Erase Potential Asset No. 253B from your Excel spreadsheets.
Nando De Colo has signed a three-year extension with CSKA Moscow, David Pick reports. De Colo was reportedly receiving interest from multiple NBA teams but wasn’t giving strong consideration to returning stateside, instead preferring to work out a long-term deal with the team he helped lead to a Euroleague championship this season.
And make no mistake, De Colo led CSKA, earning Euroleague MVP, Euroleague Final Four MVP, and All-Euroleague First Team honors in the process. De Colo also took home the Alphonso Ford Trophy as the Euroleague’s top scorer, and at the same time took home his second consecutive VTB United League MVP and VTB United League championship. In 63 games across both leagues in 2015-16, De Colo averaged 17.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 1.3 steals while shooting 51.1 percent from the floor and 42.2 percent from long-range. Things are going well for De Colo since leaving the Toronto Raptors following the 2013-14 season, you could say.
Because De Colo last played for the Raptors and only accrued two years of NBA service time, the Raptors still hold the 28-year-old’s NBA rights, hence De Colo news being deemed worthy of a post on Raptors Republic. The Raptors tendered De Colo a qualifying offer in each of the last two offseasons to retain his rights in restricted free agency, as well as his Early Bird Rights, and had De Colo decided to make an NBA return, the Raptors would have been able to exceed the cap to re-sign him or match an offer sheet he signed elsewhere. Even if there’s not a strong need for an additional guard at present, adding a player the caliber of De Colo, largely considered one of the top guards outside of the NBA, would have been a nice piece of asset management, and it’s possible he could have represented a trade chip down the line, as well (though not in a sign-and-trade scenario). You can read more about the cap machinations around re-signing De Colo here.
Alas, De Colo seems set to stay in Russia into his 30s. For now, he exists on the Raptors’ books as a $1.9-million cap hold, which the Raptors can remove by renouncing his rights. Should the Raptors want to retain De Colo’s rights for a potential NBA return in the future, they would need to tender him a $1.83-million qualifying offer (a fully guaranteed one-year deal) by June 30, which would expire (and come off the books) on October 1. The Raptors could also withdraw that qualifying offer up until July 23 if De Colo consented, rendering him an unrestricted free agent but maintaining his Early Bird Rights.
Depending on what type of cap maneuvers the Raptors need to perform this offseason, and how likely they deem an NBA return for De Colo, it’s possible they renounce his rights to clear his cap hold and open up a bit of additional wiggle room.
