The hope is that a healthy Ingram helps improve the Raptors’ tepid half-court offence, and the backline of Barnes and Poeltl and can make up for some defensive shortcomings on the perimeter. If Ingram plays his best basketball, the cost of the acquisition will seem reasonable.

So long Raptors rebuild, we hardly knew you. Just over a year after the Raptors traded away franchise stalwarts Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby, signalling a shift into a building phase, the organization decided to pivot,