The Toronto Raptors are signing Andy Rautins to a training camp deal, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports.
The addition of Rautins brings the Raptors’ training camp roster to 20, meaning there will be no late veteran addition. Faced with a potential luxury tax bill should they retain 15 players past Jan. 10, the flexibility offered by non-guaranteed deals and the chance to develop a young secondary core is taking precedent at the back end of the roster. Rautins will be competing with Alfonzo McKinnie, K.J. McDaniels, Kennedy Meeks, and Kyle Wiltjer for one or two spots on the final roster, with the organization surely hoping a few of the names who are cut clear waivers and accept a placement in the G-League.
Raptors Republic has learned that Rautins’ agreement is not for an Exhibit 10 contract – the deal Meeks and Wiltjer are in camp on – meaning there’s no bonus if he’s waived and agrees to join Raptors 905. It’s a fully non-guaranteed camp deal, likely meaning he makes it or heads back overseas.
And there is a chance Rautins makes the team out of camp, given the team’s penchant for keeping a deep guard rotation and need for outside shooting, though their depth needs would seem to lie elsewhere at this moment. A 6-foot-6 shooting guard, the 30-year-old Syracuse product has long been known as a sharpshooter. After hitting 37.5 percent of his threes over his NCAA career, Rautins has proceeded to shoot 43.7 percent from beyond the arc in the G-League (2012-13, even winning the G-League 3-point competition) and anywhere from 38.2 percent to 42.4 percent over his last four seasons overseas. All of that is on a heavy volume, too (around eight threes per-game), and Rautins apparently impressed a great deal with his outside touch in a recent workout. Indications are also that Rautins, initially mostly a spot-up threat, has improved as a secondary playmaker thanks to a larger distributing role overseas.
The No. 36 overall pick of the New York Knicks in 2010, Rautins appeared in five games with the team in 2010-11 but was waived after being dealt to the Dallas Mavericks early that year. In 2012, he signed a camp deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and in 2013 he got a Summer League look from the Chicago Bulls. His years have otherwise been spent in Tulsa, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Turkey. Most recently, Rautins averaged 12.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.2 steals with a 58.4 true-shooting percentage in 43 games for Royal Hali Gaziantep in the Turkish Basketball Super League.
Son of Raptors’ analyst Leo Rautins, Andy Rautins was born in New York but has spent time with Canada’s national program, appearing in eight different events for the senior men’s team, most recently the 2013 FIBA AmeriCup.
Here’s how the complete camp roster will look, with injured played in italics, two-way players underlined, and the players competing for a spot in bold (and yes, a lot of these players are multi-position guys you can bump up or down a spot as you see fit, and depending on how the roster shakes out):
PG: Kyle Lowry, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet, Lorenzo Brown (two-way)
SG: DeMar DeRozan, K.J. McDaniels ($100K guarantee), Andy Rautins (non-guaranteed)
SF: Norman Powell, C.J. Miles, OG Anunoby, Bruno Caboclo, Alfonzo McKinnie ($100K guarantee)
PF: Serge Ibaka, Pascal Siakam, Malcolm Miller (two-way), Kyle Wiltjer (Exhibit 10)
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Jakob Poeltl, Lucas Nogueira, Kennedy Meeks (Exhibit 10)
The camp battle should be interesting. McDaniels adds some toughness and post-hype upside, McKinnie has legitimate 3-and-D potential, and Wiltjer and Rautins can shoot the lights out for their positions. Even Meeks, who wouldn’t seem a fit based on the depth chart, won fans quickly in Las Vegas. It should be a pretty heated battle, and the thinned-out Raptors 905 roster might stand to benefit, too, if a couple of the cuts slide through waivers and are amenable to spending some time there.
