Right in the middle of the Raptors rebuild season, Toronto makes one of the biggest trades on paper in franchise history, sending Kelly Olynyk, Bruce Brown, a 2026 first round pick, and a 2025 second round pick to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for all-star caliber forward Brandon Ingram. Toronto is currently sitting with a record of 16-35 on the year, still wildly far away from being a competitive team in the east despite recently completing a five game win streak and being on quite a hot run as of late. Regardless, Toronto’s front office decided to expedite the process of getting back into contention and put a slight pause in their quest of draft lottery supremacy in landing a solid scorer to pair alongside Scottie Barnes when Ingram returns from injury.

Ingram hasn’t played a game since December 7, after suffering a high grade ankle sprain, and has been out rehabbing ever since. Still, his potential upside and talent when healthy was enough for Toronto to take a gamble on and hope that he returns to form when he’s ready to step back on the court.

The hope for this Raptors team, and the best case scenario is being able to have a high pick in the draft this year, be able to re-sign Ingram this off-season since he is on an expiring contract, and have a lineup consisting of RJ Barrett, Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram, and a potential top five draft pick in a stacked draft class coming into the 2025-26 season. The only main glare in this transaction is A. the fact that Ingram isn’t under contract for next year and the team will need to negotiate a new deal with him if they want to keep him around long-term, and B. because Ingram and Barnes have very similar styles of play the spacing and scoring options may need some time to be figured out once both men begin to play full-time alongside one another. Apart from those two concerns, this deal brings an all-star level player to Toronto in an effort to make them better in the long term while also giving away assets to continue tanking this season to win a high pick in the lottery. Overall a very solid move once again by the Raptors front office and fans will be anticipating Ingram’s return to the floor now in new black and purple threads, playing for the 6ix.