In their previous two seasons, the Toronto Raptors started the year with two glaring holes on their roster: No starting centre, and no backup point guard.
The latter meant running Fred VanVleet into the ground. The former led to “Vision 6’9”” — playing multiple wing-type players with long wing-spans who could make up for the team’s lack of size by covering a ton of ground, quickly.
It worked for one incredibly fun season. But the tank ran out in 2022-23, and management moved to address one of those problems at last season’s trade deadline: They traded their 2024 first round pick (top-six protected), along with Khem Birch and a couple second round picks, to bring Jakob Poeltl back home to the team that drafted him.