While the Toronto Raptors begin to navigate newness atop the organization, they’ll at least have one familiar face sticking around.
Veteran swingman Garrett Temple intends to re-sign with the team on a one-year, $3.6 million deal per ESPN’s Shams Charania on Saturday.
As a reminder, deals can’t be made official until July 6 (12:01 p.m. ET) when the league’s signing window opens (check other important off-season dates here).
Temple, 39, now prepares for his 16th NBA season and third with the Raptors. Last year, he was the sixth-oldest active player behind LeBron James, PJ Tucker, Chris Paul, Taj Gibson and Kyle Lowry. Not bad after going undrafted to start his career.
And while he wasn’t exactly a mainstay on the court for Toronto, Temple was always ready to contribute when he did see playing time. The LSU product made 28 appearances last season, averaging 1.9 points, 1.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 8.1 minutes per game.
He first joined the Raptors as an unrestricted free agent ahead of the 2023-24 season, and has re-upped twice now on one-year deals.
Temple’s value to the team lies largely off the court, however, as he’s often been praised for his veteran presence both by the players and staff.
“Every day sitting next to Garrett Temple, picking on his mind, watching the way he handles things, and he gets out there on the floor and plays so hard and so passionate,” Scottie Barnes said at his end-of-season media availability. “For me, just sitting back and watching, that you know I just can’t wait to get back on the floor and play my heart out. Just seeing the type of veteran he is and how he just doesn’t take things for granted, that helps me. So every time we got a huddle, every time at halftime we talk, every time our team has something, you know it just helps me go on to that leadership role … just watching him do it, everything comes so natural to me.”
A sentiment that was consistently echoed by others as the Raptors wrapped up their season and one that will surely be appreciated as the young squad figures out life without Masai Ujiri after his surprise departure just days after the 2025 NBA Draft.
As for how this impacts the roster and cap machinations, for starters, the Raptors are at 12 guaranteed deals now if you count the No. 9 overall pick Colin Murray-Boyles once he’s signed his rookie deal (Alijah Martin was taken 39th overall, so his deal presumably won’t be fully guaranteed as that’s not common practice for second-rounders).
Meanwhile, Jamison Battle is on a partially guaranteed deal while A.J. Lawson and Colin Castleton are on non-guaranteed contracts. As for two-ways, Ulrich Chomche, Jared Rhoden and the recently signed undrafted Chucky Hepburn occupy those spots at this point in time. All that to say, the Raptors have a full roster’s worth of guys accounted for and their three two-ways are sorted, but still have plenty of room to maneuver should they want.
Financially speaking, before accounting for any rookie deals and the Temple’s supposed $3.6 million, the Raptors were already over the cap line and approximately $6 million under the tax line, per Spotrac. However, as noted by Sportsnet’s Blake Murphy, once including roughly $6.4 million in unlikely incentives for a couple of the players (RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and Jakob Poeltl), the Raptors are over the tax line and then once those rookie deals, and Temple’s new contract are included, they’re not far off the first apron.
So if you were hoping for some notable free agent additions, general manager Bobby Webster and co. are going to have to do some tinkering.
