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TORONTO – Much of the league is paying close attention to the Raptors with the Feb. 9 NBA trade deadline fast approaching.

It’s no secret and it’s also not hard to see why. Toronto is tied for 11th in the East and sits a couple games back of the final play-in spot just ahead of the season’s halfway mark, having lost 14 of its last 20 contests. There’s no shortage of reasons why the team has underperformed, but it’s not for a lack of talent at the top of the roster. If any of those guys – star quality players on team-friendly deals in or just entering their prime years – were to become available, they would be highly coveted in what’s looking like a seller’s market.So, naturally, interested teams are waiting and wondering what approach they might take. One month out from the deadline, nobody seems quite sure and there’s a reason for that. The Raptors still aren’t sure themselves.

“ trying to figure s*** out,” said a source with knowledge of the situation in Toronto.

By all accounts, the team’s decision makers – led by president Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster – have yet to definitively commit to a path. It seems increasingly unlikely that they would be looking to buy, given how the first half of the season has gone, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll operate as aggressive sellers either.

Currently, they don’t appear to be shopping any of their core players, according to multiple league sources, but they do seem willing to listen to offers.

“They’re keeping their options open,” as one source described their process, which means they also haven’t ruled out anything.

Assuming that’s the case, the coming weeks will be a crucial period of evaluation for an organization at a crossroads. Internally, they believe they’re better than their 17-23 record and there’s still hope that they can go on a run and turn their season around.

As bleak as things have felt at times during their recent slide, games like Sunday’s 117-105 win over the Trail Blazers offer that cause for optimism, a reminder of what they look like when things are clicking.

The Raptors held Portland without a field goal for nearly nine minutes in the first half and then again for four and a half minutes in the third quarter. They hit 39 per cent of their three-point attempts, all five starters made an impact, and they finally got something out of their struggling bench. It was one of their most complete outings of the season and their first win of 2023, snapping a three-game losing skid. They’ll have a chance to build on it with the 11-30 Charlotte Hornets – one of the five teams below Toronto in the league standings – coming to town for a two-game set this week.

Their regular starting lineup is gelling again since they were reassembled last week (they’ve outscored opponents by 8.7 points per 100 possessions in 106 minutes over the last four games), the defence has looked better, and they’ve got the easiest remaining schedule in the NBA. Of the 16 games they’ll play prior to the trade deadline, 10 of them come against teams that are currently at or below .500.Whether they can take advantage of this stretch and continue to show signs of life could determine what happens next. Time is no longer on their side, with Tuesday’s game marking the official halfway point of the campaign, and decisions need to be made.

“Look at our record, we’re just trying to chip away,” Pascal Siakam said after practice on Monday. “In the grand scheme of things we obviously know we’re not where we’re supposed to be but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We’ve got to focus on every single game, treat it like it’s our last, and try to stay together… Nobody feels sorry for us. And I feel like I’m tired of talking about it. We’ve just got to go out there and do it, and hopefully we build a little momentum and get some wins in a row.”

It’s a precarious time. Even as they were putting the finishing touches on Sunday’s impressive win, a video showing Scottie Barnes and Thaddeus Young locked in a heated verbal exchange during halftime warmups began to surface. Both players downplayed it afterwards, with the sophomore calling it “a little disagreement” and the 16-year vet saying it was “no different than brothers going back and forth.” They hugged it out and smoothed things over quickly.

Although they rarely play out on camera as this one did, these types of minor disputes are not uncommon over the course of a long season, with any team. However, as tensions boil over on a team that’s fallen short of expectations, like the Raptors, it tends to happen more frequently – differences of opinion between player and player, player and coach, or coach and coach.

Now, with the trade deadline looming, it’s going to be even harder to block out the outside noise and stay together.

“At the end of the day, I could care less,” Siakam said. “Unless my phone starts ringing and you're going somewhere, that’s the only thing. But other than that, I'm here, I'm coming to work every day, and I let the people that do their job do their job.”

Even in the midst of his uneven second season, the belief is that Barnes – the NBA’s reigning Rookie of the Year – remains the Raptors’ only true untouchable, though it would take a “king’s ransom,” as one source put it, for them to consider parting with Siakam or O.G. Anunoby. Fred VanVleet is having a down season and expected to opt into free agency over the summer, but the sense is that Toronto still values the soon to be 29-year-old point guard as a part of the core moving forward.

Gary Trent Jr. would appear to be the team’s most available player and presumably its most likely to get traded given his contractual status. Assuming he opts out of his deal, the 23-year-old guard should be in line for a big raise this off-season. Whether they choose to buy, sell or hold at the deadline, testing the waters on Trent could be appealing if the Raptors don’t anticipate bringing him back at his projected cost, likely north of $100 million. He’s not a prefect player, but at his age and with his ability to shoot and score the ball, in addition to his strong play of late, there should be a market for him.

One way or another, the Raptors aren’t likely to stand pat on Feb. 9. Change seems inevitable, in some form. It’s just a question of what they’ll do and how the league’s dominos will fall from there.

