Philadelphia 76ers: Best trade in team history with Toronto Raptors

With the down part of the offseason in full swing, it seems like a great time to revisit this series of articles that reviews the Philadelphia 76ers‘ best trade with each team in the NBA. Last time, I covered the trade history with the San Antonio Spurs, and now I continue in alphabetical order the Toronto Raptors.

To be clear, there are no home run trades between the Raptors and the Sixers. In fact, there have only been three trades between the two franchises. Considering that they are division rivals and that the Raptors are one of the younger clubs to be recently established, this isn’t surprising. The most recent trade occurred in 2019 and the first was in 1996.

Finding a trade that benefited both sides was difficult between the three available options. However, based on the roster construction of both clubs and what both players brought to their respective new teams, below is what can be said was the best trade between the two franchises.

The best trade ever between the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors was…

In terms of flashiness, neither of these players have that appeal, but the trade made sense for both clubs at the time. The 76ers had a glutton of power forwards at the time with Elton Brand and Thaddeus Young already getting the bulk of minutes. Trading a quality big like Reggie Evans for a wing player who can space the floor made sense for Philly.

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The Raptors had a plethora of wing players already so trading a sharpshooter like Jason Kapono was a necessary loss to get a backup power forward like Evans. Kapono’s time with the Sixers wasn’t world-beating by any measure.

He was once one of the best 3-point shooters in the NBA and in his first season with the 76ers he did a good job doing that. In his first season, he averaged 5.7 points on 36.8 percent shooting from deep.

Due to his inability to do literally anything else, he quickly faded from the rotation in his second season when Doug Collins took over as head coach. After his time in Philly was up, Kapono had a very short stint with the Los Angeles Lakers before his time in the NBA came to an end.

This isn’t a great trade by any standards for the Philadelphia 76ers, but trading for Kapono allowed the Sixers to unclog their logjam at power forward and add a floor spacer to the roster, even if he was only good for one season.