Tag: Toronto Raptors

Brandon Ingram trade grades: Who won the Raptors-Pelicans deal?

This was a pretty savvy move by New Orleans.

This is one of the most exciting NBA trade deadlines in recent memory and yet another deal broke with Brandon Ingram heading to the Raptors.

After spending several years with the Pelicans as a centerpiece return for New Orleans in the original Anthony Davis blockbuster, Ingram will now play for his third professional franchise.

Toronto did not give up a tremendous amount to land his services, though realistically, this is not exactly the most logical trade for their front office either.

Here is what you need to know about the deal for both sides:

Trade details 

Raptors get: Brandon Ingram

Pelicans get: Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, first-round pick (2026 NOP), second-round pick

Toronto Raptors

There is some school of thought that if you get the better player, you win the trade. This is not necessarily an example of that happening.

Ingram is not the same player he was when he made the NBA All-Star team and won the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2020. But once he is healthy again, he is also potentially good enough to help Toronto win more games, which hurts their ability to get a better pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.

The incentive to get Ingram makes some sense if they feel they can get him on a discounted deal when he hits free agency at the conclusion of this year.

Perhaps the change of scenery is exactly what Ingram needed for a fresh start to regain his productivity. He is talented and he could make for an interesting fit next to Scottie Barnes.

But if the Raptors end up paying him higher than market value, he probably isn’t enough of a star to make it worth that price. Simply put, this deal does not make a ton of sense.

Grade: C+

New Orleans Pelicans

This is a great deal for the Pelicans as the front office likely decided they no longer wished to have Ingram as part of their long-term plans.

His presence once he returns to full health would have probably stood in the way of their chances to lose more games and thus have better odds of getting a top pick, like Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper.

So rather than lose him for nothing, they get the expiring contract of Bruce Brown that will come off the books and a relatively affordable deal for Kelly Olynyk that will expire after next season.

But the real prize is not paying Ingram while also gaining another first-round pick in the process, even if a first-rounder from the Pacers is not worth a ton.

Grade: A-

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Pat Connaughton/Blake Wesley NBA Tracker: Jan. 6-12

One player actually did all right this week all things considered.

Notre Dame’s two NBA representatives played in three games over the past week, one after the other. So it makes sense to talk about those games chronologically.

It began Jan. 6 when [autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] made a single field goal and had a rebound and assist in the Milwaukee Bucks’ victory over the Toronto Raptors. Connaughton didn’t play when the Bucks hosted [autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag]’s San Antonio Spurs on Jan. 8, but Wesley did, collecting two rebounds in under three minutes.

Connaughton wrapped up the week during the Bucks’ Jan. 12 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. In a hair under 16 minutes, he scored eight points, grabbed five boards, and dished out two assists. That meant for the week, he averaged 5.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists a game.

Although there isn’t a lot to report for the two players this week, it still is more than some of what we’ve had to work with in recent weeks. Unless both can work their way back into their respective rotations, this is how it will be for the rest of the season.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89

NBA trainer Joe Abunassar: ‘Being great demands more sacrifice than most are willing to make’

Joe Abunassar, a name synonymous with elite basketball training, brings nearly three decades of expertise to the game. Over his 27-year career, Joe has trained over 300 NBA players, including Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Chauncey Billups. As the …

Joe Abunassar, a name synonymous with elite basketball training, brings nearly three decades of expertise to the game. Over his 27-year career, Joe has trained over 300 NBA players, including Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Chauncey Billups.

As the founder of Impact Basketball, Joe revolutionized the field by integrating on-court skills, strength, nutrition, and mental performance into one comprehensive system.

Abunassar sat down with HoopsHype reflecting on his journey, his approach to blending drills with game readiness, the importance of building trust with players, and his plans for the future of Impact Basketball.

Son of Notre Dame women’s basketball coach hits buzzer beater

Big shot for anyone.

Things for going great for the Ivey family. First, [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] just coached the Notre Dame women’s basketball team to a huge win over USC. That bumped the Irish up to third in the latest Top 25 AP poll and even netted them three first-place votes.

Now, the good fortune is being passed down to the next generation. Jaden Ivey, Niele’s son, has hit a baseline buzzer beater to help the Detroit Pistons defeat the Toronto Raptors, 102-100. It capped a night in which he led the Pistons with 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field and led all players with eight assists.

Ivey is in his third season with the Pistons out of Purdue, and it’s his best one yet so far. Through 18 games, he is averaging 18.4 points and 4.4 assists a game. Whatever he does the rest of the season though or even the rest of his career, he’ll remember this:

Here’s hoping Ivey will have many more some clutch moments throughout his NBA career.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89

LeBron James had hilarious reaction to fan who encouraged his triple-double

This was such a funny move by LeBron.

Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James needed just one more rebound to record his second consecutive triple-double.

With two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the 39-year-old star pulled down his tenth board of the game against the Toronto Raptors. Immediately after grabbing the rebound, the four-time NBA Finals MVP pointed at a fan who was watching the game.

James was clearly aware of his accomplishment, which actually marked the second game in a row that he was able to achieve as much. But it seemed the fan was fully aware of what just happened as well.

After the game, James was asked about the exchange with the fan.

He spoke candidly about what happened in that moment.

According to James, the fan yelled “one more rebound” which got his attention.

So when he was done cleaning the glass, James made sure that he acknowledged that he was listening.

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Cooper Flagg must join the NBA’s Eastern Conference to balance out the league

The NBA NEEDS Cooper Flagg in the Eastern Conference.

With all due respect to fans of woeful NBA teams like the Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers, it’s time we have a frank conversation. And I apologize for how it will exclude your totally valid (but, to me, ultimately tertiary) needs as diehard supporters of your respective favorite teams.

The NBA’s latest truly generational draft prospect, Duke’s Cooper Flagg, must play in the Eastern Conference when he likely jumps to the league in the summer of 2025. Full stop.

There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it, either.

If we want to have a truly healthy and balanced NBA, throwing another potential franchise superstar like Flagg into an already-stacked West is a dire scenario for the league. The sheer talent disparity between the two conferences — the West has had more All-NBA players every season for 26 straight years — is already way too glaring.

The East’s embarrassingly slow start to the 2024-2025 season only confirms as much. It’s still a small sample size (less than 10 games into the year at the time of this writing), but here are some eye-opening early numbers to keep in mind if you’re one of those people who’d like to see Flagg play somewhere West of the Rocky Mountains:

  • Only two East teams, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics, currently have a winning record. That’s right. Quite literally, everyone else outside of Cleveland and Boston in the East is straddling the line at .500 or lower. Yikes.
  • Eight of the NBA’s 10 best records so far belong to Western Conference teams. Eight. EIGHT.
  • The West, itself, is winning over 70 percent of its games head-to-head with the East so far. That’s roughly a 57-win pace over an 82-game season, by the way. A real ho-hum kind of dominance.
  • The East, itself, is also being heavily dragged down by the struggling Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks, who were supposed to be bellwethers as conference heavyweights. From injuries and age to good old-fashioned bad luck, these two teams are instead mired at the bottom of the standings. Tough scene.

I know it’s tempting to say we’ll appreciate someone with Flagg’s unique all-around abilities wherever he plays. Which, sure. That’s part of the deal we make as sports fans. Sometimes, it’s just about sitting back and appreciating the show talented athletes can put on.

You take what you can get. I understand.

Still, this massive disparity between the NBA’s East and West simply cannot continue. Flagg and the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama are/were considered two of the best draft prospects in the league in years. For both of them to play on Western teams in a conference where, for example, a 50-win team was the fifth seed last season (a 50-win team was the No. 2 seed in the East) would be an unmitigated disaster for competitive balance.

Western teams already tear each other apart all year. Meanwhile, the 2-3 squads fighting at the top of the East get to be on cruise control as they please. A possible superstar like Flagg going West would just make it even worse. It’s not tenable or sustainable for players or fans of Western teams. (The conference really needs more “nights off,” if you know what I mean!)

The East needs an injection of potential all-time youth and talent. Badly.

So, this is my message to fans of fledgling squads like the Washington Wizards and Toronto Raptors. I’m really rooting for you.

Go capture that Flagg.

The NBA’s interconference competitive balance might depend on it.

Vince Carter earns retirement gift, Raptors to honor him this weekend

It’s a good weekend to be Vince Carter.

When it comes to the best dunkers in basketball history, who are some names that come to mind?

For me, it’s former UNC standout Vince Carter, who truly developed himself into a star at the professional level.

Carter played at North Carolina for three seasons (1995-1996, 1996-1997, 1997-1998), helping his teammates make the Final Four twice. Carter averaged 12.3 points per game across his three years as a Tar Heel, highlighted by a career best 15.6 PPG in his final season.

Drafted fifth overall in the 1998 NBA Draft, Carter played 22 seasons with eight different teams, most notably his first six-and-a-half with the Toronto Raptors. Eight All-Star nods later and 21st on the NBA All-Time scoring list, Carter earned himself a 2024 Hall of Fame induction.

As a thank you for Carter’s service to the city of Toronto, Air Canada is also gifting Carter an A-220 aircraft – complete with his 15 on the side.

