It’s the end of July and the Raptor have done some business this summer:
- Drafted Ross
- Signed Fields
- Traded for Lowry
- Re-signed Gray
- Signed Lucas
- Signed Jonas (not officially an acquisition, but still)
- Traded away James Johnson
They did all this without touching their amnesty clause, and while retaining Jose Calderon and Amir Johnson, two players that were bandied about in either amnesty or trade talks. The roster looks as follows:
PG: Lowry, Calderon, Lucas
SG: DeRozan, Ross
SF: Fields, Kleiza
PF: Bargnani, Johnson, Davis
C: Valanciunas, Gray
That’s 12 guys under contract and very close to the cap of $58M, so the only free-agents they could sign at this point would have to be making close to minimum. We’re legitimately deep at the point guard and power forward spots, and have a rotation rounded up based on the depth at the other three positions. If there’s any business to be done in terms of trade, you would think (as this article suggested earlier) it would have to come at the expense of Jose Calderon. The Raptors signed Lucas to a reasonable deal of $1.5M (read: they didn’t overpay so the player had incentive other than money to be here), and I’m sure that it came at least with some guarantees of playing time. What I’m saying is that it’s not a Darrick Martin signing where you bring in the guy to ride the bench. Lucas expects to play, especially given his good form in Chicago.
I suppose what will be done with Calderon depends on if the Raptors want to make a follow-up move this summer or next. If it’s this summer, then they’d have to trade him and hopefully get the player they want, or a TPE which they would for a change actually use. If not, wait it out and see what happens at the deadline. The only other position where the Raptors might consider trading away from is the power forward spot, where Ed Davis cannot be happy being third string entering his third year. I know he’s had some brush with injury, however, that doesn’t excuse his position on the depth chart. His $2.2M salary might be swallowed this year, but if this season proves to be a continuation of the last two, then either he’ll be traded or that option of $3.15M will not be picked up.
Other than that, there’s not much on the horizon for the rest of the summer. Here’s some informed speculation on the Raptors being in Los Angeles.
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