1 deal Raptors must make with 2025-26 NBA trade season underway

The Toronto Raptors’ play may have fallen a bit as of late, but they remain in fourth place in the congested Eastern Conference with a 20-15 record. That is still better than most expected out of them heading into the 2025-26 campaign, although that seems to be the bare minimum considering how much the team invested in player payroll.

But as much as the Raptors look like a legitimate playoff team in the East, it is becoming very apparent that they may not have enough yet to compete for a championship. Brandon Ingram has been a godsend as a primary perimeter shot-creator, Scottie Barnes is a winning player who can fill in gaps for his team on both ends of the floor, while RJ Barrett provides rim pressure that no other player on the team can.

However, Jakob Poeltl has been dealing with injury problems all season long, while Immanuel Quickley has been battling inconsistency. If there are areas for the Raptors to improve, it’s at the spine of their team — the center and point guard positions.

Even with Masai Ujiri no longer working with the franchise, the Raptors organization knows the value of having stars on the roster. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that they’ve been linked to a potential trade for Dallas Mavericks star Anthony Davis.

Davis’ winning impact has been proven for years, which would make it difficult for the Raptors to trade for him especially when he’ll have plenty of suitors himself.

Nonetheless, trading for Davis is the obvious move for the Raptors, and here’s the package they must dangle to try and convince the Mavericks.

Raptors become aggressive on the trade market for Anthony Davis

Raptors acquire: Anthony Davis, D’Angelo Russell

Mavericks acquire: Jakob Poeltl, Immanuel Quickley, Collin Murray-Boyles, 2026 TOR first-round pick, 2028 TOR first-round pick

At first glance, this looks like such an expensive price to pay for Davis. He is 32, so one would think that his best years are already behind him, and he’s been injury-prone his entire career — a fact that is unlikely to change as he ages even further.

However, a player’s trade value does not exist in a vacuum. The trade market dictates just how much any team would be willing to pay for a star of Davis’ caliber. And with the Mavericks reportedly looking to shop Davis in their continued pivot to a youth movement, they are not going to settle for pennies on the dollar, not when they traded away Luka Doncic to bring in the 32-year-old’s services.

ClutchPoints NBA insider Brett Siegel even floated a bonkers five-team trade scenario where the Mavericks manage to acquire Domantas Sabonis (a fringe All-Star-caliber player), Zaccharie Risacher (the first overall pick of the 2024 NBA Draft), Luke Kennard, and two first-round picks. That is a reasonable return for the Mavericks to expect in any Davis trade scenario, and if that is the level of package the Raptors have to match just so they could bring Davis in, then they may have to think twice.

Nonetheless, the Raptors have the assets to bring Davis in. They could simply choose to figure everything out later. Having to trade away two starters as well as the ninth overall pick of the 2025 NBA Draft in Collin Murray-Boyles, along with two first-round picks, may deter the Raptors from pursuing Davis, but here’s why doing so is worth the risk.

For starters, the Raptors, in this trade, will be able to get off of Poeltl’s contract. Poeltl signed a three-year, $84 million extension on top of his current deal., He is now going to get paid a total of $104 million for four years. While the 30-year-old center is a productive rim protector and an underrated passer when healthy, his back issues have been lingering all season long, and back problems are never a good sign for an aging big man.

Poeltl will be making around $27.3 million in his age-32 campaign, and that could put the Raptors in some serious cap purgatory if they keep his deal on the books.

These same problems may prevent the Mavericks from wanting Poeltl in any Davis trade scenario with the Raptors. However, there is no other way for Toronto to match salaries with Davis other than to add Poeltl to one of Quickley or Barrett’s contracts. There’s no way Toronto will be trading either Ingram or Barnes for Davis.

On the other hand, Quickley hasn’t exactly been lighting it up as of late, although he’s picked up his play and appears to be turning things around. He’s averaging 16-4-6 on the season, which may not be the kind of production they would want from someone making $32.5 million for the next four years.

Getting off of Quickley’s contract should also lead to better long-term cap health for the Raptors, and managing to offload that onerous contract while bringing in a star like Davis cannot be seen as anything more than a huge win.

But considering the drawbacks that come with getting Poeltl and Quickley, the Mavericks would want to be handsomely compensated. This is where Collin Murray-Boyles’ inclusion becomes a must. Toronto would want to find a scenario in which they could acquire Davis without giving up their recent lottery pick. Alas, acquiring talent means giving up talent in return, and the Mavs would want to add a blue-chip prospect in the event of a Davis trade considering that giving up on the 32-year-old means that they’re going all in on the youth.

Murray-Boyles’ offensive game is so raw it was as if he was reeled in straight from the ocean, but defensively, he has shown tons of potential as a multi-positional disruptor, a high-level connector any contending team would want. Pairing him alongside Cooper Flagg would give the Mavericks two high-level defenders to build the team around — continuing former GM Nico Harrison’s defense-first roster-building ethos.

The two first-round picks simply act as sweetener for the Mavericks so they don’t look elsewhere anymore in their attempt to trade Davis away. If the Raptors end up winning plenty of games over the next few seasons, losing those picks shouldn’t hurt too much anyway.

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