When we only knew a few details earlier in the week, I’d laid out three possibilities for the Dragic part of this deal: Expand this to a three-team deal to send Dragic into someone else’s cap space, flip Dragic for assets that better fit the roster and timeline or hold on to Dragic as a rotation piece and explore his market at the trade deadline.
For now, it appears that last option is playing out. On a $19.44 million expiring deal, Dragic will be a bit cumbersome to move at the deadline without taking back bad money, but the mechanics of a deal at that price are far easier than they were with Lowry last year at $30 million. If it’s true that Dallas balked at including any sort of additional compensation for taking back Dwight Powell (two years and $22.16 million) and whichever secondary salary they chose to make the math work, you can see why Toronto would opt to hold Dragic. They likely felt they had the leverage with the option to wait until the deadline and revisit talks, while Dallas likely felt they had the leverage because Dragic ultimately wants to be in Dallas.
An impasse — either over pick and prospect compensation or finding a fourth team to route Maxi Kleber and land the Raptors a better-fitting salary piece — is understandable at this stage.
Assuming things don’t get too awkward with the Raptors keeping Dragic, he solidifies a fairly thin backcourt. Dragic has solid size and a lot of craft as a secondary and has proven comfortable starting or coming off the bench. In bench iterations, he might really help someone like Malachi Flynn get the offence organized and even get off the ball some. Play Dragic in a rotation he’d deserve to be in on merit, let a young player usurp him if they earn it and see what the market offers for Dragic in February.
There is an opportunity cost to this, one the Raptors telegraphed with their Khem Birch signing: The Raptors won’t be operating with cap space. When we laid out all the offseason scenarios in recent weeks, the Raptors operating as an above-cap team felt more likely in any Lowry sign-and-trade scenario. In order to create meaningful cap space, the Raptors would have had to find a home for Dragic without taking much salary back and, depending on the target, potentially waive Chris Boucher. They’d be downgraded from the midlevel exception to the room exception in that scenario, too. It’s a bit awkward to have written for two years about the Raptors emphasizing flexibility only to decline to use their potential space, but it’s understandable given how things played out.
Another reminder: The delay with the Lowry specifics being announced did not cost the Raptors on other targets. Teams commonly agree to deals with players contingent on a number of other things being completed first. It requires good communication and some patience, but if the Raptors had wanted to pay, say, Richaun Holmes four years and $60 million, they didn’t need to process the Lowry trade before agreeing to that.
Even if the Raptors were to buy Dragic out, it’s unlikely he’d leave enough money on the table for the Raptors to find their way to cap space. In that scenario, they’d have additional breathing room under the luxury tax as they round out the roster.
Salary Cap Shakeup: Where do the Toronto Raptors stand now? – Raptors HQ
That all adds up to $133.4 million to 12 players, with the salary cap expected to be set at $112.4 million. So clearly no cap room to use.
They could still dump Dragic’s salary and wait to sign Trent Jr. officially, leaving only his small $1.7 million cap hold on the books, in which case they can have up to $12.4 million in cap room to add a player.
More significantly to the Raptors, I expect (as a Dragic salary dump seems unlikely), the tax threshold is set at $136.6 million this season. The total salary is calculated slightly differently for the tax calculation (minimum salaries are treated a bit differently), so their total salary for this purpose is $133.6 million. So they are only $3.0 million clear of that number and still need to add two players to meet the minimum roster size of 14 players.
The bad news is, for tax purposes, most minimum signings count as $1.67 million against the tax. This means if the Raptors sign two players at that rate and they will dip into the tax, barely. Teams don’t like to do this — you don’t pay a huge tax bill, but you also don’t get to be in that group of non-tax-paying teams that the tax payments from other teams get distributed to.
The good news is, the exception to that is second round draft picks signing their rookie deal, which count as their actual salary. So expect Dalano Banton and/or David Johnson to sign an NBA deal with the team and only count as $0.93 million against the tax. The other could also get the second two-way contract the team has to offer (they already have Justin Champagnie signed to the other).
That leftover amount of the MLE comes in handy here, as most minimum signings can only be for one or two seasons (the minimum salary exception allows teams to sign minimum salary contracts without cap room but only for two years at most). The extra bit of MLE will let the Raptors sign one (or both) to minimum salary deals with three years of term.
The benefit of that is that it takes three years to build up full Bird Rights. And a player with three or fewer years of experience will end their contract as a restricted free agent. Meaning the second rounders would hit free agency three seasons from now as restricted free agents and with the Raptors able to offer them any contract they like with those Bird Rights. These players will also conveniently have a nice small cap hold on the books if the Raptors find themselves with cap space to use before re-signing them, just like Trent Jr. this summer.
