TORONTO – Happy New Year!
To all intents and purposes, the 2021-22 NBA campaign ended when the Golden State Warriors were crowned champions a couple of weeks ago, and we’re more than three months away from the premiere night.
Officially, however, the league is preparing to turn the page. Out of the old season and in with the new. Internal audits and the start of another tax schedule may not excite you, but the result rarely disappoints. The NBA free agency is here.
The window for teams to negotiate with the players opens on Thursday at 18:00 ET, and all signings can be made official once the new limit numbers are set and the moratorium lifted next week.
This isn’t the strongest free agent class in recent memory, but it doesn’t matter. One way or another, this time of year tends to produce drama.
The transaction season hasn’t started yet and we’ve already been treated to a big-bet chicken game between Brooklyn and Kyrie Irving, as well as a few notable exchanges, including the deal sent by star guard Dejounte Murray of San Antonio in Atlanta for a series of draft picks Wednesday evening.
For the Raptors, it was always expected to be a quiet low season, and it looks like it’s developing that way. Although they have been the subject of recent commercial speculation, do not forget that this is an organization that values continuity and has expressed its intention to keep the young core of the team together while continuing to develop and build. around him.
There are some obvious warnings. They also value flexibility and have shown that they are not afraid to pivot when the situation requires it. They’re opportunists, and no matter how hard it is to imagine them making a big move this summer, never say never in this crazy league.
Here’s a look at where Toronto is heading towards the start of free agency.
What is the latest from OG Anunoby?
It seems like a good place to start considering the commotion it has caused over the last few weeks. Anunoby’s name appeared in several reports that led to last week’s draft. The implication was that the teams were smelling, expressing interest in the talented 24-year-old striker, and that the Raptors didn’t hang them right away, all of that is true.
It recalls Pascal Siakam’s commercial speculation last summer. These rumors were driven by teams that intuited an opportunity to buy casualties, with Siakam after a low season. The Raptors listened to the offers, as they usually do, and told those teams that it is available, but only for its price, which remained justifiably high.
Anunoby has an undeniable value in the market as a good two-way wing that has just entered its prime and on time for a friendly contract. But he has also lost 63 games in the last two seasons and may not be entirely excited about his role as a fourth or fifth option in the Toronto attack, so the offers have been disappointing.
The Blazers were a team that chased Anunoby before the draft, hanging on to the seventh overall selection they ended up using Canadian prospect Shaedon Sharpe. But the Raptors haven’t seriously considered deals that don’t make them better now, or at least in the very near future.
It’s not crazy to think they might be looking to move the Anunoby at some point down the road. This group will become very expensive in the coming years, and if they consolidated a couple of pieces to chase a consolidated star, buying Anunoby would make sense. He is more expendable than Siakam, Fred VanVleet or Scottie Barnes, and has more value than Gary Trent Jr., who may give up his deal after next season.
They’re probably not at the point where they can push their tokens and go all out, but they also don’t think they’re too far from being at that level. They will certainly not do anything to make them back down in this process. Unless the right opportunity presents itself, as it did with Kawhi Leonard in 2018, its plan is to stay the course.
As for the idea that Anunoby isn’t entirely happy with its current role, it’s not hard to believe, but what? Most NBA players, the vast majority, believe they should do more. It would be worrying if they didn’t. They would not have reached this level without this occasionally irrational sense of self-confidence. Anunoby was in Toronto before the draft, working with Siakam and Barnes at the team’s practice facilities. There has been no indication that this will be a problem in the future.
Are they in the market for an elite old man?
If they were to make a big move this summer, it looks like the center position is their priority. The Raptors have been linked with a couple of great players who have changed the game in Rudy Gobert of Utah and Deandre Ayton of Phoenix.
After another early exit from the playoffs, it is believed that the Jazz might be willing to move on from Gobert, although it is unclear what the asking price would be for the three-time Defensive Player of the Year winner. He has owed about $ 170 million over the next four years, including $ 38 million this coming season, which means Toronto would have to separate from Anunoby and Trent just to match his salary, not to mention any draft compensation that Utah would require.
Ayton is a restricted free agent and seems to have fallen into disgrace in Phoenix, but as a top team, the Raptors have no room to sign him directly. They should acquire it through a sign and an exchange with the Suns, and assuming he receives something that resembles his maximum salary, it could also end up costing them Anunoby and Trent.
The Raptors have needed an improvement in the center since they lost Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol. Last season, they basically opted to completely give up the position instead of adding a traditional big one that might not fit their system. When you have a player like Gobert or Ayton, you adapt your system around him. They are so good.
But his need at the center is a bit exaggerated. They want to continue to develop the Precious Achiuwa as a small ball five and, when they are healthy, consider Khem Birch to be a reliable support. Second-round selection Christian Koloko gives them some depth and size to the position, although he is still in the early stages of his development and his plan is to take him slowly.
Its versatility and positionless lineups are more of a feature than a bug in the current game. Neither Golden State nor Boston used a player taller than 6 feet and 10 in the finals, and you can bet Toronto took note. This is where the league is trending, and the Raptors have advanced to the curve.
If Gobert or Ayton are available, these guys will be in high demand and there is no guarantee that the Raptors will be able to make the best offer. Even if they can, are they willing to do it?
What about your own free agents?
Again, the much more likely scenario is for the Raptors to keep their core together and use free agency to complement it. The lack of reliable depth forced Nurse to rely heavily on his starters last season, so it’s important that they do well. Retaining your own free agents without restrictions will be crucial to building your bank.
They have a couple of rotating players who will hit the open market on Thursday evening, Chris Boucher and Thaddeus Young, and the team is confident it will be able to keep them both. Raptors have their bird rights, meaning they can exceed the salary cap to re-sign them and, as they have enough leeway to move below the luxury tax line, they should be able to make offers. competitive once the free agency is opened.
As usual, they will probably be willing to pay a little more in one- or two-year agreements if that means maintaining their long-term flexibility. For Boucher, who will turn 30 in January, maybe that means going up to $ 24-26 million in two years. For 34-year-old Young, who could generate interest from competing teams, the $ 6.4 million average taxpayer exception is a rough estimate of what he might need.
After a difficult start to the campaign, Boucher played the best basketball of his career during the second half of the season, as he finally found his place and accepted his role as an energy player from the bench. .
Young helped consolidate the team’s struggling second unit after being acquired in San Antonio by the expiring contract of Goran Dragic and Toronto’s first-round selection on the change deadline. Getting their bird rights to the deal was a big reason the Raptors took the plunge. They were happy with what the 15-year-old vet brought, both on and off the track, and it’s hard to imagine them dropping 13 places in the draft if they didn’t intend to return it.
Also, because they are on top, they don’t have the means to replace these guys in case they decide to go somewhere else.
How can they add?
The Raptors have access to their average non-contributory exception of approximately $ 10.5 million and their biannual exception of $ 4.1 million. You can’t combine the two exceptions, but with so few teams owning a significant headroom this summer, that mid-level could go a long way in meeting one or two needs.
These needs include shooting, depth on the backcourt, and of course, center position. So who’s out there that fits?
With a suddenly loaded front track that includes the newly selected first, Paolo Banchero, the Magic has refused to extend Mo Bamba a qualifying offer this week, making him an unrestricted free agent. Bamba’s engine runs hot and cold, but it comes from a fourth season in the NBA in which he shot 38 percent from three points. At 7 feet tall and a whopping 7 feet 10, it marks a few boxes for Toronto. The question is whether the former sixth general election will be able to achieve more than the …