Most of the Raptors’ starters and key players are still under contract for the next few seasons. Scottie Barnes is signed through the 2029-30 season, Immanuel Quickley’s contract lasts until the end of the 2028-29 season, Brandon Ingram still has another season and a player option for the 2027-28 season, RJ Barrett’s contract doesn’t end until after next season, and Collin Murray-Boyles has one more year and a team option coming up.
Sandro Mamukelashvili, however, has a player option for the 2026-27 season and could opt out of it to hit free agency and see if any team wants to offer him more money than the Raptors have to spare with their array of expensive long-term contracts.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks noted in his offseason guide for the Raptors, “If Mamukelashvili declines his $2.8 million player option, Toronto would likely need to dip into its $15 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception. However, if they use more than $6 million, Toronto hard caps itself at the first apron.”
The Raptors have the ability to pay Mamukelashvili more than his player option would be worth, but that doesn’t erase any competition from financially more flexible teams that could try to outbid Toronto—and there might be a few. Mamukelashvili made BleacherReport’s Grant Hughes’s list of “5 Bargain-Bin Free Agents Who Could Help Every NBA Team”—and for good reason. Teams are always looking for stretch bigs that don’t cost a fortune.
Losing Mamukelashvili in free agency would be a tough blow
The 26-year-old big averaged 11.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game over 80 regular-season games. It was his most productive season yet, and his 3-point shooting was a premium on a roster so short on outside threats. Mamu sank 38.9% of his 3.7 attempts per game. Ja’Kobe Walter was the only Raptor who matched his volume and shot a better percentage.
Mamu’s shooting numbers dipped significantly in the playoffs when he shot only 28.6%.
Nevertheless, the Raptors don’t want to lose their only floor-spacing big, and lineups with him at the five next to Scottie Barnes were some of Toronto’s most successful offensive combinations. Neither Jakob Poeltl nor Collin Murray-Boyles is a threat from behind the arc. Neither was Barnes in the regular season—his 3-point percentage shot up to 38.1% in the playoffs—which made playing him without a non-shooting big tricky, especially considering that RJ Barrett also wasn’t reliably knocking down threes in the regular season.
Add us as a preferred source on Google