Bismack Biyombo has agreed to a four-year contract with the Orlando Magic, according to a report from The Associated Press. The deal is for roughly $70 million, according to Marc Stein of ESPN. (It’s $72 million, per Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.)
This one hurts, but it was always near an inevitability that the Toronto Raptors would lose Biyombo. Because they were able to land him on a team-friendly one-year contract (with a player option he understandably declined), the Raptors only owned his Non-Bird Rights in free agency. That meant they couldn’t exceed the cap to sign him for anywhere even remotely close to his market value, and so they would have needed to trade off several pieces to clear the room to keep him. (And no, DeMar DeRozan taking less money wouldn’t have made a difference unless he were to sign for less than $15.5 million, which nobody can expect of him.)
With Jonas Valanciunas installed at center and at the beginning of a four-year deal himself, investing another eight figures annually at the center position wasn’t in the cards.
That’s a tough pill for the fan base, as Biyombo quickly became one of the most popular Raptors ever. A shot-blocking, rebound-hounding, finger-wagging delight of a defensive presence, Biyombo ranked among the league’s most effective rebounders and helped anchor one of the most dominant second units in the NBA. He also improved enough at the offensive end to command an enormous raise off of the $3 million he made last season, and while the realities of the market this summer account for some of that jump, he also genuinely got much better. He still doesn’t have the softest of hands, but Biyombo took strides as a dive-man and finishers, helping his bone-crunching screen-setting play up even more when opposing teams loaded up off of him to corral Toronto’s ball-handlers.
Biyombo also filled in admirably when Valanciunas hit the shelf for stretches, starting 22 regular season games and 10 playoff games. Over the course of the season, Biyombo averaged 5.5 points, eight rebounds, and 1.6 blocks while shooting 54.2 percent. In 20 playoff games, he averaged 6.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks, shooting 58 percent from the floor. He set the team record for rebounds in a game in both the regular season (25) and the postseason (26), and almost certainly set the Raptors’ franchise record for finger-wags and smile wattage. The Raptors’ defense was 4.1 points per-100 possessions better with Biyombo on the court during the season, and while the offense struggled (-5.4 PPC) some, he was about as strong a backup center as existed in the NBA this year.
One of the tough realities of being a very good team that finds under-valued players on discounted deals is that, if you put them in a position to succeed and help them improve, they may price themselves out of your range. That’s what happened with Biyombo, who would have loved to stay and who the organization would have loved to keep, but who earned a raise far beyond what the Raptors could offer.
In an ideal world, they would have had cap space or would have owned Biyombo’s full Bird Rights in order to keep him. Unfortunately, you can’t pay everyone, and the cost of keeping Biyombo – $18 million annually and the loss of Terrence Ross or Jonas Valanciunas to clear the space – was deemed too high. It’s an entirely reasonable decision, and general manager Masai Ujiri is surely as happy as anyone to see Biyombo get such a lucrative pay-day.
In Biyombo, the Magic get a major boost to a defense that’s already added Serge Ibaka this offseason. Orlando may as well remove their rims, as there’s little chance of opponents getting near them. Finding minutes for Ibaka, Biyombo, Nikola Vucevic, and Aaron Gordon at the four and five could prove difficult (there’s also Jeff Green, who’s best deployed as a small four), and so Orlando may not be done making moves in their frontcourt just yet.
The Raptors will now turn the backup center role over to Lucas Nogueira and No. 9 overall pick Jakob Poeltl, barring any further moves. Toronto will be weaker at that spot, almost surely, and they’ll need to hope Nogueira has improved and matured or that Poeltl is more advanced than most 20-year-old bigs. They’ll also be relying on further growth from the 24-year-old Valanciunas, who will be called on to play well north of 30 minutes per-game now (and who will hopefully stay healthy).
(As a side note, Biyombo leaving does nothing for the Raptors’ cap situation. His cap hold was tiny and all of our analysis here already assumed he was gone. The Raptors onyl stand to have about $5-6 million to play with based on current estimates, barring a trade.)
This sucks. There’s no way around that. I’ve never spoken to anyone inside or outside the organization who didn’t enjoy watching Biyombo, talking to him, and being around him. He’s great. It just wasn’t realistic to retain him as an unrestricted free agent in this market without the rights to exceed the cap to keep him (and there’s nothing that could have been done about that). The Raptors will be fine, maybe just a little less fun with a few less highlight-reel blocks and fist-pump inducing grins. If nothing else, be happy for Biyombo, who gave the Raptors one heck of a year and is being rewarded in a major way now.
Thanks for a dope season, Biz.
