Before LeBron James finally made his decision on Friday, things were awfully quiet in the NBA world for a long time. It’s not surprising, after the first few days of free agency, the offseason typically slows to a crawl, add on a couple of major dominoes waiting to fall, and the offseason moves slower than molasses.
The big domino that the Raptors have been waiting on — and the primary reason we haven’t seen them make any other moves yet — is the completion of the trade to bring Kawhi Leonard back to Toronto.
The problem with that is, since the James domino has fallen, we’ve already seen Kentavious Caldwell-Pope negotiate a buyout with the Memphis Grizzlies to join him in the City of Brotherly Love. It’s only a matter of time before we see other free agents like Bradley Beal, Russell Westbrook, and Demar DeRozan find homes too.
That’s why this holding pattern the Raptors are in is so frustrating, it’s keeping them from being able to make other moves because they don’t know who is on their roster.
There’s rumours that the investigation is now over, and the league just needs to decide on what the punishment will be. It could just be a matter of time until the Raptors can finish building out their roster, so let’s take a look at what they should do with their final spots.
The Current Roster
Technically, the Raptors roster still includes Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick. But for the purpose of this article, I’m going to assume that the trade will be finalized and Leonard will be a Raptor. If that’s the case, here’s where the Raptors roster currently stands:
Player Salary Contract Type
Kawhi Leonard $50,300,000 Guaranteed
Scottie Barnes $41,754,690 Guaranteed
Immanuel Quickley $32,500,000 Guaranteed
R.J. Barrett $29,616,071 Guaranteed
Jakob Poeltl $19,500,000 Guaranteed
Collin Murray-Boyles $6,649,560 Guaranteed
Allen Graves $4,065,720 Guaranteed
Ja’Kobe Walter $3,811,800 Guaranteed
Kyle Anderson $2,449,421 Guaranteed
Trayce Jackson-Davis $2,406,205 Guaranteed
Jamal Shead $2,296,271 Guaranteed
Jamison Battle $2,296,271 Guaranteed
Alijah Martin $2,185,116 Guaranteed
Chucky Hepburn N/A Two-way
Jaden Bradley N/A Two-way
That’s 13 guaranteed contracts, and two two-way contracts already filled. Which means the Raptors have two standard contracts and one two-way contract left to fill. As I understand things, unless the trade changes, or the Raptors make another trade, because they acquired more salary than they sent out in the Leonard deal, they are hard-capped. Because this is an odd situation that I truthfully don’t fully understand, and because he already explained it, here is an excerpt from Sportsnet’s Blake Murphy on the implications of the hard cap:
Because the Raptors are taking back more salary than they’re sending out, the deal, as reported, will trigger a hard cap at the first apron amount ($209 million).
This gets clunky to explain, but the short version is that the NBA has four different salary thresholds, and building your roster gets more restricted at each subsequent level. For Toronto, this means that at no point can they exceed $209 million in salary. It isn’t like the luxury tax, where you can exceed it and then trade a player at the deadline to get out of it. You can’t go over it at all.
This gets complicated when filling out the roster, and would also be a small hindrance around the trade deadline.
That means that filling both the standard spots is tricky, especially with the Leonard trade in limbo. How much space they have to work with depends on if Leonard waives any part of his trade kicker. In an ideal world, he’ll waive all of it, and perhaps the Raptors will shed salary elsewhere to get under the hard cap. I’m going to act as if the Raptors are going to fill all of their roster spots, in which case here’s what I want to see happen.
Sign Nate Bittle to a guaranteed contract
I think one way or another, Nate Bittle is going to be a Toronto Raptor this season. Whether that’s on a guaranteed contract or a two-way spot, he is far too good to let leave. Bittle’s playstyle is perfect for this iteration of the Raptors. In Summer League he showcased the ability to be a shot-blocking stretch five who can also create plays out of delay actions. He routinely made plays from the top of the arc, which is a hallmark of head coach Darko Rajakovic’s offensive style.
At this point in the offseason, Bittle is exactly the style of player the Raptors should be chasing. He fills a need, and he’s the type of player that’s able to play minutes right away. As Zulfi put it:
At worst, with Jakob Poeltl’s availability far from certain, having a younger centre (Bittle is 23) in the pipeline who offers plenty of similarities (and differences) available to eat minutes when needed would be worthwhile to consider. At best, his fit projects quite snug next to the duo of Barnes and Murray-Boyles, who could punish defences in so many ways with a big like Bittle who can theoretically occupy defenders in multiple spots, whether that’s at the rim or above the break.
In this scenario, I think signing Bittle to a standard contract makes sense. I’d rather see him get minutes over Trayce Jackson-Davis and it leaves the two-way slot open for my next guy.
Sign Seth Lundy to a two-way contract
Shooters shoot, and Seth Lundy is a capital-S Shooter. It’s never bad to have more shooters in the organzation, especially ones as fearless as Lundy is. In his Summer League games, Lundy shot 43.8% from three on 8 attempts per game.
Selfishly, he would be an extremely fun player to cover with the Raptors 905, and there’s a chance he could contribute to the main roster, potentially as a replacement for AJ Lawson and/or Gradey Dick, so why not bring him in? He’ll likely spend most of his time in the G-League, as Jamison Battle should receive more minutes this season, but if there are any injuries, Lundy will be ready to step up.
Sign Demar DeRozan to a minimum contract
I want this. If DeRozan is willing to come back on a minimum contract and accepts a bench role, bring him back. I don’t see why not? Sure, he doesn’t solve the three-point shooting woes of the team, but on a minimum contract he provides a scoring punch that they desperately need. Last season, the Raptors bench ranked 24th in points per game. DeRozan averaged 18 points per game last year and is approaching the top ten ALL-TIME scoring list. He’s a bonafide bucket-getter.Not to mention, there’s almost zero risk. It’s a minimum contract. For a team that needs to improve their scoring, having one of the greatest scorers of all time as a veteran to guide them is a no-brainer.
Add in the fairytale aspect of it all? The man they ‘backstabbed’ to bring Kawhi Leonard to Toronto comes home to play alongside Leonard 8 years later? Whew. Call it nostalgia or whatever you want, I don’t care, bring DeRozan home.
We don’t know how long it’ll be until the Leonard trade is finalized, but the Raptors do need to fill out their roster at some point. At this point in the offseason, they’re not getting true needle-movers (that is more likely to come at the trade deadline), but there are some strong options out there and I’m hoping the Raptors will get the chance to go after them before they sign elsewhere. Even if they don’t, adding Bittle and Lundy to the organization would be great moves for the present and the future.