Why Raptors should go after Georges Niang on the buyout market
Now that the trade deadline has passed, that means we get one final round of transactions league-wide, as tanking teams usually release veterans that were either on the team or just acquired at the trade deadline, in order to prioritize their youngsters. That was exactly the case for Georges Niang, who got traded and waived multiple times during and even before the 2025-26 NBA season.
The last team he has officially played for is the Atlanta Hawks, where he was traded to during the 2025 trade deadline in exchange for Caris LeVert from the Cleveland Cavaliers. He featured in 28 games for the Hawks last season and hasn’t played a game since. During the offseason, he was shipped to Boston in part of the Kristaps Porzingis deal along with a future second-round pick. Less than a month later, he was traded once again, this time to a familiar spot in Utah, where he spent the most time in his career with one team (four seasons). And finally, during this season’s trade deadline, Niang was a part of the surprising Jaren Jackson Jr. trade as Kyle Anderson, Taylor Hendricks and Walter Clayton Jr., plus three first-round picks, joined him in the journey to Memphis. He was waived two days later after being acquired by the Grizzlies and was last seen on an NBA court on April 18, 2025, when the Atlanta Hawks lost to the Miami Heat 123-114 in the final Play-In game for the 8th seed of the 2025 season.
He put up 35 points across 2 Play-In games. He surprisingly shot the three-ball terribly in the two games, going just 3 for 11 beyond the arc, but he was still 13 for 26 from the field across 49 minutes in the 2 games.
Niang entered the league in the 2016-17 season when he was selected with the 50th pick by the Indiana Pacers during the 2016 draft, which had Ben Simmons selected first overall, followed by future Toronto Raptor Brandon Ingram going second overall to the Los Angeles Lakers. He only averaged 4 minutes across 23 games, and Indiana had seen enough, as it led Georges to his next and longest home in the NBA, the Utah Jazz. Niang once again wasn’t able to see much playing time in his first season in Utah, but they stuck with him. In his third season, he played a career-high 59 games, averaging 8.7 minutes per game, the most so far in his 3-year career. It marked the first season he shot above 40 percent beyond the arc; the best trait of his game was finally unleashed.
That led to five straight seasons of shooting above 40 percent with the Utah Jazz and Philadelphia 76ers. He snapped the streak in the 2023-24 season, where he was a part of the Cleveland Cavaliers. After that, during his last active season, Niang shot 40.6 percent beyond the arc with the Cavaliers and the Atlanta Hawks, after being traded at the deadline.
For his career, he is just under 40 percent from downtown, with a career average of 39.9 percent, and he has improved as a defender as his career has progressed. It is scary that Niang has been out of competition for a long time, but with the buyout market being lacklustre this season, plus three-point shooting being a huge need for Toronto, as they rank 25th across the league in three-point shooting percentage, 24th in attempts, and 24th in threes made, it seems like it’s definitely worth a look.
The path to playing time for Niang could be tough, though, as the bench rotation should consist of Gradey Dick, Ja’Kobe Walter, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Jamal Shead and Collin Murray-Boyles all ahead of him, when and if the team is fully healthy but in the NBA, you never know; minutes open up due to injuries, and a player could fall off the rotation due to struggling form or if Niang is given a shot and starts draining threes it would make it a really tough ask for Darko Rajakovic to bench him as three point shooting is such a need for Toronto.
The post Why Raptors should go after Georges Niang on the buyout market first appeared on Raptors Republic.