If the second rounders were to sign two-year contracts with the minimum salary exception instead, they would still be restricted free agents, but the team would not have their Bird Rights yet, just Early Bird Rights. Those limit the team to offering roughly the league average salary (or about the value of the MLE). And the extra year of minimum salary before getting a raise never hurts a cap sheet.
In any case, unless Dragic is traded elsewhere for less salary coming back, expect the Raptors to be largely done with their additions to the roster, with any other changes coming via trade.
One-on-one with Raptors chairman Larry Tanenbaum on Masai Ujiri, Kyle Lowry – The Athletic
Masai Ujiri is staying in Toronto.
That was a sentence shrouded in great uncertainty over the past few years, with reports emerging all the way back to the night the Raptors won the title that the Washington Wizards were planning to offer Ujiri nearly $10 million annually and an ownership stake. Since then, Ujiri kept his future under wraps as his contract was coming to an end this offseason.
But on Thursday, the Raptors and Ujiri announced he was being promoted to vice chairman of the Raptors organization, in addition to his role as president running both basketball and business operations.
Following the announcement, Raptors governor and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment chairman Larry Tanenbaum spoke with The Athletic about Ujiri’s role as vice-chairman of the organization.
“I chair the Raptors, but it’s just a recognition that we’re really working together. We’re partners,” Tanenbaum said. “We’re (not just) partners in building the team, but partners in the other areas where he knows he speaks with authority.”
Tanenbaum confirmed that though Ujiri’s title is vice-chairman, he will not be a part of the ownership group in spite of rumors the Wizards were angling to offer that as a bonus to joining Washington. But the title carries significant weight for Ujiri, not just as one of the league’s most renowned basketball executives, but as someone who has taken on an increasingly prominent role in global basketball and philanthropic development.
“It’s a title recognition that allows him to have maybe just a touch more (authority) when he goes out, (such) as in Africa, to know that we’re standing shoulder to shoulder there in the causes that he’s promoting,” said Tanenbaum. “Whether to community groups, to politicians, in Africa, it’s a title that allows him the platform. It’s a serious platform that he has and he is a serious guy.”
Ujiri’s role away from basketball has taken center stage around the announcement, as the joint press release he and the organization issued Thursday evening spent as much time discussing his work in the global community as it did in the NBA. The Nigeria native co-founded the non-profit Giants of Africa in 2003, which has been developing sports infrastructure across the continent and holds annual summer basketball camps to help high school-aged children get into the global basketball talent pipeline.
Ujiri also serves as the director of the Basketball Without Borders Africa program, accompanied Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on a state visit to Africa in 2020 and most recently wrote an op-ed in The Athletic about the advent of the Basketball Africa League. Tanenbaum wanted to highlight the importance of Ujiri’s role in these endeavors and how the organization wants to support his philanthropic efforts.
“It’s hugely important to both of us personally, for both Masai and myself. It’s a hugely important part of our lives,” Tanenbaum said. “For Masai, his work as our most senior executive with the Raptors and the successes that we have had can be seen in each game, each year as we’re as we’re building and as we won the NBA championship in 2019. But, for our basketball people, that’s his success. For me his success is on both businesses, basketball and making a difference in the world that we live in. He is making that difference.
“He has brought that aspect, whether it’s Giants of Africa or his work helping to build infrastructure through sport, to bringing sport into this, and really working with the many of the communities in Africa to educate. So it’s hugely important to me and our organization. It makes us all stand taller when we can get behind the work that Masai does off the court. We’re very proud of it.”
Raptors’ Barnes, Flynn shine in Summer League victory over Knicks – Sportsnet
This was an important moment for Barnes because there was much consternation over his perimeter jumper. He ended up finishing the game 1-for-4 from deep, but his shot certainly doesn’t look as bad as it was advertised during the pre-draft process.
This is likely because he always had a good-enough foundation, and ever since joining the Raptors he’s now had the advantages of a dedicated coaching staff tweaking things here and there with his shot.
“The form is not bad at all, but we’re definitely working on some things to get him to be a reliable three-point shooter for us,” said Mutombo.
Added Barnes himself: “They’ve made some little tweaks, some little changes — get over to the right, hand placement. We’re just still doing a lot of different things to just get it right.”
And, lastly, in case that on-his-behind pass to Morgan wasn’t evidence enough of his immense potential as an offensive initiator, check out this outlet he made to Dalano Banton:
That’s Barnes, a right-hand-dominant player, grabbing the rebound, taking one dribble with his left hand and then throwing a dart of a pass with that off-hand nearly full court, right on the money to Banton for an easy dunk.
