July 3 open thread: Is the market setting? | Raptors Republic
What all of this adds up to is that the market is insane. We knew that already, though. What hasn’t become clear yet is the type of player who may be available in Toronto’s salary range. The Raptors can have $5.76M in cap space or the $5.63M mid-level exception if they choose to stay over it (there’s a reasonable argument to be made for doing so), and barring a trade to unload salary, that’s the most they’ll be able to offer a free agent in Year One of a deal.
Here are the players who have signed roughly in that range: Ish Smith ($6M), Wesley Johnson ($6M), Justin Hamilton ($3M), James Ennis ($3M). That’s it. Of 43 deals given out, the Raptors could afford four (plus DeRozan). The market the Raptors are playing in hasn’t been established, really, while names like Darrell Arthur, Jared Dudley, Mirza Teletovic, E’Twaun Moore, Trevor Booker, Jon Leuer, and Anthony Tolliver have been priced outside of Toronto’s range.
The Raptors are faced with doing some bargain-hunting. Masai Ujiri has done well in that regard before, but finding a rotation-caliber forward in the $5-6M range is going to prove a challenge.
Canada announces roster for Olympic Qualifying Tournament | Raptors Republic
The roster was chosen from a preliminary list of 22 players, most of who were with the team as they went 4-1 in a tune-up tournament in Italy this week. The one cut that stands out is Sim Bhullar, who’s a tough play in the international game and had already transitioned to the CrownLeague, while R.J. Barrett and Simi Shittu had since transitioned to the U-17 tournament.
That’s an encouraging result, but Canada still has a tall task ahead of them. After failing to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil via the FIBA Americas last summer (ugh), Canada, ranked 26th in the world by FIBA, now needs to win their Olympic Qualifying Tournament outright. That means topping a France (5) team that is a bit shorthanded but still an anticipated powerhouse, Turkey (8), the host Philippines (28), New Zealand (21), and Senegal (31). Winning the QOT outright is possible, but the Canadians will need to play nearly perfect basketball to do so.
It’s unfortunate, then, that they were unable to secure commitments from some of their brightest young names. Notable by their absence are Andrew Wiggins, Nik Stauskas, and Trey Lyles (choice), Dwight Powell and Andrew Nicholson (free agents), Kelly Olynyk and Dillon Brooks (injured), Jamal Murray and Kyle Wiltjer (just drafted and signed, respectively), and Robert Sacre (hocking cheap suits that fell off the back of a truck). For some, the absence is understandable, but those who opted out, in particular, look a little worse now that Tristan Thompson (NBA Finals run), Anthony Bennett (fighting for his NBA life), and Khem Birch (declined a Summer League invite) are locked in.
In any case, Canada can only worry about the players they have on hand.
S/O to @DeMar_DeRozan for coming out to #thedrew today. Follow us on Snapchat for more live looks.
👻TheDrewLeague pic.twitter.com/Vb7eECuOFG
— Drew League (@DrewLeague) July 2, 2016
Raptors offseason mailbag — Millsap, Gasol, Noel, Biyombo’s departure, Lowry’s future | The Defeated
The Raptors did get worse this summer unless they make an unexpected trade in the coming weeks. (re: Totti — shoutout to Italians everywhere. They went farther than anyone expected and lost to Germany on a coin flip. That was a rough loss. Don’t let Zaza back in the country).
But did any other Eastern conference team surpassed the Raptors this summer?
Detroit — Full season of Tobias Harris, got a backup point guard in Ish Smith, added a stretch forward in Jon Leuer (verdict: Improved, but not significantly).
Atlanta — Added Dwight Howard, Tiago Splitter should be healthier, lost Jeff Teague and Al Horford, veteran roster a year older (verdict: Regressed)
Miami — Who is still on this team? (verdict: Regressed)
Charlotte — Lost Courtney Lee, Al Jefferson and Jeremy Lin, added Marco Belinelli (verdict: Regressed)
Indiana — Added Jeff Teague, Al Jefferson, and Thaddeus Young. Lost Frank Vogel and Ian Mahinmi. Defense should take a big step back, but offense should be much better. (verdict: Improved, but not significantly)
Boston — See above (verdict: Improved significantly)
Raptors should still be in the top-four barring an injury to Valanciunas or Lowry. Losing Biyombo sucks a lot, but they’re still pretty good.
