Bismack Biyombo comes to an agreement with Orlando – Yahoo Sports
This demotes, at least until some sort of transaction is agreed upon, center Nikola Vucevic.
Vucevic, one of the few scoring centers left in the NBA, led the team with 18.2 points per game, 1.1 blocks and 8.9 rebounds in 2016-17. It’s rare to see a player who leads a squad in three major categories – at age 25, no less – so publicly knocked down a peg like this, but the Magic were clearly unhappy with Vucevic’s porous defense.
Adding former NBA blocks leader Serge Ibaka (as Orlando did on draft night) was supposed to help fix this, seemingly, but the Magic apparently do not want to wait around to give the two a try next fall. Ibaka’s block and rebound percentages have fallen off precipitously over the last few years, though, which is why the team decided to make the commitment to Biyombo.
Originally drafted by Sacramento in 2011, the Congo native was immediately dealt to Charlotte where he played for four seasons prior to catching on with the Raptors in 2015. Bismack averaged 5.5 points, 1.6 blocks and eight rebounds per game off the Toronto bench last season, working 22 minutes a night and playing in all 82 regular season games.
Biyombo coming to Orlando to start. Could put Vucevic in play for trades.
— Jon Krawczynski (@APkrawczynski) July 2, 2016
Good luck in Orlando Bizz @bismackbiyombo0 #WeTheNorth #JYD2Point0 #TeamCarroll #StayPositive #RTZ pic.twitter.com/zL4nC7sp5m
— DeMarre Carroll (@DeMarreCarroll1) July 3, 2016
Congrats to the big bro @bismackbiyombo0 you deserve it. Good luck on your new journey with the magic. #allday
— norman powell (@npowell2404) July 2, 2016
Bismack Biyombo lands big bucks with Magic | RAPTORS | Raptors | Sports | Toront
The Raptors, meanwhile, knew this day was coming, despite Biyombo’s desire to stay put, having fallen in love with the city the way Raptors fans did with the charismatic shot-blocker.
“I love it up here, I think I’ve said it before. I would love to be back here,” Biyombo said in May when Toronto’s season ended.
“The one thing I believe in is the office there is the right people and I have the right people in Masai and Dwane (Casey), so I’m not too concerned about that. Once the time comes there’s the right people that will handle it and I’ll hope to be back here again.”
Biyombo might have believed it, but logically it just wasn’t going to happen.
The Raptors only had five or six million dollars to offer him to begin a new deal. Moving Terrence Ross for cap space and draft picks would have put them in hometown discount range, offering about $15 million to start, but would have left the roster full of holes, with no money to plug them.
With big men Jakob Poeltl and Pascal Siakam coming aboard via the draft, the Raptors had already begun the process of moving on.
Breaking Down How Bismack Biyombo Fits After Signing with Orlando Magic | Bleacher Report
It’s unclear how much of a market there would have been for Biyombo prior to his playoff push. He likely still would have opted out of his deal, given his age, the monstrous amount of money available due to the (now official) salary-cap spike to $94.1 million and the league-wide need for rim protection. That said, he surely would not have commanded as large of a deal as he ended up getting.
Once he broke out during the playoffs, though, a robust market for his services began to emerge. An Eastern Conference general manager told Sean Deveney of the Sporting News in mid-May that he believed Biyombo could get around $16-17 million per year on the open market, and that estimate wound up being very close to the $18 million per year he actually got.
Deveney reported at the time that the Raptors were interested in bringing Biyombo back into the fold, and that he would be courted by the Boston Celtics,Los Angeles Lakers and potentially the Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets andPortland Trail Blazers.
Report: Raptors among teams interested in Pau Gasol – Sportsnet.ca
With Al Horford agreeing to terms with the Boston Celtics on Saturday, Gasol, who turns 36 next week, has emerged as the best big man available on the open market. The Raptors are in need of depth at power forward with Patrick Patterson the only proven player at that position under contract.
The 16-year NBA veteran, who opted out of his contract with the Chicago Bulls on June 27, averaged 16.5 points, 11.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.0 blocks in 72 games last season while shooting 6.9 per cent from the floor and converting 24 of 69 three-point attempts.
