Now that the NBA Trade Deadline has come and gone everyone and their brother will be analyzing their team and the moves that they made. Did we win the trade? Did we get fleeced? There are plenty of questions to be answered, but one I would like to ask is this: how close were we to getting Domantas Sabonis?
The NBA is both a very secretive and very public gossip-tank. There are trades like Luka Doncic-to-LA that are so secretive that less than 10 people even knew about it prior to the Shams tweet. Then there are rumors that are so public that your grandmother has probably heard about it. Sabonis has been linked to the Raptors for the last 6 weeks, and I figured that if there was smoke there was going to be a fire.
I really talked myself into the trade as well. With Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes playing as well as they have been I would have loved to see the kind of open looks that Sabonis could have got them. Domas is a bit underrated in my opinion but what can’t be denied is his playmaking ability. Just IMAGINE the DHO’s between him and BI. Just THINK about the Blind Pig actions and 45 cuts that he and Barnes could have run. I’m getting upset just thinking about what we missed out on.
We didn’t leave the trade deadline empty handed, however. We were able to secure Trayce Jackson-Davis away from the Warriors, and I think there is no one happier about that than Collin Murray Boyels who’s been playing a Small Ball Center role for us while Jakob Poeltl has been recovering from injury. I don’t expect TJD to come in and light the world on fire, but we were desperate to bolster our Center rotation and I think that was as good a move as any.
Still, after weeks of rumors, it is so weird that we didn’t end up with Sabonis. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall of the War Room to see exactly how close we were to getting him and what the Kings were asking in return. All I have now are my fever dreams and a MyLeague 2K save to remember Sabonis the Raptor by. RIP Sabonis the Raptor 2026-2026.
Round The Game 
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