This is Earl Watson — the coach who was coveted by several NBA teams & was just hired to join Nick Nurse’s staff in Toronto.
I’ll let you make your own conclusions.
(via: @ricohinesbball, @earlwatson IG) pic.twitter.com/Ex4TIJfXJD
— Sahal Abdi (@sahaIabdi) July 26, 2021
The Raptors have officially extended a qualifying offer to Gary Trent Jr. – an expected move, which will make him a restricted free agent on Aug. 2 and give them matching rights.
They've also made their annual qualifying offer to Nando De Colo, retaining his RFA rights.
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) July 26, 2021
https://twitter.com/RaptorsRetweet/status/1419424471853768713
"The fact that he is being offered, I think, is all you need to know about where his value stands right now."@JakeLFischer on Pascal Siakam's value around the #NBA w/ @JDBunkis #WeTheNorth.
Full chat 🎧 https://t.co/QEAR2SG67o pic.twitter.com/1exL50Tbdv
— Sportsnet 590 The FAN (@FAN590) July 26, 2021
Bruce Brown, BRK, 24 – Brown is a great example of why shopping in the next tier of guys is so important. For $1.7 million as a second-rounder and G League success story, Brown provided monstrous value for Brooklyn. He’s now about to get more expensive, and while Brown’s offensive limitations cap his market upside, he should wind up being paid closer to fair value moving forward. It’s still great for Brooklyn they got that surplus season from him, it’s necessary for cap-strapped teams to continue finding guys of that ilk. It’s why I think the Raptors have, and probably will continue to, take a few lower-cost fliers at the back part of their cap sheet rather than chasing more expensive vets (Aron Baynes excluded). Anyway, Brown rules. He’s one of the coolest archetypes in the league as a 6-foot-4 player who lives in the dunker spot on offence and can guard whoever on defence.
Kyle Lowry Rumors: Heat ‘Very Interested’; Star Eyeing 3-Year Contract, $30M Annually
“Days before the start of NBA free agency, the Miami Heat remains very interested in impending free agent point guard Kyle Lowry but faces increasing competition.
“According to a source in touch with the player, Lowry would like a guaranteed three-year deal, averaging $30 million per season.
“Even if he doesn’t get $30 million, he’s very likely to command an offer topping $25 million.”
Pascal Siakam trade rumours: What makes sense for Raptors? – Yahoo!
With Antetokounmpo signed long-term in Milwaukee, that path is no longer available for the Raptors. There isn’t another way to rebuild this roster on the fly by adding a superstar without subtracting from the core. The reality is the Raptors need to restructure themselves and build from the ground up. It wouldn’t necessarily be a complete rebuild like Philadelphia and “The Process,” but imagine a roster without Lowry and Siakam, and it comes close. VanVleet and Anunoby would be the only holdovers from the championship team. The No. 4 pick, whoever the Raptors get in return in a potential Siakam trade, Trent, and Malachi Flynn would be part of the next era.
It would make the team worse in the interim, but it would also strip away the possibility of the Raptors being in the dreaded middle like they were last season, where the best-case scenario was a top-four seed and a brief playoff run if everything broke right, and the worst-case scenario was a play-in tournament spot without the possibility of a high lottery pick. The team expertly avoided the latter by essentially tanking the second half of the season and then found some luck from the lottery gods to snatch the fourth pick.
Ujiri and the Raptors have been notorious for not having any front office leaks on draft picks and trade rumours. Even the Siakam trade chatter appears to have come from sources on rival teams. But one thing Ujiri has made clear during his tenure in Toronto, and something he reiterated at his season-ending interview, is that his sole focus is winning another championship.
The trade rumours should be viewed through that prism. If the team believes a core group of Siakam, Anunoby, VanVleet, and the No. 4 pick isn’t that far away, then don’t expect Toronto to part with any of those pieces in the trade market this summer. But if Ujiri believes it’s time to pivot, then it’s possible the team will return home without Siakam and Lowry. In other words, the Raptors would have said goodbye to all five of their starters from the 2019 championship team.
One thing is for certain: this team will look significantly different than the one that last played at Scotiabank Arena. We’re about to find out over the next two weeks just how drastic those changes will be.
In an unsurprising turn, the Toronto Raptors have extended a qualifying offer to Gary Trent Jr., officially making him a restricted free agent for the coming 2021-22 season. What this means is that the Raptors have the inside track on retaining him. Yes, some other team could offer Trent Jr. a huge contract, but the Raptors could very well match it and keep him for the coming season.
