You play GM: Decide the fate of the Toronto Raptors offseason
Start the rebuild/re-tool
With Kawhi gone, the Raptors need to head towards a rebuild. Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol, are all great, but you don’t lose Kawhi Leonard and continue to contend. Toronto will need to take at least a year to re-set and build around a younger core.
The first step is letting Danny Green walk. He was great during his lone season as a Raptors, but at age 32, he doesn’t fit a rebuilding timeline. He can court offers in free-agency and make an impact right away for a team in win-now mode.
Next, the Raptors will look to send out veterans in hope of acquiring younger, cheaper assets. Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, and yes, even Kyle Lowry will all go on the trade block. Masai Ujiri has already shown once he will do what’s in the best interest of the franchise, and now, that’s asset acquisition.
What you get back for those players is dependent on what you value.
Toronto has no contractual obligations past 2020 except for Norman Powell and OG Anunoby (technically a team-option). Between the two contracts, they only have $13 million on the books.
Of course, the team will want to re-sign Pascal Siakam. However, he’s currently on his rookie deal. His during the summer of 2020 his cap-hold will be a minuscule $7 million. Fred VanVleet would have a cap hold of $14 million the Raptors could hold onto or renounce if necessary.
Altogether, the Raptors have an All-Star, a budding young talent, and a solid role player on the books for $20/34 million. If they can grab a few assets during the rebuild and attract the right free-agents, they’ll be able to contend after just one down year.
Typically, it could make sense to take on bad money in order to receive a greater return on the Raptors assets. However, looking around the league, there just aren’t many bad contracts teams are looking to shed.
The four-year deals of the horrendous summer of 2016 are coming off the books in one year, and nearly everybody appears to be posturing for the summer of 2020. Now, the Raptors will be one of those teams.