Raptors Update: Salary Cap, Roster and Rotation

The roster is taking a pretty clear shape, with 14 names now more or less locked in. As after all signings, it’s worth taking a look at where the team stands in terms of its roster, rotation and salary cap situation.

All salary data comes via Sham Sports, except in the case of reported deals, where assumptions are stated. Help sorting through exceptions and the like comes via Larry Coon’s CBA FAQ.

Cap Sheet
Because terms are not publicly disclosed, we’re left to make a few assumptions about deals that are worth noting before we get into the numbers.

Assumptions
*Kyle Lowry’s contract is structured 12-12-12-12 (his first year salary could be as low as $11.25M or as high as $14.1M)
*Patrick Patterson’s contract is structured 6-6-6 (his first year salary could be as low as $5.58M or as high as $6.49M)
*Greivis Vasquez’s contract is structured 6.5-6.5 (his first year salary could be as low as $6.265M or as high as $6.755M)
*James Johnson’s contract is structured 2.5-2.5 (his first year salary could be as low as $2.445M or as high as $2.56M)
*Dwight Buycks’ $816,482 salary will be waived before the July 22 guarantee date
*Diante Garrett’s $915,243 salary will be waived before the season
*Bruno Caboclo has been signed at 120 percent of the rookie scale ($1.46M), not 100 percent. The team tweeted he was signed “to rookie scale contract” but that wording is somewhat vague, and teams give players 120 percent almost 100 percent of the time.
*Ditto for Bebe Nogueira, who it sure sounds like is coming over this season.
*DeAndre Daniels is headed to Europe for the season, which sure sounds like Plan A right now.

The Books
Given all of those somewhat safe but not perfect assumptions, here’s what I have the books looking like at present:

Can they still add?
Technically, the Raptors can still add salary despite being over the salary cap. Johnson will eat into a chunk of their mid-level exception since he came in above the bi-annual exception, meaning the Raptors have the following exceptions to use:

Remaining mid-level exception: $2.805M
Bi-annual exception: $2.077M
Trade exceptions: I believe the Raptors have a $1.22M exception from the Andrea Bargnani deal and a $4.58M one from the Rudy Gay deal, the former of which expires today. There may also have been one created in the Steve Novak deal that would be good for one year, thought I can’t confirm for certain.

Will they still add?
Probably not. With just $2M in breathing room beneath the tax, the Raptors have a scary hammer that could fall on them – use the MLE or BAE (aww) to cross the tax line, and an $80.829M “hard cap” is placed on the team until next July, meaning they can’t go a dollar above that amount or acquire players in a sign-and-trade. There’s always the possibility the team is okay crossing the tax line and trying to get beneath it later, but it seems likely the budget has now shrunk to $2M to fill the final roster spot.

What’s the absolute most money they could have beneath the tax?
All those assumptions we made earlier? Let’s flip them – everyone, including the rookies, has signed for the absolute minimum first-year salary given the parameters of their deals. The team also uses the stretch provision on both Landry Fields and Chuck Hayes. That would all clear an additional $10M, leaving the Raptors with still no cap space but $12.77M to add pieces before they hit the tax. They couldn’t just go out and sign someone with that money (they’d still be limited to exceptions and trades) but that’s how much they could theoretically add. This is an insane scenario, and is only included for fun.

The Roster
So here’s how the roster looks at 15:

PG: Kyle Lowry
G: Greivis Vasquez, Lou Williams
Wing: DeMar DeRozan, Terrence Ross, Bruno Caboclo
F: Landry Fields, James Johnson
PF: Patrick Patterson, Amir Johnson, Tyler Hansbrough
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Chuck Hayes, Bebe Nogueira

That’s a weird way of classifying players, I guess, but the Raptors have a handful of versatile pieces who can play multiple positions, meaning looking at things in the standard five-position way doesn’t help all that much. That’s not a bad roster, and even if you don’t agree with some of the dollar amounts on the signings, it’s a slightly deeper one than last year and one that, if the development plans move forward as hoped, will be better, too.

As for the 15th spot, if the team uses it they could really justify using it on any position now. Nogueira has filled the third center spot and Johnson fills the “big wing” need, and even if you want to look at things by traditional position, there’s no obvious hole that needs shoring up. You could convince me another point guard, at the minimum, would be nice Lowry injury insurance, but I wouldn’t call it a need given that Lou Trill can play some one in a pinch (Scott Machado could be the Brazilian Westbrook to Bruno and Bebe’s Brazilian KD and Ibaka).

PG: Lowry, Vasquez
SG: DeRozan, Williams
SF: Ross, Caboclo, Fields, J. Johnson
PF: Patterson, A. Johnson, Hansbrough
C: Valanciunas, Hayes, Nogeuira

The Rotation
Let’s take a look at who may get what kind of minutes given the team’s current construction.

Starters
Lowry – played 36.2 MPG last season, team would probably like that to be a shade below 34. (72 games x 34 MPG = 2,448)
DeRozan – played 38.2 MPG last season and is 4th in the NBA in minutes since 2010-11. This HAS to come down, maybe to the 36 range. (78 games x 36 MPG = 2,808)
Ross – played 26.7 MPG last season, a number that increased late in the year but dropped for the playoffs. 30 a night seems a good progression. (78 games x 30 MPG = 2,340)
A. Johnson – played 28.8 MPG last season but spent most of the year banged up and might be well served by having this scaled back to about 25, where he spent 2010-2012. (75 games x 25 MPG = 1,875)
Valanciunas – played 28.2 MPG last season after 23.9 as a rookie. With his foul rate declining and his game improving, 32 a night seems a realistic goal. (78 games x 32 MPG = 2,496)
Total: 29 games missed, 11,967 minutes

Key Reserves
Vasquez – played 21.5 MPG as a Raptor last season but saw that edge up late in the year and jump to 27.1 for the playoffs. Given how well he and Lowry play together, 25 a night (the bulk of the PG-SG backup minutes) seems right. (75 games x 25 MPG = 1,875)
Patterson – played 23.3 MPG as a Raptor last season but bumped to 28.4 in the playoffs. An even split at the four between he and Amir is a good plan, giving him 24 a night. (72 games x 24 MPG = 1,728)
Total: 17 games missed, 3,603 minutes / 46 games missed, 15,570 minutes

Other Rotation Pieces
Williams – cleans up leftover minutes at both guard spots, averaging about 12.7 minutes. That seems low, but it’s all that’s available so long as Lowry and Vasquez are healthy.
J. Johnson – fills in at both forward spots, averaging about 18 minutes.
Fields – grabs the final minutes at the three, averaging 10 minutes but only getting in a bit over half the games. That would still be more than he played last year.
Bruno – grabs the final minutes at the three and a few at the four. We’re talking Buycks/Stone minutes here though.
Bebe – more or less the same, but at center.
Hansbrough – clean-up time at the four and some undersized five, but I can’t imagine he sniffs the thousand minutes he got last year.
Hayes – fills in those final minutes at the pivot.

What I’m saying is…
These all seem like a bunch of conservative estimates, right? Well, that’s the entire minutes base allocated right there, as shown in this quick and dirty table. The big difference between this and reality is that injuries will happen and we can’t predict who they’ll happen to.

The point with that stupid exercise was basically to show that the team is already cutting into minutes for a lot of guys as currently planned, which speaks to the improved depth. It also, however, means decisions of win-now against development, and possibly passing on adding a 15th man.

Again, those are really rough assumptions, they’re not meant to do anything but show the minutes crunch on a roster when you don’t assume more than a handful of short-term injuries.