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How The Raptors Can Be Creative This Offseason

By Matthew Allman

Mar 28, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) heads up court against the Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre. Oklahoma City defeated Toronto 119-100. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 28, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) heads up court against the Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre. Oklahoma City defeated Toronto 119-100. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports /
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May 17, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Toronto Raptors forward Terrence Ross (31) and forward Luis Scola (4) watch from the bench during the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers in game one of the Eastern conference finals of the NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. The Cavs won 115-84. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
May 17, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Toronto Raptors forward Terrence Ross (31) and forward Luis Scola (4) watch from the bench during the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers in game one of the Eastern conference finals of the NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. The Cavs won 115-84. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports /

1. Who To Trade, Who to Let Walk

Before we even look at signing or resigning anyone, the first order of business will be to generate some extra cap space. As it stands now, and assuming that DeRozan opts out of his current deal, the Raptors will have $70.23 Million in committed salaries to work with, and that’s not a lot even with the cap expected to increase to approximately $94 Million.

Based on that alone, we can assume that we’ve seen the last of Luis Scola, James Johnson and Jason Thompson. Scola will be missed, but I believe it’s high time he calls it a career. Johnson fell out of favour with Coach Casey from last season and hasn’t really had a place in the rotation, even when DeMarre Carroll was out with injury. And we won’t really miss Thompson as he didn’t really did much since being added at the deadline.

As we look at committed contracts for next season, the player that should be moved post haste is Terrence Ross. I’ve already covered Ross’ shortcomings in the past, so I’ll simply add that it has been his lack of assertiveness in the postseason that warrants his immediate departure. The other would be 2nd year prospect, Lucas Nogueira. The 23 year old Brazilian has been used sporadically this past season, most notably when Raptors starting centre Jonas Valanciunas went down with injury during the Eastern Conference Semifinals. He is still extremely raw, and unless he can hone in on any one particular skill, it’s quite plausible that he won’t stick around in the league for very long.

What’s needed in this situation is a salary dump, so a best case scenario sees Masai calling up the new general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers, Bryan Colangelo with the following proposal:

Although Philly is more inclined to deal Jahlil Okafor over Nerlens Noel, Noel would be the better fit for the Raptors and it also helps that they have enough cap space to take on a bigger contract by trading a smaller one. This trade accomplishes a number of things:

It gives the Sixers a quality (if highly inconsistent) 3-and-D wing player in Ross, another young big man in Nogueira to develop without any of the pressure of a high draft pick, and an extra draft pick to play with.

For the Raptors, it frees up at least $6.2 Million in cap space while providing a suitable Biyombo replacement in Noel, should Biyombo actually not return. This gives the Raptors almost $65.8 Million in cap space to deal with, and that little bit will be significant.

This would have the Raptors depth chart looking as such:

PG — Lowry/Joseph/Wright
SG — Powell/Joseph
SF — Carroll/Powell
PF — Noel/Patterson/Carroll
C — Valanciunas/Noel

Next: Making The Most Of The 9th Pick

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