2:52pm: The trade is official, the Raptors and Jazz announced in a pair of press releases.
9:38am: The Jazz have agreed to trade center Kelly Olynyk and wing Ochai Agbaji to the Raptors, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). According to Wojnarowski, Utah will receive Kira Lewis, Otto Porter, and a 2024 first-round pick from Toronto in the deal.
That 2024 first-rounder will be the least favorable of the Thunder’s, Clippers’, Rockets’, and Jazz’s picks, per Wojnarowski (Twitter link), so it figures to land near the end of the first round. Utah’s pick is top-10 protected, meaning there’s a scenario in which the Jazz end up hanging onto their own first-rounder and receive a separate pick (likely OKC’s or L.A.’s) as a result of this deal.
While it’s a little surprising to see a lottery-bound team like the Raptors surrender a first-round pick, the deal will net them a solid big man in Olynyk and a promising young prospect in Agbaji, who was the 14th overall pick in the 2022 draft.
Assuming the Raptors intend to hang onto Olynyk, the Toronto native will become the ninth Canadian to play for the franchise and will provide some depth in a frontcourt that’s relatively thin behind Jakob Poeltl. A forward/center who can stretch the floor, Olynyk is averaging 8.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, and a career-high 4.4 assists in 20.4 minutes per game across 50 appearances this season. The 32-year-old has made 42.9% of his three-pointers, boosting his career rate to 37.0%.
Olynyk is on an expiring contract, but the Raptors will control his Bird rights this offseason, giving them the ability to go over the cap to re-sign him or to figure out a sign-and-trade.
As for Agbaji, the young wing hasn’t shown much offensive game since entering the league last season, but is a solid defender who still has room to grow and is under contract through 2026. The Raptors have liked Agbaji for a while, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca, and presumably view him as the type of player who can develop alongside the team’s young core of Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, and RJ Barrett.
The Jazz and Raptors had reportedly been discussing a similar deal that would have included Bruce Brown – rather than a first-round pick – going to Utah. However, Toronto controlled an excess of picks in a 2024 draft that the club isn’t believed to be especially high on, while the Jazz are at risk of losing their own ’24 first-round selection, so the inclusion of the low first-rounder makes some sense.
The Raptors still own the Pacers’ first-round pick and the Pistons’ second-round pick in 2024, and would hang onto their own first-rounder if it ends up in the top six.
Lewis’ salary couldn’t be aggregated in a trade after being acquired from Indiana last month, but that won’t be necessary, since Porter’s $6.3MM cap hit is enough on its own to match Olynyk’s $12.2MM incoming salary, while Lewis’ $5.7MM salary will be used to match Agbaji’s $4.1MM cap hit.
It remains to be seen whether the Jazz will hang onto Lewis and/or Porter for the rest of the season. Lewis is a former lottery pick and Porter has had some strong seasons as a three-and-D wing, but both players have battled injuries in recent years and haven’t played much outside of garbage time in 2023/24.
Hell yes!! Good deal for the Raps!!
Why? This is just more splashing in the middle. Rebuild or go for it but dont do both…
Huh? Acquiring a young player with potential like Agbaji is definitely in line with their current rebuild.
Great deal for Raptors. Ochai can slide into OG’s role and have the proper time to grow into a player.
Future looks bright at Jurassic Park
Isn’t Ochai a shooting guard? Or is he a great spot up defender?
I am not really familar with how they used him in SLC. I’ll leave that to other people in here to answer that. I did think highly of him in 2022 and think he can be molded into the next great Raptors wing player.
He’s big enough to play the 3, and he’s not in OG’s league on defense, but he is solid. A bit lacking on the perimeter but he can make pretty much anybody work. Could easily play the 2 and have the larger, more physical Barrett play the 3 like he did in NY.
His 3pt shooting has been inconsistent this year, but he has very obvious talent. When he’s hot he doesn’t miss.
Utah now has 14 1st over the next 4 drafts. How are they going to use them?
Possibly go after one of those guards from Portland and offer 1-2 of those? Possibly trade up in future drafts that are not considered weak?
This makes no sense for Raptors. Why are they trading picks for guys on expiring deals?
Combination of the 2024 draft sucking, Agbaji being young and possible to develop, and having multiple picks already.
Agbaji was the prize within this trade. I think I would be extremely thrilled with this pick. Agbaji would probably be a top 10 pick in this year’s draft class bc it’s so weak at the top.
It’s going to be like the 28-30th pick in the draft. It’s the least favorable of four teams and two of them (Thunder, Clippers) are 1 and 2 in the West.
