How two trades from 2013 helped make the Raptors title contenders

When the Toronto Raptors traded for Rudy Gay on Jan. 30, 2013, they were a team that was in disarray. They were 16-30 and set to miss the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season. While they had DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry on their roster already, the cornerstones of what would soon become the Raptors’ most consistently successful team in franchise history, they were not leading the team in the way they soon would.

Rudy Gay, a consistent scorer who looked just about ready to enter his prime figured to be the missing piece, a potential star the team had not had since Chris Bosh left for Miami in the summer of 2010. The Raptors did not have to give up a ton to acquire Gay — just Jose Calderon, Ed Davis, and a second round pick — since the Grizzlies, fully committed to the Grit N’ Grind style of play, found him an expendable piece with Zach Randolph, Mike Conley, and Marc Gasol then forming the foundation of the team.

The Raptors did experience some short-term benefits following the trade, going 18-18 after acquiring Gay. The Grizzlies also improved marginally after the trade as well, going 27-11 the rest of the way after beginning the season 29-15. Also, due to some favorable seeding and bad injury luck on the part of the Oklahoma City Thunder, their second-round opponent, the Grizzlies were able to make the Conference Finals that season for the first time in franchise history. However, the Raptors’ benefits were also very short-term. The momentum they had to finish the previous season vanished and they started the following season 7-12 before deciding to move Gay yet again after he had played just 51 games with the team.

The move was sudden, but perhaps not quite as unexpected as it may have appeared at the time. Over the offseason, the Raptors had parted ways with team president Bryan Colangelo, who had acquired Gay, and hired Masai Ujiri from the Denver Nuggets to be the team’s new general manager. Ujiri, the reigning Executive of the Year, was eager to reshape the Raptors and believed trading Gay was a worthwhile first step in that effort. Again, Gay did not fetch a huge return as the Raptors earned a bevy of bench players — Patrick Patterson, Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons, and Chuck Hayes — who would start less combined games for Toronto that season than Gay already had, but the trade still paid bigger dividends for the Raptors than many would have expected.

At the time, the move appeared to be little more than a salary dump, a prelude to potential tanking, but the team’s immediate success made such ideas quickly appear foolish. Following their 7-12 start, the Raptors went 41-22, winning their division for just the second time in franchise history and making the playoffs for the first time since 2008.

While none of the players involved in either of these trades are on the Raptors today, its effects still reverberate over six years later, and it played no small role in making the Raptors the title contenders they are today.

In the short term, the trade helped Lowry and DeRozan by making the team unquestionably their own. Perhaps they would have developed into multiple time All-Stars alongside Gay, but without Gay, a greater burden was placed upon them and they carried it ably and deftly, playing the best basketball of their careers while leading the Raptors to unprecedented success. Much like how the Thunder’s 2011 trade of Jeff Green was more valuable for giving the rest of their young talent more opportunities and breathing room offensively than for anything they received, the trade of Gay gave DeRozan and Lowry freedom they had not previously experienced, enabling them to shine as never before. DeRozan made his first All-Star team that season and Lowry would follow the next. Also, the acquisition of Grieves Vasquez surprisingly paid more long term benefits to the Raptors than any of the other pieces in the trade as a 2015 Draft Night trade with the Bucks netted Toronto the rights to Norman Powell and a first-round draft pick that would become OG Anunoby.

A few months before Ujiri traded Gay to Sacramento, he also traded another piece inherited from Colangelo’s time running the team — former number one pick Andrea Bargnani. Bargnani was a prolific scorer, but one who was not very efficient, a defensive liability, and a very poor rebounder for his size. He was also due to receive over $23 million over the next two years, and as the coming Gay deal would show, Ujiri was eager to shed salary in order to increase future flexibility. In return for Bargnani, the Knicks offered a handful of bit players and a draft picks, including a 2016 first that eventually turned into Jakob Poeltl, who along with DeMar DeRozan, would be traded for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green in the summer of 2018, setting up Toronto for a run to the Finals and a potential championship.

Both of these trades, directly and indirectly, helped pave the way for the current team that is one game away from winning the first championship in franchise history. Trading Bargnani and Gay enabled Ujiri and the Raptors to have more room to maneuver moving forward, allowing them to tinker and take risks and find value that may not have been possible otherwise. These moves also, by acquiring Poeltl and by helping DeRozan to flourish respectively, led to the acquisition of Kawhi, who has been the catalyst for the Raptors’ run as he has performed at historically great levels throughout this postseason. Looking back, these trades are a testament to the fact that, as out of nowhere and surprising Toronto’s success this postseason may have seemed, in some ways, it has been years in the making. Of course, this run has not been without its fair share of serendipity and lucky bounces — in at least one case, quite literally — but it showcases the value of Ujiri’s management style, which is simultaneously defined by both thoughtful prudence and a willingness to take big risks.