Regarding the Poeltl trade; I still don't think it's an awful trade. If the Raptors had chosen to keep everything together instead of blowing it up midseason, they could have finished in the late lottery. Maybe even pushed for a play-in, especially if they did the OG trade to get Quickley and Barrett, and then kept Siakam and Schroder at the deadline. They could easily turn around and trade Poeltl on his current contract for a mid-teens pick this year if they wanted, similar to the value they gave up at the time of the trade.
It also absolutely makes sense to have a veteran C like Poeltl for a rebuild. It's really tough running a P&R offence without a good screening big, and Quickley will develop a lot better for having someone like Poeltl he can run P&Rs with, rather than doing that with a raw rookie C. His shooting leaves a lot to be desired, but his P&R and passing game are perfect for Darko's style of offense.
There were a lot of other moves that the organization made that I hated. It's been a long time since they've hit on a free agent... Schroder was actually a good value pickup in principle, but was the right guy at the wrong time. They arguably gave up on some guys too early. I was digging into some advanced stats on McDaniels the other day, and even knowing that he was bad, I was shocked at just how bad the stats are for him. (Literally one of the least efficient players in the entire league across several different types of shots.) Basically, they've had a lot of low-risk, medium-reward free agency signings over the past few years but have hit on absolutely none of them. And I'm highly skeptical they'll be able to get good value down the line for Brown and think he definitely should have been moved for the best offer available at the deadline.
The advanced stats for the starters together last year were decent, but the bench was a disaster. The advanced stats for Barnes, Barrett, Quickley and Poeltl together have also been really promising in a limited sample size, but the bench is in an even worse shape looking ahead to next year than at the beginning of this season.
So yeah, tough offseason ahead; I don't expect it to be really dramatic for the Raptors. Maybe a trade of Brown and some other end-of-rotation players like Boucher, but the return there is most likely going to be a bad-contract filler, plus a pick/prospect.
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