After agreeing to a five-year, $139 million deal with all-star DeMar DeRozan, the Raptors don’t have much space remaining under the NBA’s $94 million salary cap and could be priced out of Gasol’s services
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Source: Bismack Biyombo won’t return to Raptors, will sign with Magic – Sportsnet.ca
Toronto general manager Masai Ujiri and coach Dwane Casey were holding out hope that Biyombo might take a discount to remain with the Raptors after they helped him get his career on track. But with big money already committed to DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry, DeMarre Carroll and Valanciunas, they were fully expecting Biyombo to price himself out of Toronto.
Orlando acquired Serge Ibaka from Oklahoma City in a draft-night trade. He will play on one side of Biyombo, with promising small forward Aaron Gordon on the other.
It remains to be seen what the Magic do with incumbent centre Nikola Vucevic, one of the better offensive centres in the game over his five years in the league. He averaged 18.2 points and 8.9 rebounds last season.
The Magic could keep Vucevic to give them a productive three-man rotation with Biyombo and Ibaka. Or they could try to trade him, continuing the makeover under general manager Rob Hennigan in a bid to better suit the roster to the style of new coach Frank Vogel.
Bismack Biyombo agrees to four-year deal with Orlando Magic | Toronto Star
Under the arcane rules of the league’s salary cap, the Raptors had no chance to match the riches Biyombo found on the open market. Both he and president Masai Ujiri talked at length about a possible return right after the season ended but it was pie-in-sky hopefulness given the money floating around on the market.
“I’ve heard Masai say he’d do whatever it takes a couple of times,” Biyombo said after the season ended. “At this point I’m just thankful that the organization gave me the opportunity to come here and enjoy a different experience since I’ve been in the league.”
His move cannot take away from the contribution the 23-year-old Biyombo made to the most successful season in franchise history, nor his place among the most popular Raptors of all time.
While he had his obvious limitations — offensive range that topped out at about six feet consistently, issues with free throw shooting and a propensity to be better at home than he was on the road — there was never a question about his effort.
Report: Raptors could try to lure Pau Gasol – Raptors Republic: ESPN TrueHoop Network Blog
As it stands, Toronto only has $5-6 million to work with (either in cap space or the mid-level exception, depending on how they want to play their hand). If Gasol is looking to join a contender, maybe he’s willing to take that haircut off his market value, though one would think the Raptors are closer to the three-to-five range on preferred destinations rather than No. 1 (which is still worlds ahead of where they would have been a year or two ago).
From a fit perspective, adding someone of Gasol’s offensive skill level at a below-market rate is tough to argue with. He’s no longer a defensive deterrent and would be a tough defensive pairing with Jonas Valanciunas, but the Raptors got by with Luis Scola starting alongside him, and they could always start Patrick Patterson and deploy Gasol as the offensive fulcrum of second units. Gasol will turn 36 next week, but last season for the Bulls he still averaged 16.5 points, 11 rebounds, 4.1 assists and two blocks while shooting 46.9 percent from the floor and 24-of-69 on threes (something the Raptors would ask him to take a lot more of, if Scola is any indication).
The Raptors, meanwhile, knew this day was coming, despite Biyombo’s desire to stay put, having fallen in love with the city in the same way Raptors fans did with the charismatic shot-blocker.
“I love it up here, I think i’ve said it before. I would love to be back here,” Biyombo said in May when the Raptors season ended.
“The one thing that I believe is in the office there is the right people and I have the right people in Masai and (coach) Dwane (Casey), so I’m not too concerned about that.
“Once the time comes, there’s the right people that will handle it and I’ll hope to be back here again.”
Biyombo might have believed it, but logically, it just wasn’t going to happen.
The Raptors only had five or six million dollars to offer him to begin a new deal. Moving Terrence Ross for cap space and draft picks would have put them in hometown discount range, offering about $15 million to start, but would have left the roster full of holes, with no money to plug them.
With big men Jakob Poeltl and Pascal Siakam coming aboard via the draft, the Raptors had already begun the process of moving on.
