CalgaryRapsFan wrote:
What I don't understand is that, the way I understand it, had the Raptors not extended DeRozan by the Oct.31 deadline, he would have become a restricted free agent (RFA) after the season. The Raptors would have been able to match any contract offer and would still maintain his 'Bird rights', allowing them to re-sign him to a contract that put them beyond the salary cap (although they'd still have a cap hold worth approx. $4.5M).
That's why I don't get the contract extension at this time. Did BC really think that DeRozan would be that sought after by several teams, resulting in a bidding war that pushed the offers to $9.5M or more? If he was willing to go as high as $9.5M per season, why not just wait and match (or just sign outright without having to match) in the offseason? That way they'd have about $5M additional cap space to work with BEFORE re-signing DeRozan, which they won't have now (that's essentially another MLE level contract/player that could have been signed). It's the timing as much as it is the amount, which is bugging me so much.