Haywood Highsmith and 4 Free Agents the Raptors will definitely regret not signing

The Toronto Raptors had a path available to them to significantly improve their team for this season. They chose not to take it.

Heading into free agency, the Raptors could have opened up well over $20 million in cap space. Instead, they picked up the $23 million team option for Bruce Brown Jr., took on salary in a draft-day trade, and that cap space was gone. The Raptors did not bring in a single player via free agency who is on a fully-guaranteed deal.

Two months later, the Raptors have failed in finding a trade suitor for Bruce Brown, and they look like a team trapped between two paths. What if they had declined Brown's team option and walked into free agency with cap space? Or, at the least, been willing to go into the luxury tax to make use of the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception.

Let's look at five players the Raptors likely could have signed but did not, and why they would have been ideal additions at their price tag to the Toronto roster.

No. 5: Haywood Highsmith

The Miami Heat have struck gold again on developing a fringe NBA player into a viable rotation player. Haywood Highsmith is a combo forward with an incredibly versatile defensive skillset, able to crash the glass and take on larger wings but also an excellent choice at the point of attack. The Raptors don't have a single player like him on the roster.

Highsmith signed for a paltry two years and less than $11 million; pocket change even for the current Raptors. Part of the discount he signed for was the opportunity to stay with Miami, the organization that believed in him and that allows him to live in Miami, FL. Swapping that for Toronto would have taken more money, but even a modest pay increase was well below the value he brings as a 3-and-D forward. The Raptors could have used someone like Highsmith to defend multiple positions and knock down catch-and-shoot 3-pointers on offense.