On Saturday, Nov. 2, Toronto will be also retiring Carter’s legendary number 15 during its game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DB1op1RPpr4/?img_index=1

Carter’s jersey retirement also marks a historical moment, with his 15 the first number to be retired in Raptors’ franchise history.

Carter is arguably one of the greatest professional basketball players to never win a championship – or make one. Carter’s 2010 season with the Orlando Magic was the closest he got, as Orlando advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, before losing to the now reigning NBA Finals champion Boston Celtics.

In 2000-2001 with Toronto, Carter averaged a career-best 27.6 points per game. This was one of Carter’s 10 seasons averaging a minimum 20 points per game, showcasing how efficient of a scorer he was.

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DeMar DeRozan doesn’t think the Raptors needed Kawhi Leonard to win an NBA title in 2019

DeMar DeRozan thinks Toronto would have won if he was never traded.

While promoting his new book Above the Noise, DeMar DeRozan spoke about the trade that sent him from the Toronto Raptors to the San Antonio Spurs.

DeRozan, who began his career playing for the Raptors, enjoyed tremendous success playing alongside Kyle Lowry in Toronto. But after multiple All-Star appearances and late appearances in the postseason, the front office opted to trade DeRozan in exchange for Kawhi Leonard before the 2018-19 season.

The Raptors went on to win the 2019 NBA Championship, which was their first in franchise history. But on ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith asked an interesting question.

Smith argued that at that time in Toronto’s franchise, the only team that the Raptors seemed to struggle against were LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers.

He wondered if the Raptors would have still won a title in 2019 if they still had DeRozan, not Leonard, as James left the Eastern Conference to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers.

It seemed DeRozan agreed with the theory, stating the following:

“Never to discredit those guys. They won it. They deserve it. I finally had got to a point where I was happy for them. But for sure. I definitely feel like that. The only person we couldn’t beat was LeBron. That’s just what it was. I felt off the year we had before, we just needed one more piece to kind of push us over the top. That piece came to be LeBron going to the West and I didn’t get an opportunity to see what would have happened. But the upmost confident in myself, I have no doubt in my mind the same outcome would have happened.”

Good for DeRozan to have the confidence in himself to truly believe this.

He is right: The only team that stood in his way was the Cavaliers and with James in the Western Conference on the Lakers that season, this was finally DeRozan’s shot to win it all. Instead, however, it was Leonard who won NBA Finals MVP in 2019.

Of course, it may have been a lot tougher for the Raptors to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers (who were juggernaut that season as well) without Leonard playing.

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Former Ohio State hoops star Jamison Battle signs with the Toronto Raptors

Congrats Jamison! #GoBucks

Although Ohio State basketball forward, [autotag]Jamison Battle[/autotag], didn’t hear his name being called during the NBA draft, that didn’t deter him from trying to achieve his dream.

An opportunity to play on the Toronto Raptors summer league team was presented to him, and the lefty didn’t disappoint. Through two games Battle shot 66.7% from beyond the arc, showing his new team that he can play at this level.

The performance by Battle was enough to push the Raptors to lock him up with an undisclosed deal with the team that gave him a shot. It’s not the traditional way to get an NBA contract, but it’s doubtful that it matters at this point.

Congrats to Jamison, as he is getting his NBA journey started with all of Buckeye Nation following along.

Contact/Follow @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Follow Michael Chen on X. 

Several Thunder players attend OKC’s summer league loss to Raptors

Several Thunder players attend OKC’s summer league loss to Raptors.

After three games in Utah, the Oklahoma City Thunder flew to Las Vegas to join the rest of the league for the more traditional summer league.

They were flat in their first contest with a 94-69 loss to the Toronto Raptors, but several Thunder players were in attendance for the showing.

Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace and Isaiah Hartenstein made their way to their seats to watch their teammates play. The Thunder have a pair of rookies in the contests with Dillon Jones and Ajay Mitchell.

Jones finished with 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting, seven rebounds and two assists in 29 minutes. He shot 2-of-4 from 3.

Mitchell tallied 15 points on 6-of-18 shooting, three assists, three rebounds and three steals in 30 minutes. He shot 2-of-5 from 3.

“It was crazy because I didn’t really notice them until the end of the game,” Jones said on his teammates’ presence. “It’s crazy those are technically my teammates and brothers now. It’s still a crazy feeling because of their stature and who they are as players.”

Holmgren and Williams get to enjoy summer league from the sidelines this year. Both participated in the event for the last two years. They’ve graduated from the July exhibitions.

The Thunder have a few more games left in their summer league schedule. Holmgren and Williams used the first contest in Las Vegas to support their new teammates.

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