The first domino has fallen for the Toronto Raptors during the active portion of the off-season.
An expected domino, but wing Stanley Johnson has exercised his player option for the 2020-21 season, as announced by the Raptors media relation staff. The deal is worth $3.8M, and Johnson will be an unrestricted free agent going into the following off-season.
Drafted eighth overall by the Detroit Pistons in 2015, Johnson played a bit role for the Raptors this past year despite being the highest-drafted player on the roster. He averaged only 2.4 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 0.8 assists per game while appearing in just 25 games, mostly in garbage time. Johnson didn’t improve his main weakness, which is shooting, but he did display a nascent creation ability, and the Raptors allowed him to run the point guard at times for funky bench lineups. The high point of Johnson’s season was when he hit the game-winner against the Denver Nuggets in Toronto’s final regular season game of the year. Jonson finished with 23 points in the game.
Johnson will likely play another small role for Toronto this upcoming year. He has an impressive physical package, and Toronto added him last year in hopes of improving his skill-set, but it’s unlikely at this point that he plays a role in Toronto’s future plans. In fact, with an expiring salary of $3.8 M, Johnson could serve the important purpose of matching salary if Toronto looks to make a trade at any point this year.
In other news, the Raptors added Chris Finch to staff after Nate Bjorkgren signed as the Head Coach of the Indiana Pacers. Finch and Nurse have a long history, having coached with or against each other in the British Basketball League, G League, and elsewhere. They served together on the coaching staff of Great Britain’s Olympic team in 2012, where Nurse was Finch’s assistant. Finch is known as an offensive mind, and he is a very highly regarded assistant coach. As far as an assistant coach can go, Finch is a massive addition to the team.
