Fred VanVleet is returning on a two-year, $18-million deal. With one fell swoop, the Toronto Raptors took care of the biggest – or at least most predictably large – piece of their offseason. It’s a good deal, even if it further tightens the team’s financial situation. VanVleet being back is important.
What happens from here is hard to peg down. The Raptors will remain active on the trade market, both in attempts to make the team better and shed salary. It seems likely that any salary-shedding moves might have to wait until a few days into free agency until teams with the space to facilitate such a deal have a better sense of how they’ll be using their financial flexibility. A more dramatic change could come at any time, as both the Paul George and Ricky Rubio trades came within the first 36 hours or so of free agency last year. Really, we’re just sitting and waiting right now.
The Raptors still have Lucas Nogueira (UFA), Lorenzo Brown (UFA), and Malcolm Miller (RFA) as outstanding free agents and the team only has 12 players under guaranteed contract. None of these items carry Day One level importance, necessarily, though cheap work at the margins is welcome any time. July 1 saw 32 deals agreed upon totaling $1.0135B, with a B, in salary, hardly the cap crunch that was predicted. There will be bargains for the patient in the mid-level ranges and maybe at the minimum.
Again today, we’ll update this thread with relevant news and rumors as they pertain to the Raptors, as well as any deals that get reported at the bottom of the page. Give the July 1 open thread a look over for some relevant cap details and all of yesterday’s Raptors rumors.
And yeah, LeBron James is a Los Angeles Laker. With JaVale McGee and Lance Stephenson and Rajon Rondo, no less. That’s still taking time to process. For what it’s worth, the Warriors remain NBA Championship favorites followed by the Celtics and Lakers, so it’s Boston getting the initial Eastern Conference bump here. Boston and Philadelphia are both said to still be in on Kawhi Leonard, even though his preference (and L.A.’s) would be for him to become a Laker. The Raptors were already setting up to compete once again, and this only reinforces that as a prudent aim. Whether that increases their luxury tax appetite or simply keeps them on the same “anything on the table” path to improvement is unclear. The East is open, though. So we’re starting a fresh thread a few hours early to work through all of this.
Oh, and DeMarcus Cousins is a Warrior.
RAPTORS MOVES
RESOURCES & REQUIRED READING
If you haven’t yet, go and read my free agency primer, which goes into a lot of the details about the Raptors’ cap situations and what they can and can’t do. I’ve also written a bunch on cap specifics and the offseason in general. Hopefully somewhere within these links is an answer to any question you may have:
- Here at Raptors Republic…
- At The Athletic (RR readers can get 20 percent off a subscription here)…
- A salary cap Q&A as a follow-up to my primer
- A deep explainer on Fred VanVleet’s restricted free agency
- What a cold market could mean for the Raptors’ bargain bin options
- Which Raptors are most likely to stay and go
- What went into the decisions on qualifying offers
As a quick refresher, this is what the Raptors’ cap sheet looks at right this second:
To help calibrate for free agency, here’s a chart containing all of the maximums and exception amounts, based on the new $101,869,000 salary cap (note that for the minimum salaries, those deals can run longer if cap space is used, but they max out at two years if a team is using the minimum player salary exception):
Here are a few other very useful resources:
- Mark Deeks’ offseason manifesto
- Jared Dubin’s free agency guide
- Jeff Siegel’s 30 teams, 30 days series
- The Dunc’d On podcast’s mock offseason
- Zach Lowe’s pulse-of-the-league primer
- Basketball Insiders’ team salary pages
- Larry Coon’s CBAFAQ
RAPTORS RUMORS
A reminder: There is a ton of information to sort through this time of year. Some of it will be legitimate, some of it will be misinformation. Always consider the source, their track record, and why a player/agent/team may want information out in the world.
Monday
- 3:30pm: It’s been extremely quiet but at least we had the Canada game. Seems like teams and agents are maybe recalibrating with the new landscape after last night’s insanity.
Wrap-up from Sunday
- There wasn’t much outside of the Fred VanVleet deal, save for continued rumblings that everything – and everyone – is on the table for the Raptors.