多伦多 - 随着2月9日NBA交易截止日期的临近，联盟的大部分人都在密切关注猛龙队。

这不是秘密，也不难看出原因。多伦多在东部并列第11位，在赛季过半之前距离最后的入围点还有几场比赛，在过去的20场比赛中输掉了14场。球队表现不佳的原因不乏，但这并不是因为顶级球员缺乏人才。如果这些家伙中的任何一个——在球队友好交易中或刚刚进入黄金时期的明星球员——能够出现，他们将在看起来像卖方市场的地方受到高度垂涎。因此，自然而然地，感兴趣的团队正在等待并想知道他们可能会采取什么方法。距离截止日期还有一个月，似乎没有人很确定，这是有原因的。猛龙队仍然不确定自己。

“[他们]正试图弄清楚，”一位了解多伦多情况的消息人士说。

从各方面来看，由总裁Masai Ujiri和总经理Bobby Webster领导的团队决策者尚未明确承诺走上一条道路。考虑到赛季前半段的情况，他们似乎越来越不可能寻求购买，但这并不一定意味着他们将作为激进的卖家运作。

根据多个联盟消息来源，目前他们似乎没有购买任何核心球员，但他们似乎确实愿意听取报价。

“他们保持选择的开放性，”一位消息人士描述了他们的过程，这意味着他们也没有排除任何事情。

假设是这样的话，未来几周对于处于十字路口的组织来说将是评估的关键时期。在内部，他们相信自己比17胜23负的战绩更好，他们仍然有希望继续前进并扭转他们的赛季。

尽管在最近的下滑中有时感觉黯淡，但像周日117-105战胜开拓者这样的比赛提供了乐观的理由，提醒人们当事情发生时他们的样子。

猛龙队在上半场将近九分钟没有投篮的情况下守住了波特兰，然后在第三节又守住了四分半钟。他们的三分命中率达到了39%，五名首发球员都产生了影响，他们终于从挣扎的替补席上得到了一些东西。这是他们本赛季最完整的比赛之一，也是他们 2023 年的第一场胜利，结束了三场失利。他们将有机会在11-30夏洛特黄蜂队（联盟积分榜上低于多伦多的五支球队之一）本周来到镇上进行两场比赛。

自从上周重新组合以来，他们的常规首发阵容再次凝聚（在过去的四场比赛中，他们在106分钟内每100次控球得分比对手高出8.7分），防守看起来更好，他们拥有NBA最容易的剩余赛程。在交易截止日期之前他们将参加的16场比赛中，有10场比赛的对手是目前处于或低于.500的球队。时间不再站在他们这边，周二的比赛标志着赛季的正式中点，需要做出决定。

“看看我们的记录，我们只是想削弱，”帕斯卡尔西亚卡姆在周一训练后说。“在宏伟的计划中，我们显然知道我们没有达到应有的水平，但我们无法超越自己。我们必须专注于每一场比赛，把它当作我们的最后一场比赛，并努力保持团结......没有人为我们感到难过。我觉得我已经厌倦了谈论它。我们必须走出去，做到这一点，希望我们能建立一点势头，连续取得一些胜利。

这是一个不稳定的时期。就在他们为周日令人印象深刻的胜利做最后的润色时，一段视频显示斯科蒂·巴恩斯和撒迪厄斯·杨在中场热身期间进行了激烈的口头交流，开始浮出水面。事后，两位球员都淡化了它，大二学生称其为“有点分歧”，这位16岁的兽医说这“与兄弟来回没有什么不同”。他们把它抱了出来，很快就把事情弄平了。

虽然他们很少像这次那样在镜头前上演，但这种类型的小纠纷在漫长的赛季中并不少见，对任何球队来说都并不少见。然而，随着像猛龙这样没有达到预期的球队的紧张局势沸腾，这种情况往往会更频繁地发生——球员和球员、球员和教练之间、教练和教练之间的意见分歧。

现在，随着交易截止日期的临近，屏蔽外界噪音并保持在一起将更加困难。

归根结底，我可以不在乎，”西亚卡姆说。“除非我的手机开始响起，你要去某个地方，否则这是唯一的事情。但除此之外，我在这里，我每天都来上班，我让那些做他们工作的人做他们的工作。

即使在他不平衡的第二个赛季中，人们相信巴恩斯 - NBA年度最佳新秀 - 仍然是猛龙队唯一真正的不可触碰，尽管正如一位消息人士所说，他们需要“国王的赎金”才能考虑与西亚卡姆或O.G.阿奴诺比分道扬镳。弗雷德·范弗利特（Fred VanVleet）正在经历一个低迷的赛季，预计将在夏天选择自由球员，但感觉多伦多仍然重视这位即将成为29岁的控球后卫，将其作为核心前进的一部分。

小加里·特伦特（Gary Trent Jr.）似乎是球队最可用的球员，考虑到他的合同状态，他最有可能被交易。假设他选择退出交易，这位23岁的后卫应该在这个休赛期获得大幅加薪。无论他们选择在截止日期前买入、卖出还是持有，如果猛龙队预计不会以他的预计成本（可能超过1亿美元）将他带回来，那么在特伦特试水可能会很有吸引力。他不是一个完美的球员，但在他这个年纪，以他的投篮和得分能力，除了他最近的出色表现外，他应该有市场。

无论如何，猛龙队不太可能在2月9日站稳脚跟。以某种形式，变化似乎是不可避免的。这只是一个他们将做什么以及联盟的多米诺骨牌将如何从那里倒下的问题。