NBA Toronto Raptors

Toronto Raptors Should Strongly Consider Trading Tyler Hansbrough

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By @jbrannon89

Tyler Hansbrough Raptors

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Coming off an impressive season last year and a disappointing playoff appearance, the Toronto Raptors have started the 2014-15 season with an impressive 9-2 record. The team is scoring in bunches and is currently atop the Eastern Conference.

And they need to make a trade.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right? Wrong. The Raptors are playing great basketball right now, but looks can be deceiving. That 9-2 record looks really good until you see that the two losses came to the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat. The Raptors can win as much as they want in the regular season, but if they can’t match up with two of the top five teams in the Eastern Conference, it really doesn’t matter.

That’s why the team should at least consider moving Tyler Hansbrough. Hansbrough plays with a lot of intensity and is one of the most physical players on the team, and maybe in the whole league, but he just isn’t producing.

Hansbrough is the fourth-best power forward on the team. Depth is one thing, but four power forwards is a lot. He is playing significant minutes, so it might be difficult to replace his 17.5 minutes per game, but Hansbrough isn’t doing much with those minutes anyway.

With less than four points and four rebounds per game, surely the Raptors’ coaching staff can figure out a way to split Hansbrough’s minutes between Amir Johnson, James Johnson and Patrick Patterson and get more production from the position. If they need to, the Raptors can give center Greg Stiemsma more minutes since his averages are about the same.

James Johnson did suffer an ankle injury that was listed as severe this past week. The Raptors don’t need to jump into any trades right now, but assuming Johnson comes back healthy, this could be an opportunity to add value at another position later in the season.

At the end of the day, it isn’t really a pressing need; but the Raptors need to figure out how to beat the best teams in the league, and 17.5 minutes with Hansbrough on the court seems like a mistake with the talented big men above him on the roster. If Toronto could find a solid wing or a two-guard to back up DeMar DeRozan, that might be just what this team needs to take the next step.

Jonathan Brannon is a San Antonio Spurs writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @jbrannon89, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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