- They were also said to have expressed interest in Ersan Ilyasova, who wound up back in Milwaukee for the 20th time on a three-year, $21-million deal the Raptors couldn’t beat on money or situation (Ilyasova still lives there).
REPORTED AGREEMENTS/CLOSE – MONDAY
The following deals have either been reported as done or in the finalization stages. Until noon on July 6, nothing is absolutely locked in (remember DeAndre Jordan?), but if it’s on this list, it’s done per a reporter on the trusted list.
Re-sign
- Derrick Favors, Jazz, 2 years (2nd unguaranteed), $36M (Shams Sharania)
- J.J. Redick, 76ers, 1 year, $12M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
New homes
- DeMarcus Cousins, Warriors, 1 year, $5.3M (Shams Charania and Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Julius Randle, Pelicans, 2 years (1+PO), $18M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Rajon Rondo, Lakes, 1 year, $9M (Sam Amick and Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Seth Curry, Blazers, 2 years (1+PO), $6M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Anthony Tolliver, Timberwolves, 1 year, $5.8M (Shams Charania)
- Nerlens Noel, Thunder, 2 years (1+PO), $3.3M (Shams Charania)
- Mike Scott, Clippers, 1 year, TBD (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Jose Calderon, Pistons, 1 year, $2.4M (Chris Haynes)
Other
- The Pacers released Al Jefferson
- The Lakers renounced Julius Randle
- The Wizards claimed Thomas Bryan off waivers from the Lakers
Trades
- To come…
Deals from Sunday
The following deals were reported Sunday.
- Chris Paul, Rockets, 4 years, $160M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- LeBron James, 4 years (3+PO), $153.3M (Klutch Sports)
- Nikola Jokic, Nuggets, 5 years, $148M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Paul George, Thunder, 4 years (3+PO), $137M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Aaron Gordon, Magic, 4 years, $64M (Shams Charania)
- Kevin Durant, Warriors, 2 years (1+PO), $61.5M (Shams Charania)
- Will Barton, Nuggets, 4 years (3+PO), $54M (Chris Mannix and Chris Haynes)
- Jerami Grant, Thunder, 3 years (2+PO), $27M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- DeAndre Jordan, Mavericks, 1 year, $24M (Marc Stein)
- Doug McDermott, Pacers, 3 years, $22M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Ersan Ilyasova, Bucks, 3 years (3rd unguaranteed), $21M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Fred VanVleet, Raptors, 2 years, $18M (Shams Charania)
- Joe Harris, Nets, 2 years, $16M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Trevor Ariza, Suns, 1 year, $15M (Shams Charania)
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Lakers, 1 year, $12M (Chris Haynes)
- Marco Belinelli, Spurs, 2 years, $12M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Aron Baynes, Celtics, 2 years (1+PO), $11M (Shams Charania)
- Rudy Gay, Spurs, 1 year, $10M (Shams Charania)
- Glenn Robinson III, Pistons, 2 years (1+TO), $8.3M, (Shams Charania)
- Mario Hezonja, Knicks, 1 year, $6.5M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Dirk Nowitzki, Mavericks, 1 year, $5M (Shams Charania)
- Lance Stephenson, Lakers, 1 year, $4.5M (Shams Charania and Chris Haynes)
- Ed Davis, Nets, 1 year, $4.4M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Derrick Jones Jr., Heat, 2 years, $3.2M (Ira Winderman)
- Elfrid Payton, Pelicans,1 year, $2.7M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- JaVale McGee, Lakers, 1 year, $2.4M (Chris Haynes)
- Gerald Green, Rockets, 1 year, $2.4M (Mark Berman and Shams Charania)
- Derrick Rose, Timberwolves, 1 year, $2.4M (Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania)
- Omri Casspi, Grizzlies, 1 year, $2.2M (Adrian Wojnarowski)
- Nik Stauskas, Blazers, 1 year, $1.6M (Chris Haynes)
- Luke Kornet, Knicks, 1 year, $1.4M (Marc Berman)
- Brad Wanamaker, Celtics, 1 year, $838K (Adrian Wojnarowski)