Given that the Raptors traded much-beloved swingman Norman Powell for Trent Jr., who currently tracks as a younger (at 22.5 years of age), similar version of Norm, it makes sense for Toronto to want to keep and develop him in a similar (or greater) way. As you’ll recall, Trent Jr. put up a career-high of 15.3 points in 31.1 minutes across 58 games last season — including 38 starts — with both Toronto and the Portland Trail Blazers. While his shot came and went down the stretch of last season, GTJ did put in 39 percent of his three-pointers last year and was downright heroic at times in his efforts. If nothing else, there’s still time and room for him to grow.
So, barring some massive offer from a yet unknown team, bet on the Raptors matching whatever contract offer comes Trent Jr.’s way for the 2021-22 season.
But wait, we’re not finished: the Raptors also made the qualifying offer to our old, old friend Nando de Colo — an annual tradition around these parts, and also something of a running joke at this point. Still, de Colo, now 34, is now technically a restricted free agent, with Toronto able to match any contract sheet he signs with an NBA team. He hasn’t played in the NBA since the 2013-14 season, but there was buzz back in 2019 that de Colo was interested in returning to the league. Hey, you never know!
REPORT: Nurse to add Watson to coaching staff | Toronto Sun
Former Phoenix Suns coach Earl Watson, who also had a long NBA career, will be joining up with Nurse, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
Top Australian coach Trevor Gleeson is also reportedly set to come aboard and Nate Bjorkgren, formerly Nurse’s lead assistant and currently his right-hand man with the Canadian men’s team, could return after being let go by the Indiana Pacers.
The team has lost Sergio Scariolo and Jama Mahlalela this off-season, and offensive specialist Chris Finch was hired away in-season to take over as head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Watson is regarded as a player’s coach and spent parts of four seasons with Phoenix, one as an assistant coach before taking the top role and last three games into the 2017-18 season before surprisingly being fired. Former Raptors head coach Jay Triano replaced him in Phoenix.
An interesting aspect of the Watson hire could be how it impacts Pascal Siakam.
Watson has many connections to Siakam’s camp and this could be a case of adding a solid coach who also has that tie. Watson starred at UCLA on teams that also featured one of Siakam’s agents, Todd Ramasar, and Rico Hines, a player development coach with the Sacramento Kings who also has spent multiple summers working hard on Siakam’s game in Los Angeles, with obvious results. Watson has been at some of those runs.
As is always the case ahead of the NBA draft and free agency, the rumour mill has been churning, including with some unverified talk that Toronto has been looking to move Siakam. Maybe we’re reaching here and in four days this will look like a wild take, but bringing in Watson doesn’t seem like an addition a team looking to deal Siakam would make.
There is often a debate around NBA draft selections, especially near the top: Should you take the best player available, or fill a specific roster need?
But what if a team is able to do both with one pick?
It may be far-fetched, and it will have everything to do with what teams around them do, but the Raptors could very well get the best player and plug a gaping hole in the current roster if things fall their way.
Mobley, the 20-year-old centre from USC, checks all the boxes for the Raptors — who, at No. 4, have their highest pick in a decade and a half.
He’s an agile, if slight, seven-footer with solid ball handling skills and the defensive mobility to step out and check guards on the perimeter.
USC Trojans forward Evan Mobley is one of the top prospects for Thursday night’s NBA draft in Brooklyn, where the Raptors will have the fourth pick.
For a Raptors team that’s built upon interchangeable bits and without a centre under contract for next season, the native of San Diego would be an absolutely perfect fit should he fall to No. 4.That’s the big concern, of course. Teams picking ahead of Toronto — Detroit, Houston and Cleveland — have to be equally enamoured of Mobley’s skills, and it’s hard to find a legitimate mock draft anywhere that has Mobley falling to fourth.
If he does, though? Oh boy, the Raptors should jump all over the selection.
The flaws in Mobley’s game are predictable for someone so young and so light — listed at just 215 pounds.
He’s not a dominant post player by any stretch — his rebounding could be more physical and more consistent — but he’s still a kid growing into his body and learning how to play the game. In Toronto’s system with an emphasis on skill development, he could thrive.
“They’re a good player development organization,” Mobley said of the Raptors during a virtual media session Friday. “When players get there they get better, and it’s a great city and all that. I feel like, overall, there are a lot of different teams that have that aspect and Toronto is definitely a good team that does a lot of player development.”
Mobley is most often compared to Chris Bosh, high praise indeed seeing how the fourth pick in the 2003 draft became a Hall of Famer and helped revolutionize the role of frontcourt players in today’s NBA.
Showing a startlingly high level of confidence in himself, Mobley said in that media session that he does not want to be pigeonholed by any comparisons.
“I think I’ll be a generational player that no one has seen before,” he said. “I’m going to keep working and stay in the gym until I get there.”
The best-case scenario for the Raptors would be if that gym is their OVO Centre.
It’s not often a team can get the best player and best fit in one fell swoop. It’s a longshot, but one fans should hope for.
