The Toronto Raptors could look to the free-agent market to wake this team up.
It’s still very early in the truncated 2020-21 season, but Toronto Raptors look nothing like the title-winning team of two years ago or the electric young bunch that made some noise in the Disney bubble. At 1-4, a mark of futility that only the Washington Wizards have eclipsed, Nick Nurse and Masai Ujiri have to realize they need to do something to reverse Toronto’s fortune.
If Ujiri wants to look to the free agent market to add depth in order to give Toronto a season-changing spark, these three vets look like perfect fits.
One of these three veteran free agents could join the Raptors in the coming weeks.
3. Kyle Korver
No NBA player has managed to carve out such a long career on the back of one particular skill quite like Korver, who will likely garner interest from contenders despite the fact he will turn 40 years old in March. Korver, who has led the league in three-point percentage four times, was a valued member of a Bucks team that earned the No. 1 seed, making 42 percent of his threes, a number that is almost right on target with his career 43 percent three-point success rate. The Raptors are struggling to create much on offense, even with the return of Fred VanVleet, and Korver can still put the ball in the basket.
Toronto knows that Korver isn’t going to provide much from a ball-handling or defensive point of view. However, the Nate Bjorkgren-less offense is among the league’s worst, as ranking 22nd in the league in three-point percentage is simply not a sustainable clip for the Raptors if they want to turn things around and make it to the postseason. Korver won’t totally fix Toronto’s offensive woes, but he’ll be a reliable veteran that could be counted on to nail catch-and-shoot opportunities with regularity, and that could be a big piece of the Raptors’ offensive puzzle.
2. DeMarre Carroll
Raptors fans might not have much appreciation for Carroll, as he played just two subpar seasons in Toronto after signing a hefty contract on the back of his success in Atlanta. However, Carroll was traded from Toronto to the, at the time, hilariously inept Brooklyn Nets, where he averaged 12.3 points per game as both a starter and reserve.
Carroll was both a quality post scorer and deadeye from beyond the arc in Brooklyn, evidence that Kenny Atkinson helped expand his offensive game and make him a more complete player. Though Carroll is getting a little long in the tooth, he might be worth bringing back to Toronto, as he could fill a variety of roles on both ends of the floor for a Raptors team that is currently leaking coolant and watching their postseason chances slip away.
His offensive improvement is all well and good, but Carroll’s ability to shut things down on the defensive end has helped him carve out an 11-year NBA career. Able to guard bigger guards on the wing, use his muscle and tenacity to play as a power forward on both offense and defense, and even operate as a small-ball center should the need arise, Carroll offers positional versatility and skill on both ends of the floor that normally doesn’t remain on the free-agent market until January. Caroll can overwrite some bad memories in Toronto by rejoining the Raptors as a veteran leader off the bench behind Pascal Siakam and getting this team back on track as they hunt for a postseason spot.
1. Shabazz Napier
Kyle Lowry remains one of the game’s best point guards, but the Raptors have done an unusually poor job at finding a second-unit point guard after moving VanVleet to shooting guard in the starting rotation. They used a first-rounder on Malachi Flynn to potentially fill that role, but he has barely seen any playing time. With Nurse likely being conservative with his first-round pick and not wishing to overwhelm him, he needs to look to the free agent market if he wants to find a solid deputy for Lowry. Luckily, the perfect player for that role exists in Napier, who hasn’t signed a contract for 2020-21 despite an impressive stint with Washington last year.
Napier, a former UConn star who has bounced around between Miami, Brooklyn, Portland, and Minnesota before becoming a Wizard, averaged 10.3 points per game last season, a career-high, on 41 percent shooting while also dishing out 4.7 assists per game. Having been a backup for most of his career, Napier is more than comfortable with coming off of the bench, using his speed and keen court vision to generate offense for his teammates, and hitting a big three when his team needs it.
Napier almost makes too much sense for Nurse and the Raptors, as every game they go without signing a point guard presents an opportunity for Toronto’s season to go completely by the wayside due to their lack of depth. Nurse clearly has a fetish for developing undersized point guards and Napier’s skillset could blossom with a full season under his belt as a Raptor.
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