Hey Raptors – here’s how to get salary cap relief & hire new coach – in 1 move!

TORONTO, CANADA - MARCH 9: Masai Ujiri and Drake before the game between the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors on March 9, 2018 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images)
TORONTO, CANADA - MARCH 9: Masai Ujiri and Drake before the game between the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors on March 9, 2018 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Raptors have a bunch of major problems to solve this off-season. Is there a way to get out from under their salary cap issues while hiring a new head coach?

The Toronto Raptors find themselves in treacherous waters financially. No, I’m not suggesting they are going broke – far from it. The team is a cash cow for its owners, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment [MLSE]. However, a recent spending spree on star players who were supposed to lead the team to the promised land hasn’t worked out. President Masai Ujiri has mortgaged the future by putting the team over the NBA salary cap.

TORONTO, CANADA – JUNE 7: Kyle Lowry
TORONTO, CANADA – JUNE 7: Kyle Lowry

That doesn’t mean Masai can’t make any roster moves this summer. However, it does mean he is must undertake the same kind of cap-easing moves he made last off-season. In order to create wiggle room to bring back the stars, Cory Joseph and DeMarre Carroll were given away. Is it going to be deja vu all over again? Almost certainly, unless…

Oh, and we need a coach

In the meantime, there’s the additional headache of trying to decide on a new head coach. One could argue that’s a self-inflicted wound, as Masai didn’t need to drop the hammer on Dwane Casey. But he did.

Those sound like two problems right? How about one solution?

Rapture Nation, I offer you our new head coach….Kyle Lowry!

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If Kyle retires tomorrow and signs a 3-year coaching deal the day after, his playing contract is off the books. That’s $31 Million which has just gone poof, and our team is under the cap. Hello and welcome back, Fred VanVleet.

Is Kyle coach material? He sure looks like it to me. He’s tough and smart, and is respected enormously around the leage. An undersized point guard like him is a rara avis, but he’s carved out an All-Star career anyway. Early in his career, he certainly gained the reputation as a hard man to coach. Ironically, that experience, and how he’s mellowed, might offer him extraordinary insight into how to be successful as an NBA bench boss.

Why he might like to pack it in

Lowry has been taking charges from large fast-moving people for a number of years now. He’s 32 years old, and has 13 NBA seasons under his belt. That’s a lot of pounding.

Of course Kyle might be slightly less than willing to trade the almost $64 M owed him over the next two seasons for coach’s pay. He might get $ 6 M a season over the 3 seasons I’m proposing. Yes, that’s a lot of cash to be surrendering. However, if he turns out to be a solid coach (he will!), he can hang around the NBA virtually forever.

Gregg Popovich has been coaching the San Antonio Spurs for 22 years. He’s 69 years old, and was paid $ 6 M this past season. How many people his age make that kind of do-re-mi?

I have no evidence any part of this fanciful notion will come to pass. But I’ve come up with worse ideas.