The Toronto Raptors may look to be building towards the future ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline with this season slipping away at 23-30, but that potential reset could focus on young players instead of draft picks if they trade O.G. Anunoby or Fred VanVleet.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst discussed the team during Thursday's episode of Get Up and said, "there's a feel in the league that maybe they wouldn't be looking for draft picks. They may be looking for young players, already guys in the league to put around the core that they have around Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes."

Windhorst was specifically talking about the Los Angeles Lakers as a potential trade partner for Toronto, and he called that possible focus on players instead of picks an "issue" for the Purple and Gold.

While Los Angeles could look to move its 2027 or 2029 first-round draft pick, it doesn't have many enticing young players to move from a team that is largely built to win now around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star previously reported a team offered the Raptors three first-round picks for Anunoby alone, which would be quite a haul and could set the front office up with the assets to build its next contender.

However, Barnes is already in place, and the team may choose to hold on to some combination of Anunoby, VanVleet and Pascal Siakam and perhaps compete in the immediate future in the Eastern Conference. Moving even one of those players could net multiple young options in return that could help with a late playoff push.

Anunoby is so valuable because of his impact on both sides of the ball.

He is averaging 16.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game while shooting 36.6 percent from deep. What's more, he is posting 2.1 steals a night and is holding opponents to 3.7 percent worse shooting marks than their normal averages when he guards them, per NBA.com.

There isn't a lineup in the league that wouldn't immediately improve with his combination of shooting and versatile defense on the wing.

VanVleet likely wouldn't net as much in a return for the Raptors, but he could still be a valuable playmaker for any contender. He's averaging 19.5 points, 6.6 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game, while connecting on 34.4 percent of his triples.