SQ At The Drew League (7/3) | The Sports Quotient
Both teams got off to extremely slow starts as BB4L had a 15-13 lead at the end of the first. In the second quarter the intensity and buzz surrounding this game began to pick up, thanks to LAUNFD’s Brown who quickly got it going with a couple threes. At the half, LAUNFD led 38-36. Brown led his team with 11 points, while Mobley was very quiet. For BB4L, Ware was big in the first half, as he had 17 points. Ross didn’t look to shoot much, as he had just 9 points in the first half.
The second half is where all the fun started. In what was possibly a candidate for dunk of the game, Elijah Stewart got UP as he posterized a defender and got the crowd really going. Unfortunately for LAUNFD, they had no answer for Ross, as he began to start taking over the game. Soon this game turned into a blowout, as BB4L led by as many as 21 before taking a 20-point win.
With the deep ball falling, Ross would finish with 25 points (5 threes), while Ware added 22 points. On the other side, Brown finished with 19 points and Brandon B added 14 points for LAUNFD. It was fun watching Cuttino Mobley match up with Terrence Ross, as Mobley took advantage of his size in the post especially in the fourth. Cat finished with 13 points, but really didn’t look in attack mode for most of the game, until the fourth. BB4L moves on and stays undefeated at 5-0.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHbDBlejfsz/
After re-signing DeRozan, here’s the Raptors’ salary cap situation | Raptors HQ
o, DeRozan’s salary this summer (after he signs) will be between $24.17 million and $26.54 million. For tax purposes, this goes up by $1.2 million due to his unlikely incentives (so, between $25.37 million and $27.74 million).
For now, looking at the worst case in terms of money committed when calculating whether the Raptors are in the tax, the total including DeRozan is about $102 million, about $11 million shy of the tax. That number includes both rookies signing standard 120% of scale contracts, and Powell counting as a 2-year veteran minimum instead of his lower salary (this is standard practice, meant to encourage teams to sign veterans instead of young players, or at least to avoid incentivizing signing younger players). Using the MLE and making a large trade with a large salary differential ($5 million is about as big as you can easily get when operating above the cap) would put them very close to the tax. Note that if they do use the MLE, they will be hard capped at the tax apron, $4 million above the tax line.
For now, Masai Ujiri has not done anything to change what he can do over the course of the next week. It will be interesting whether any PF upgrade comes through a cap clearing trade, a trade for a PF, or simply finding a gem with the MLE, like with Biyombo last season.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHa01FIDAt7/
What 2016 NBA Summer League means to Raptors’ Off-Season | Raptors Rapture
Fans can expect to see a hungry Norman Powell in summer league games. Considering his attitude and approach towards the game, it’s expected of him to show signs of polish in his ball handling and considerable improvement in his jump shot. You can also expect Norman to add more of his aggressive demeanor utilized on the defensive end when taking the ball to the hoop. Delon Wright will have the chance to handle the ball and showcase more flashes of playmaking and driving than seen from him during late 4th quarter blowouts in the regular season. He has a height advantage over most players at the point guard position so hopefully he can use it to improve his court vision and defense. His shooting was not his strong force so hopefully he shows enhancement in his long distance and mid-range jump shot during the Summer league.
The newcomer Poeltl will have the chance to show why he stands out as a traditional back-to-the-basket center. Nogueira and Siakam are two raw frontcourt players and will both try to utilize their length. Bruno Caboclo is still “two years away from being two years away”, but, hopefully he will finally show signs of preparation for the grown man’s league. As far as a trade package goes, the two players out of Utah, Poeltl and Wright, are most likely to be sent away due to their potential for their future team and the Raptors having too many players in their respective positions.
Gasol is an awkward fit for the Raptors. He’s way too slow to share the court with Valanciunas, and he would take touches away from the Big Lithuanian. That might be fine — they can stagger minutes — but having either player guarding farther out than 15 feet within the basket would get very. Just refer back to the Luis Scola-Valanciunas monstrosity.
There’s also no upside to a Gasol addition — he would only be a stop-gap. Masai Ujiri has historically only given long contracts to players with long-term potential.
The bigger problem is the cost to acquiring Gasol. Liquidating Ross’ contract into draft picks should be no problem (Ross’ contract is an asset) but replacing his shooting on the roster will be difficult. Trading Ross would leave a gaping hole on the wing in a market where even James Ennis (who played 329 minutes last season) signed for more than the minimum. The rotation would look like:
PG: Lowry, Joseph
SG: DeRozan, Joseph
SF: Carroll, Powell
PF: Gasol, Patterson
C: Valanciunas, Nogueira
That’s not bad, but there really wouldn’t be enough shooting, and if any one of Carroll or Joseph gets hurt, the bench depth will be severely strained.
