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Toronto Raptors: Ranking every contract from best to worst

By Vimal Sivakumar

TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA - 2017/09/22: The entrance of the Air Canada Centre. There is sunlight reflecting from the glass. The famous place will be renamed starting on January 2018. (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA - 2017/09/22: The entrance of the Air Canada Centre. There is sunlight reflecting from the glass. The famous place will be renamed starting on January 2018. (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images) /
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DeMar and Serge celebrate
TORONTO, ON – APRIL 25: DeMar DeRozan #10 of the Toronto Raptors celebrates a basket with Serge Ibaka #9 during the first half of Game Five against the Washington Wizards in Round One of the 2018 NBA playoffs at Air Canada Centre on April 25, 2018 in Toronto, 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. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)”n /

Grading both talent level and contract situation. We took a look at the Toronto Raptors roster and ranked every contract from best to worst.

Note: This article will exclude assessments of the team’s “cap holds”: Fred VanVleet, Lucas Nogueira and Lorenzo Brown. 

Starting with Toronto’s contracts that “missed the cut” (contracts for players where it is too premature to judge them as “valuable” or “harmful”), then progressing from the best deals to the worst ones, we will explore the different reasons why some contracts are better than others.

All Raptors contract numbers from “Toronto Raptors Team Payroll” (basketball-reference.com) and all other salary information from hoopshype.com.

Missed The Cut 

Of the team’s 12 contracts for next season, two deals classify as “too premature to rank”.

A. SF Alfonzo McKinnie

Contract: 1 year – $1.3M (18/19)

For this article, Alfonzo McKinnie’s NBA role last season was just too small to judge his contract appropriately.

As detailed in this post by Jordan Skuse, “McKinnie played a [grand] total of 53 minutes” with the Toronto Raptors in 2017/18.

In addition, his contract for next season stands at a non-guaranteed $1,378,242. Furthermore, the Toronto Raptors have until July 20th to decide on his future. They can either keep him or release him and not have to pay his $1.37 million dollar contract.

For what it’s worth, McKinnie did average about 14 points and 7 rebounds in the G-League last season. In theory, this shows McKinnie may crack the Raptors roster if he improves in other areas this offseason.

However, for now, thinking about McKinnie’s situation for next year is merely speculation. Until July 20th comes around, and his future with Toronto is decided, it seems unnecessary to include him in any ranking of the Toronto Raptors contracts for 2018/19.

B. SG Malachi Richardson

Contract: 1 year + 1 (Team Option) — $1.5M (18/19), $2.5M (19/20)

Malachi Richardson, like McKinnie, has had only a small taste of the NBA in a Toronto Raptors uniform.

On February 11th 2018, Malachi Richardson saw his only NBA minutes with Toronto so far, playing 4:42 seconds of basketball against the Charlotte Hornets, going one for two and finishing -12 (according to Richardson’s game log summary on basketball-reference.com).

Again, due to small sample size, as well as a small $1,569,360 salary, Richardson’s contract is hard to assess for next season.

Unlike McKinnie, Richardson’s deal is already guaranteed for next year. However, despite this guarantee, it seems unlikely that he will be asked to fulfill any significant role for Toronto and will likely be spending most of next season developing with the Raptors 905.

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