Toronto Raptors Roundtable: Kawhi decision, offseason moves, and more

The most important offseason in Toronto Raptors history is just days away. With such a critical time coming up, we gathered our top contributors and asked the five most pressing questions heading into the summer.

After winning the NBA Championship, most teams head into the summer with an extremely quiet offseason. Perhaps they add a few minimum veterans, a mid-level exception, who knows, maybe even trade for a rotation piece. The Toronto Raptors offseason figures to be much more exciting than that.

The team has multiple pending free agents this summer, a luxury tax-bill the size of a mountain, and some other areas of need to fix.

So what lies ahead for the Raptors this summer? We gathered our contributors and asked them the five biggest questions heading into this offseason:

1) Do you expect both Danny Green and Marc Gasol to be on the Raptors next season?

Mike Bossetti:

If Kawhi Leonard is coming back, both Danny Green and Marc Gasol better be back.

For Gasol, leaving would include turning down a $26 million player option. If he thinks Kawhi is gone (or has inside information), he might (although probably still won’t) be willing to give that up to play on a contender. But if Leonard returns, he’s not going to turn down a nice payday and a title shot.

Danny Green, however, is an unrestricted free-agent. If I’m Kawhi Leonard — and have all the leverage in the world — I tell the Raptors to pony up for a key-piece and my long-time teammate DG.  Toronto can’t replace Green, so it’s simply how much of a luxury tax-bill they can stomach. I’d expect they can stomach a lot this offseason.

Thomas Valentine:

Unfortunately no, I think the market for someone like Danny Green could prove to be too much for the Raptors to weigh into at this point. Though, he has expressed his desire to stay with the Raptors and run it one more time. Maybe he’ll take less money to do that, but it’s unlikely.

Marc Gasol is more than likely going to opt into his deal, and it’s a lot of money, but he swayed me in his short time here. I’m okay with that.

William Ricks:

I expect Marc Gasol to stay but I am not sold on Danny Green coming back. Three-and-D players are at a premium in the NBA, and he will have many teams asking for his services in the offseason. I’m not sure if Toronto is willing to pay top dollar for his talents, although some other teams almost certainly will.

Gasol, on the other hand, doesn’t seem in high demand around the league. I think he knows this and would return to the Raptors. He’ll be able to start and will be a key piece if the Raptors want to repeat next season.

Jordan Skuse:

Both players futures with Toronto depend on Kawhi Leonard – if the 2019 Finals MVP re-signs with the Raptors, Gasol and Green will join him in doing so. But should Leonard leave, neither Green nor Gasol figure to be in Toronto’s future plans.