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You play GM: Decide the fate of the Toronto Raptors offseason

By Mike Bossetti

Toronto Raptors - Masai Ujiri (Photo by Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images)
Toronto Raptors - Masai Ujiri (Photo by Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Toronto Raptors – Kyle Lowry (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images) /

Indiana’s offer

It will be tough trading Lowry to another Eastern Conference contender, but when it’s the best deal on the board, you need to make it. The Raptors gained another first-round pick, a young, athletic point guard, and didn’t take on much salary back. Overall, a nice haul.

Now, with Kyle Lowry and Marc Gasol both off the roster, you only have one name left to move – Serge Ibaka.

Unfortunately, at this time, Ibaka doesn’t have much value around the league. He’s on the wrong side of the aging curve, making a sizeable salary, and is a backup center. There are possible options if the free-agent market shakes a certain way, but with options like Robin Lopez, Dewayne Dedmon, and others available for much cheaper, it’s hard to imagine Ibaka commanding much of a market.

Perhaps if there is an injury later in the season, he could help a contender. But at the moment, it’s hard to construct a deal. We’ll move forward with him on the team.

As of now, your roster looks like this:

  • Point Guard: Fred VanVleet, Aaron Holiday
  • Shooting Guard: Norman Powell
  • Small Forward: OG Anunoby, Malcolm Miller
  • Power forward: Pascal Siakam, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Chris Boucher
  • Center: Serge Ibaka, Bismack Biyombo

With Kyle Lowry traded into cap space, the Raptors have about $24 million in space to play with. Depending on who they target, they could find a solid piece.

But remember this team is set on making moves in 2020. Rather than spending it all on an expensive target, they should try to take back some salary in order to accumulate draft assets. Of course, they can only take on players with one-year deals.

Both the Portland Trailblazers and the Oklahoma City Thunder should be looking to cut cap. The Thunder have an extremely high tax-bill for a non-title contender in a small market, and the Trailblazers will want to find a way to bring back several free agents while staying under the tax.

Toronto can take in Andre Roberson and Meyers Leonard, respectively, to help either team reduce or erase their tax-bill.

One-year deals on relatively average contracts, you probably are getting two seconds for each player. It would be nice to receive a first-rounder for space, but to do so you’d likely need to take back on a multi-year contract. Still, a total of four second-round picks isn’t bad.

Now, you can fill your roster out with minimum contracts. Any minimums will likely be young-ish players with a higher ceiling than most, even if their floor is lower.

Now, after everything is said and done:

Your final roster looks like:

  • Point Guard: Fred VanVleet, Aaron Holiday, Trey Burke
  • Shooting Guard: Norman Powell, Andre Roberson
  • Small Forward: OG Anunoby, Malcolm Miller, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot
  • Power forward: Pascal Siakam, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Chris Boucher
  • Center: Serge Ibaka, Bismack Biyombo, Meyers Leonard

However, you also added a Charlotte first-round pick, an Indiana Pacers first round pick, and multiple second rounders. Toronto is ready to dip into the lottery for one season and be ready to compete once again in 2021.

Not happy with the results? Feel free to start back over.