In the least surprising news since Bismack Biyombo did the same, DeMar DeRozan has declined his player option for the 2016-17 season.
The decision was required by June 15 and was first reported by Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com, though it was considered to be a formality. While DeRozan has said he’d like to stay with the Toronto Raptors (see here, here, here, here, and here for more), he’s earned a substantial raise on the $10.35-million option he held for next year, and he’ll likely have maximum contract offers on his doorstep at 12:01 on July 1, when he’ll officially become an unrestricted free agent.
The Raptors signed DeRozan to a four-year, $38-million deal that kicked in at the start of the 2013-14 season, and DeRozan’s earned more than the expected annual salary by triggering incentive clauses. At the time, the deal looked like an unnecessary, or at least early risk on the part of Bryan Colangelo, but DeRozan’s ascension to All-Star status soon made it look like a bargain. With the cap sky-rocketing and DeRozan established as a major scoring threat, he’s set to make substantially more. Again, whether or not DeRozan “is a max player,” he’s going to have max offers. The questions for the Raptors are whether they’re willing to pay that max for him and whether he’s willing to sign for a little less to stay in The 6ix.
As a reminder, the Raptors hold the hammer with DeRozan – they can give him a five-year deal at an estimated $144.6M based on current cap estimates, whereas other teams can give him a four-year deal worth roughly $107.4M. That’s a huge difference. And there’s little value to a sign-and-trade in the new cap economy – players can’t receive a fifth year in a sign-and-trade, nor can they get as large a raise, and with so many teams possessing cap space, there aren’t many scenarios where it would make sense for cap circumventing, either.
DeRozan will possess an estimated cap hold of $15.5 million until he signs elsewhere or the Raptors renounce their Bird rights to him (the rights that allow them to go over the cap to sign him, and offer him that fifth year and those larger annual raise than any other team). The cap hold being less than his likely salary normally provides a team with some nice additional flexibility in free agency based on the timing of their moves, but the Raptors find themselves in a difficult salary cap situation despite that advantage. In any case, the rights are a positive.
Again, none of this is really news, but we’re passing along the procedural note.
