In other, much less exciting news, the Raptors have made a play to retain the rights to Nando De Colo.
Take it away, Raptors Media Relations:
https://twitter.com/RaptorsMR/status/615608684513726464
It’s not a big deal. The Raptors floated De Colo an offer last season as well, but the French combo guard opted for CSKA Moscow. This year’s offer should be the same as last season, which was valued at $1.8 million (unless the figure accounts for cap inflation; DanH help out here).
De Colo was excellent for CKSA Moscow, posting averages of 14.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 24.4 minutes per game. He shot 47.1 percent from deep and earned All-Euroleague Second Team honors while helping CSKA Moscow to a third-place finish in Euroleague (the basketball equivalent of Champions League). De Colo is in the second year of his deal with Moscow worth a reported $2 million per year. Factoring different tax structures and it’s significantly more than what he would have earned in Toronto.
The Raptors acquired De Colo in a deal with the Spurs for Austin Daye. During his brief time in the NBA, De Colo was a flashy guard with strong playmaking abilities. However, he was rather erratic and generally lacked discretion, resulting in a hilarious career turnover percentage of 21.3 percent. That’s simply too high for a point guard, but the talent was there.
De Colo, now 28, posted per-36 averages of 11.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.2 assists on a PER of 11.8 and a true-shooting percentage of 52.8 percent. He would make for a decent low-cost add if a) he chose to leave Europe and b) Lou Williams walks.
