Grade the Trade: Pacers land Pascal Siakam in prehistoric proposal

The Toronto Raptors are a team trying to thread a needle with a length of rope. Their championship roster from 2019 has slowly been falling apart, and rather than take the drastic action necessary they have tried to not trade their core players and hope they re-sign, all while not being good enough to contend.

Finally, it appears that the Raptors are ready to face at least a bar or two of the music. After losing Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, Kyle Lowry and now Fred VanVleet in free agency, reports suggest that the Raptors are at least open to moving Pascal Siakam before he can leave in free agency next summer.

Could the Indiana Pacers trade for Pascal Siakam?

Enter the Indiana Pacers, one of the teams with reported interest in trading for Siakam. The Pacers are on the other end of the “middling” pool, looking to add pieces around their blue-chip young player in Tyrese Haliburton. After a summer that brought in Bruce Brown, Jabari Walker and Obi Toppin, could the Pacers push even more chips into the middle to add an All-NBA forward like Siakam?

The Raptors are notoriously hard to negotiate with, which probably helps to inform the lack of trades we mentioned before. Does a trade package from the Pacers move the needle for Toronto? Is it worth it for Indiana to add Siakam? Let’s look at what kind of trade would make this happen.