3 NBA Finals players Raptors should target in the offseason
By Mike Luciano
The Toronto Raptors, like every other NBA team except for the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat, are watching the NBA Finals on TV. While Nikola Jokic and Jimmy Butler are going to steal the show, Miami and Denver are here because they have two extremely deep rosters.
While Denver features a collection of role players that are perfect compliments to the offensive mastery of Jokic and Jamal Murray, the Heat is an army of undrafted players that continue to play above what draft experts thought they were capable of as prospects.
Any executive worth their salt would be trying to emulate what Denver and Miami have created for themselves. The best way to do that might be convincing one of the role players in this team to come to Toronto (or perhaps forcing them via trade).
The Raptors should put a ton of attention into evaluating these three players and figuring out if they should splash the cash to bring one of them over to Toronto. The team will have cap space if they let one of the big names from last year go, and these three might be solid bench replacements.
3 NBA Finals players the Toronto Raptors should sign.
3. Gabe Vincent
Vincent is one of Miami’s many unheralded bench players that finally started to get the shine they deserved during the team’s postseason run. Boston came into that series with some very good bench players, yet it was Vincent who helped slice and dice them regularly in the seven-game slugfest.
The backup point guard issue may not be resolved via the NBA Draft, leaving it to Masai Ujiri to find someone in free agency. Vincent has been a reliable double-digit scorer, all while being enough of a pest on the defensive end to serve as a bargain-bin version of free-agent-to-be Fred VanVleet off the bench.
Gabe Vincent could fit the Toronto Raptors.
Vincent might not be as much of a deadeye shooter as some of the other options on the market. His 33% 3-point success rate from deep this season is right on par with his career average. Will the Raptors be confident in whomever they hire to get the most out of Vincent?
While “Heat Culture” seems to help players from less heralded backgrounds play like elite players all of a sudden, Vincent’s style of play, even with some of the slight concerns over his 3-point ceiling, seems sustainable enough to help him succeed if he goes to Toronto.