The Oklahoma City Thunder dropped a bombshell on the NBA world Sunday night when they inked Cason Wallace to a five-year, $139 million rookie-scale extension. Now you may be asking yourselves what that deal has to do with the Toronto Raptors, and that’s a fair question. The answer is simple: Wallace’s deal is another contract that provides a realistic benchmark for how much the Raptors should offer RJ Barrett if they look to extend him.
Even though I’m against extending Barrett, I would be somewhat open to it at the right price. That’s what makes Wallace’s deal an important benchmark for Barrett. Since he’s viewed as a top-10 role player and someone many people think has an offensive leap to make, Wallace signing for less than $30 million annually makes the $20 million to $22 million range a reasonable starting point for Barrett’s next contract.
Barrett has a harsh extension reality coming his way
Don’t get me wrong, for all the gripes I have with Barrett and his game, he’s still a really good player and deserves to get a sizeable next contract. But the days of players with his skill set, who aren’t super efficient from three, are best with the ball in their hands, and also aren’t a superstar, getting more than $20Ms are dead.
This past season, we saw an MVP candidate in Jaylen Brown be dealt because his deal was going to limit Boston's flexibility and creativity to shake up their roster down the road. If you don’t think GMs are thinking about Jaylen Brown being traded for what he was traded for when they are giving out contract extensions, you’re naive. The league is in a weird spot, and that’s even for superstars, let alone role players or a team's third or fourth option.
If you aren’t a floor spacer and an above-average defender, or a freak-athlete defensive stopper, teams typically don’t have much money for you. And as much as it sucks for RJ Barrett, he doesn’t check any of those boxes, and the Raptors can’t afford to pay him like he does if they want to keep a title window open for a long time.
It would be much easier to convince yourself Barrett was worth more than $20 million if he was some elite three-point shooter or was more locked in defensively, but he’s not. Maybe that can change this season and help him earn an extension from the Raptors before his June deadline, but am I buying stock in that? No.
The NBA is just different these days. Teams have to be extremely careful with their spending and when handing out deals, which is why I think the Raptors have held off on giving Barrett long-term money. While his playoff run last season and overall production would, in the past, have earned him a $30 million-plus salary, those days of giving bags to non-superstars are gone. With players like Wallace or Brandin Podziemski, who play a style that fits winning basketball better, the price Toronto should be willing to pay Barrett is only getting lower.
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