How Barkley changed Eagles’ offence and NFL RB market in just one year

February 7, 2025

Arash Madani breaks down Saquon Barkley’s legendary season, his first in Philadelphia, and how he changed the Eagles’ offensive mindset and the NFL running back market with his MVP-calibre campaign.

As the NBA trade deadline approached, the Toronto Raptors were still uncertain about what kind of moves they could accomplish to return to competitive relevancy in what will be their third consecutive season finishing outside the playoffs.

But they were confident about one move above others: the likelihood that they would be able to trade veteran Chris Boucher, if even for a modest return.

He checked enough boxes: a digestible, expiring contract; the ability to shoot threes; offer some rim protection and excel in a bench role.

There was less confidence about being able to move Bruce Brown and his $23.5-million expiring deal just for its sheer size, and they concerned about being able to find a taker for Kelly Olynyk, who has a year on his contract after this season with $13.5 million on it. And Davion Mitchell, another expiring contract was a point guard who didn’t shoot well, which created some doubts about his market, even he was on an expiring contract worth $6.451 million.

Well, the when the clock hit 3 p.m. ET Thursday, the only Raptors veteran on the ‘likely-to-move’ list still with the club (for now) was Boucher. Everyone else has moved on, though there will definitely be interest in the veteran from Montreal on the buyout market if it comes to that.

In the highest profile deal (and we’ll have more thoughts on it below) both Brown and Olynyk ended up being traded to New Orleans (along with a top-four protected 2026 first-round pick from Indiana acquired in the Pascal Siakam trade and a 2031 second-round pick) for Brandon Ingram. That went down late Wednesday night.

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Then Thursday morning, the Raptors were able to move Mitchell to the Miami Heat for a 2026 second-round pick belonging to the Los Angeles Lakers, cash considerations and veteran P.J. Tucker (yes, the same P.J. Tucker who played 17 games for the Raptors after being a second-round pick in 2006 and 24 after being acquired at the trade deadline in 2016-17). He will likely be waived.

And in a final move just under the wire, the Raptors acquired centre James Wiseman and cash from Indiana for – according to Sportsnet’s Blake Murphy – a top-55 protected 2026 secon- round pick. Wiseman was the No.2 overall pick in the 2020 draft, but has never really generated any momentum as a prospect. The Raptors have an option on his non-guaranteed contract for next season so could conceivably look at him as depth piece behind Jakob Poeltl – the only true centre the Raptors have under contract – or they could waive him and pocket the money.

Here are some trade deadline takeaways:

• The next time an NBA executive tells me how difficult the collective bargaining agreement has made to it complete trades – a theme I heard an on reported on multiple times over the past month or so – I won’t believe them. What was projected to be a quiet deadline ended up being anything but. According to my pal Keerthika Uthayakumar, this deadline featured nine former All-Stars changing teams and 26 of 30 teams making at least one trade.

• The Raptors have taken a real risk here by acquiring Ingram, even if surrendering what will likely be a mid-to-late first-round pick and a couple of veterans who didn’t figure in your future plans doesn’t seem like too onerous a price to pay for a former All-Star still in his prime (in theory). The risk is that by signing Ingram to an extension – and you have to believe there is a framework of a deal in place to keep Ingram in Toronto after this season – you’ve picked a very clear lane. Your financial priorities have been decided for you: Ingram, who is in the last year of a five-year deal that paid him $158.2 million, is eligible for a three-year extension worth $144 million. Given there are reports that Ingram turned down an extension worth $50 million a year in 2023 and $40 million a year last summer, it’s perhaps a bit optimistic to think Ingram – who is represented by Klutch Sports – will take a steep discount from those numbers to stay in Toronto, not when the Raptors have surrendered draft assets to get his rights.

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The risk is the Raptors have spent assets to acquire a ‘max’ or ‘near max’ player who simply isn’t available very often, having averaged just 57 games a season in his five years with the Pelicans. Add in the potential for positional overlap with Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett, and this is a deal that could backfire badly.

• But fortune favours the bold. At his best, Ingram is a mesmerizing player, with high-end scoring ability, some passing chops and the ability to make plays defensively package in a willowy six-foot-eight frame with a seven-foot-three wingspan. He’s in in ninth season, but just 27 years old. Speaking with some Raptors staffers, there is real optimism that what seems to be a legitimately positive team culture emerging in Toronto – and hey, I’ve had not only coaches, players and team executives but even parents of players swear this to be true – will be a refreshing change for Ingram after some mostly up-and-down years in New Orleans where injuries and uncertainly prevented the Ingram pairing with Zion Williamson from ever gaining any real momentum.

As well, the Raptors believe that director of sports science Alex McKechnie can right whatever nagging underlying ills Ingram may have as he’s done with some other high-profile acquisitions the Raptors have made – Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green come to mind.

• So let’s be optimistic here, what is a blue-sky version of what the Raptors have taken a leap of faith on? In the short term I don’t think much will change, according to the people I’ve talked with, Toronto remains very much committed to ‘lottery positioning’ this season.’ There will be no push for the play-in. Now that the trade deadline has come and gone we’ll see a lot of young lineups, and with Olynyk, Brown, Mitchell and maybe Boucher gone, fewer veteran role players to support them. As well, I’d be surprised if Ingram – out since Dec. 7 – is rushed back from a high-ankle sprain.

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• So, again, being optimistic here, the Raptors maintain their current (fifth-best) lottery odds, get some good luck there and add a Barnes-level talent for next season and someone who is on a cost-effective rookie deal for four seasons. Then Ingram delivers on his potential and a lineup featuring him, Barnes, Poeltl, Immanuel Quickley and Gradey Dick is almost by default good enough to compete for a playoff spot or, at worst, a spot in the play-in tournament. In the meantime, the glimpses shown by the Raptors’ young core so far this season could give Toronto some solid depth. Let that construction simmer for a season or two, by which time your star rookie is beginning to impact winning in his own right.

An analogy would be the 2016-17 and 2017-18 Raptors when the bench mob was coming into its own. At that point you’ve got a roster that runs 12 deep with all your own pick capital, or first-rounders at least. It’s at that stage where you can start looking at consolidation trades where you can identify and support the kind of specific needs contending teams have. As coach Darko Rajakovic noted of the Memphis Grizzlies the other night, team building in this league can take four or five years, or more, these days.

• If it seems too rosy a picture, it just might be. A lot of things have to go right for it to work. But the alternatives are equally uncertain: trolling along at the bottom of the draft lottery can work but can be dispiriting and potentially damaging and offers no guaranteed outcomes. Similarly, hoping free agency can save you is a fool’s errand. For all the excitement about the step the Detroit Pistons have taken this season, they remain a roughly .500 team that relies heavily on some low-ceiling veterans to reach even that level. They’re better, but only in relative terms.

• For better or worse, the Raptors have chosen to build incrementally and acquire talent – and Ingram is very much a talent – where and when the opportunity presents itself. Nothing has really changed in that regard. This team will depend on Barnes being a star, Quickley being a better than average point guard, Barrett maintaining his upward trajectory – either as part of the group going forward or as an attractive trade piece – and Dick making strides while the Jamal Sheads and Jonathan Mogbos of the roster outplay their draft positions. A lot of things have to go right, but in making the Ingram deal we have a better idea of what they need to be.

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How Barkley changed Eagles’ offence and NFL RB market in just one year

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