Agbaji is nice but I think they need a young PF and C. Should of traded Jacob P, brown and Dennis S. I liked Lewis on Toronto. I don’t like this trade either
Poeltl’s extension means he can be traded next year or in the offseason. (plus they gave up a 1st for him, so they need to recoup the value somehow). Schroeder can be traded still. Lewis is a nothing-burger of a player.
They can’t trade Jacob P right now EON? His contract is long. Lewis deserve a chance, he was injured his second year and was thrown aside after that. What about Wiseman and Hayes for Trent and Temple?
They could, but would they get the best value for him? Poeltl is a very solid Center. It’s not like Toronto *has* to blow up the whole team at once. RJ, Quickley, Barnes, and now Agbaji are a decent young core, plus Gradey D finally looks like he’s starting to adapt to the NBA. Poeltl’s veteran leadership at the 5 is valuable to them, plus Koloko may never play another NBA game because of his health issues. They’re hedging their bets right now.
Oh yeah, they should have traded for Kessler and Markannen instead. I wonder why the Raptors didn’t acquire those guys instead? It’s not likely every team covets talented bigs and they are difficult to acquire, especially young ones with strong promise.
I guess they forgot to ask for a good young PF and C.
Brown hasn’t been dealt yet. Maybe a young power forward is on the way.
Jazz should trade a first pick for tyus.jones
Jazz got fleeced. Can’t wait to see who Brown will get dealt for.
Danny Boy did it again. Kiss the .500 Jazz, that were fighting for a play-in spot, goodbye.
If Markkanen extends with this SLC dumpster franchise, he’s got to be out of his mind. Unless he’s fine with that single All-Star nomination and no playoffs over the next five years.
They weren’t going to resign Olynyk and they had zero chance of getting out of the first round.
They got a first round pick for Agbaji. Not sure if “fleeced” is the first word that comes to mind.
They got even more then that. Two players for two players plus they got their pick and perhaps the lessor of clippers or thunder. Getting their pick back was key to unlocking their own future picks.
Obviously the jazz didn’t want to wait and as you said…ko was going to be traded or be a free agent. The jazz had his bird rights so he could’ve resigned with them and or did sandt later.
Now raptors get to figure out how to do that.
Raptors for sure like ochai.
Jazz used him as a defensive stopper. Very athletic and of high character. His shooting has been inconsistent because of how they used him. He has been known in college to be great shooter. Mvp of the tourney!
Ochai will develop nicely with the raptors.
It would be funny to see ko leave in the summer and come back to the jazz.
Same could happen with the Fons. I’m sure their will be bidding wars but teams can use their cap space or bird rights to retain at a cost. Players get their cash
This trade opens up more playing time for Kessler and their rookie Hendricks. It makes them a bit shallow at SF as Markkanen will most likely switch to PF but they day’s not done yet and there’s still the buyout market.
They still have enough to compete for a play-in berth. There’s four teams being the Lakers, Jazz, Warriors and Rockets vying for 2 spots. These trades don’t change anything. With the exception of Agbaji they were extra pieces they were losing anyway
They still have Collins at PF.
He’s been starting at center, they may move him back to PF now and start Kessler.
I get that, just saying I don’t see the need for Lauri to play much pf.
I could see Hendricks or even Samanic getting some run.
Hendricks has been playing down in the G League for a reason. Olynyk is a smart veteran player who held the bench unit together particularly with his passing.
Since the deadline has passed without Denny Boy making any further moves, he kneecapped the team once again, just when the lineups had developed some sort of chemistry.
Markkanen, in his seventh NBA year, has never been to the playoffs and was stuck on tanking teams in six out of seven seasons. He’s seen his GMs sabotage the teams’ rosters over and over again. He probably isn’t too thrilled at the prospects of repeating that process for years to come.
The Players Tribune published an interesting article from T.J. McConnell about the 76ers’ tanking “process” under Sam Hinkie and the mentally draining aspects on the part of the players. Quote: “But here’s what I don’t think everyone else gets: Losing sucks, man. It just…….. sucks.”
link to theplayerstribune.com
If Markkanen is smart, he demands a trade asap.
Talk about overreacting lmfao
Remember when these post trade posts would give a brief overview of the players involved… yeah me too.
Refresh the page maybe.
TOR wanted to move that FRP, and probably would have done it on draft night if they didn’t find what they wanted.
Whether they keep their own 2024 FRP or not, they’ve got IND’s 2024 FRP (middle of the round), and DET’s 2024 SRP (likely the first pick of the second round). The pick they traded is almost certainly going to be 25th or lower.
This looks like another player dump like last year. They get rid of guys they didn’t see a future with and take a flyer on some incoming guys.
The Jazz have 2/3 first round drafted players that haven’t gotten much run yet. Depending on how good, and injured, the incoming players are, this trade could open the door for playing time for Hendricks and Sensabaugh.
Raps improved overall…