In the least surprising news of the offseason so far, Bismack Biyombo has declined his player option for the 2016-17 season.
The decision was required by June 6 and was first reported by Eric Pincus, though it was considered to be a formality. While Biyombo has said he’s willing to play ball to try to stay with the Toronto Raptors, he’s earned a substantial raise on the $2.94-million option he held for next year.
The Raptors signed Biyombo to a two-year, $5.8-million deal last summer, and in doing so, were unable to require his Bird rights. It made all the sense in the world to lock the former lottery pick up cheap on a short-term, make-good deal, and the possibility that he’d out-perform it and opt out always existed. That he’s doing so is a “win” for Toronto in that they identified an undervalued talent, put him in a position to succeed, and helped develop him to the point that he could earn in the $17-million range annually this summer, it just happens to also mean it’s next to impossible for the Raptors to (reasonably) retain him without making significant changes to the roster.
With Biyombo’s decision, he’ll now become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. He’ll possess an estimated cap hold of $3.8 million until he signs elsewhere or the Raptors renounce their non-Bird rights to him (which allow them to go over the cap to sign him to a salary of 120 percent of his previous salary, which won’t get it done).
Again, none of this is really news, but we’re passing along the procedural note.
