Raptors free-agency journey almost over
By Brian Boake
Time to take a breather from the free-agent madness, and figure out what’s next for the Raptors.
Now that Pau Gasol and Andrew Bogut have gone elsewhere, I’m going to suggest the Toronto Raptors have all but wrapped up their free-agent activities.
Both the veteran centres were briefly in play. Gasol chose San Antonio. Bogut was donated by Golden State to Dallas in order to make cap space available to pay Kevin Durant. While I would have liked either one as a Raptor, it’s moot now.
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There’s reputed interest from Masai Ujiri in Dewayne Dedmon, who’s no longer in Orlando’s plans since they have brought in Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo. But that’s just roster tweaking, a normal activity at this time of year. Dedmon would be useful insurance in the front court, and little more.
If I’m right, and my back-of-the-envelope arithmetic is also, the Raptors are admirably positioned for this time next year. The salary cap is once again expected to rise, this time from $94 million to $108M (I’ve read higher numbers, but let’s stay conservative). The only moving parts to this year’s roster in 2016-17 are Patrick Patterson, who is without a contract, and Kyle Lowry. Our starting point guard has a $12M player option, which he will decline faster than you can say “What? Mike Conley is getting $30M from the Griz?”
While whichever players are considered Toronto’s core can be the subject of argument, surely we can agree on the value of having DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas, DeMarre Carroll, plus CoJo and TRoss, all under salary control. Plus there are a bunch of promising kids who, even if they all emerge as legitimate NBA players this season, aren’t in line for big paydays.
Perhaps I’m slightly off my rocker even considering next season’s free agents, but bear with me. I love Danilo Gallinari of the Denver Nuggets (watch for that team to make a big jump this season). Andre Iguodala will be in play. Andrew Wiggins will be Restricted, though he’s most unlikely to leave Minnesota. Doug McDermott? Bojan Bogdanovic? There will be lots of players at the pay window.
I think it’s time to blow the whistle on roster-building via free agency. By all means, bring in some undrafted rookies and Euro-leaguers trying to get lucky. That sort of thing fleshes out training camp, and creates competition for spots even with the 905.
Barring a giant shock of a deal, we’re going to war with essentially the same group as last season. That’s not so bad.