-4 and dropped three straight games against West elites like the Portland Trail Blazers, Golden State Warriors and the Phoenix Suns, there's pressing concern that Raptors need to make some upgrade defensively for them to compete for the championship this season.
Kyler claimed the Raptors will most likely attempt to add a defensive-minded power forward to give their defense (ranked 22nd in the league at 101.6 points allowed per game) a boost. Toronto possess a ton of expiring contracts, but the first-round pick they acquired after sending Andrea Bargnani to the New York Knicks stands out as their most valuable asset.
Denver Nuggets, who recently traded center Timofey Mozgov to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for two first-rounders, might be open to work out a deal with the Raps and its former employee, Ujiri, for a reasonable price.
Toronto has been eyeing power forward Kenneth Faried for quite some time, although trading for the energetic big man, who is fresh from signing a four-year, $50 million deal last summer, would require a conduit party to make the financial aspects of the trade work.
"The Raptors have long been linked to Denver's Kenneth Faried, mainly because Ujiri drafted him when he was in Denver. The problem with moving Faried is his new contract extension. His cap value to the Nuggets is his current $2.249 million contract. A team acquiring him has to account for his extension which balloons his incoming cap value to $10.44 million," Kyler stated.
Faried, who is averaging 11.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, is still finding his way around the rope under head coach Brian Shaw, who is implementing a more conservative half-court offensive system. Faried's best years came under Nuggets former head coach George Karl who is known for using a fast-paced, high-octane offense - a system very similar to Raptors' up-and-down offense.
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