“I would say that I’ve been doing this pass and stuff [for a while],” said Barnes. “So I would say it’s very natural to me to give it up and it was already in my left hand and he was already ahead so it was just easier to kick it out with my left hand. So it wasn’t really something that was super hard.”
The fact that Barnes was as dismissive about a play that was so obviously remarkable speaks to the skill level he has as a passer, and has to make you wonder what he might look like collecting the defensive rebound and looking up court at the likes of Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby leaking ahead.
In total, it was quite the debut for Barnes. Of course, this was still Summer League, but he certainly looked like he more than belonged out there against NBA competition closer to his age group.
Summer League Recap: Toronto Raptors top New York Knicks 89-79 – Raptors HQ
Let it fly, Malachi
It wasn’t that long ago that we were all lamenting Malachi Flynn’s inability to knock down three-pointers as he got more and more minutes down the stretch of the season. So it sure was nice to see him bury 3-of-4 from downtown today. He topped it off with a slightly ridiculous step-back, too!It’s too early to say whether or not this is just summer league confidence or actual improvement, but as first signs go, it’s a positive one.
Not so positive though: Only one assist for Malachi. Summer League is a bit of a me-me-me affair, so not too much of a take away here, but let’s see that number go up.
All over the gym: Scottie Barnes
The rookie definitely showed flashes of why the Raptors chose him with the fourth overall pick. Scottie Barnes was jumping for offensive rebounds, disrupting passing lanes and finding teammates — all the things we were told he could do.The shooting, as expected, is a work in progress, but the confidence Barnes showed in getting up 18 shots is a positive too. He finished with 18 points, 10 boards and five assists.
The Dalano and David show
The two second-rounders got some minutes in today too. Dalano Banton played 18 and did a fine Chris Boucher impersonation:Meanwhile, David Johnson started at the two, and, well, he missed five of his seven shots and finished a team-worst -18, which is quite a feat in a 10-point win. Let’s call David a work in progress, then.
Raps fourth overall pick enjoys nice start to first Summer League action | Toronto Sun
The fourth overall pick in last month’s draft was all over the court both offensively and defensively scoring 18 points, pulling down 10 boards and dishing out five assists as the Raptors downed the New York Knicks’ Las Vegas summer league squad 89-79 on Sunday.
Raps fourth overall pick enjoys nice start to first Summer League action
Close sticky videoBarnes, who the Raptors selected ahead of the Jalen Suggs, the expected choice at No. 4 in the NBA draft, looked completely at home as he and Malachi Flynn, a guy with a whole season of NBA experience but making his Summer League debut because of the pandemic, led the way for the Raps.
Barnes began the game missing badly on his first three-point attempt but settled down after that and had a solid first effort for his new team.
Coming out of the draft, there was a lot of talk about Toronto going to work on Barnes’ shooting form though head coach Nick Nurse downplayed the need for any drastic changes.
Barnes confirmed the team has already been working on a few tweaks to improve his shooting.
“Some little changes — get over to the right, hand placement,” Barnes said. “We’re just still doing a lot of different things to just get it right … I would say that we’re just taking steps and it’s gonna take a lot of patience, so we’re taking it step-by-step each day.”
Flynn had a Raptors high 23 points in the win.
“Last year, getting traded at the end of the year, I was only able to get … a little bit of actually what we do. But now after being here for a little bit and having a whole summer with the team, having a great training camp, I’m just looking forward to getting out to a great start,” he said.
Trent will be part of the most significant bit of the Summer League season: the on-court workouts that includes his NBA teammates. While first-round draft pick Scottie Barnes and second-rounders Dalano Banton and David Johnson (who signed a two-way contract Sunday) will play alongside second-year players Malachi Flynn, Freddie Gillespie, Precious Achiuwa and Yuta Watanabe in games, the real work will be done away from the actual “league” contests.
And Barnes — who had 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in an 89-79 win over the Knicks on Sunday — understands where he has to put in work.
After signing his rookie deal Sunday morning — the first year carries a salary of just over $6 million — Barnes looked comfortable all over the court for most of the game. But the true value of his time in Vegas will be in the process of familiarizing himself with the teammates he’ll be playing with in November.
He’ll get to work out and practise with Fred VanVleet, Trent, Khem Birch and OG Anunoby — all of whom are in Vegas for the time being — and that’s what’s going to set him up for training camp later this fall.
“All those guys are pretty cool — fun guys to hang around, fun guys to meet,” Barnes said. “They’re already giving me some knowledge — just to stay calm, be patient and it’s going to be a grind.
“Just being able to build a connection, a friendship with them on and off the floor, we can just be able to be great teammates when we step on the court.”
