>Gary Trent Jr.’s $18.58-million player option is also likely to be declined, though that is less of a certainty than it was earlier in the season.
>Failing that, it’s likely the Raptors will eat the $1 million and make Young a free agent.
>Trades are always possible, but it looks like the Raptors would be better served staying as an above-cap team. That means keeping the cap holds — and therefore, the Bird rights — on their key free agents, keeping the possibility open to re-sign them or at least sign-and-trade them to avoid losing them for nothing.
Get under cap:
>Cap space: Depends on how many free agents they lose/renounce; the theoretical max before trades is about $32.65 million
>Room mid-level exception: $7.61 million
Stay above cap, below tax aprons (my guess)
>No cap space
>Non-taxpayer mid-level exception: $12.22 million
On Sign and Trades:
>An important reminder here is that teams who acquire a player via sign-and-trade become hard-capped at the apron amount, and if they’re already beyond the apron level, they can’t acquire anyone via sign-and-trade. That takes a number of destinations off the board for a VanVleet type who could immediately help a contender.
Summary:
>Letting their free agents walk would not result in meaningful enough cap space in a weak free-agent class, and so the Raptors will likely try to retain at least two of those players and sign-and-trade the other to avoid losing them for nothing. Retaining all three is possible but could get very tight around the luxury tax.
>Those are possible paths. They aren’t the only paths. Losing multiple free agents, for nothing or via sign-and-trade, is possible, especially if the franchise decides not to further commit to what was a .500 core. There are more significant possibilities, too, like revisiting Anunoby trade talks or putting Siakam into play heading into the final year of his contract.
>It’s true that the Raptors have a lot of good, interesting pieces. It’s also true those pieces missed the playoffs together and left the team’s president searching for answers about the coach, the culture and how to get back to winning in a meaningful way. Because of that in-between station in the league, everything feels like a genuine possibility right now.
IamVUSE
Blow it up.
Everyone is tradeable for the right price.
Let’s get some fresh faces in and reset a bit. I’m tired of how inconsistent this team is.
Personally I think Scottie is a great passer with IQ but he’s too tentative and I haven’t seen that killer instinct in him to take over a game. Will he ever develop that? We’ll see.
2 Comments
Speculation from Blake:
>Gary Trent Jr.’s $18.58-million player option is also likely to be declined, though that is less of a certainty than it was earlier in the season.
>Failing that, it’s likely the Raptors will eat the $1 million and make Young a free agent.
>Trades are always possible, but it looks like the Raptors would be better served staying as an above-cap team. That means keeping the cap holds — and therefore, the Bird rights — on their key free agents, keeping the possibility open to re-sign them or at least sign-and-trade them to avoid losing them for nothing.
Get under cap:
>Cap space: Depends on how many free agents they lose/renounce; the theoretical max before trades is about $32.65 million
>Room mid-level exception: $7.61 million
Stay above cap, below tax aprons (my guess)
>No cap space
>Non-taxpayer mid-level exception: $12.22 million
On Sign and Trades:
>An important reminder here is that teams who acquire a player via sign-and-trade become hard-capped at the apron amount, and if they’re already beyond the apron level, they can’t acquire anyone via sign-and-trade. That takes a number of destinations off the board for a VanVleet type who could immediately help a contender.
Summary:
>Letting their free agents walk would not result in meaningful enough cap space in a weak free-agent class, and so the Raptors will likely try to retain at least two of those players and sign-and-trade the other to avoid losing them for nothing. Retaining all three is possible but could get very tight around the luxury tax.
>Those are possible paths. They aren’t the only paths. Losing multiple free agents, for nothing or via sign-and-trade, is possible, especially if the franchise decides not to further commit to what was a .500 core. There are more significant possibilities, too, like revisiting Anunoby trade talks or putting Siakam into play heading into the final year of his contract.
>It’s true that the Raptors have a lot of good, interesting pieces. It’s also true those pieces missed the playoffs together and left the team’s president searching for answers about the coach, the culture and how to get back to winning in a meaningful way. Because of that in-between station in the league, everything feels like a genuine possibility right now.
Blow it up.
Everyone is tradeable for the right price.
Let’s get some fresh faces in and reset a bit. I’m tired of how inconsistent this team is.
Personally I think Scottie is a great passer with IQ but he’s too tentative and I haven’t seen that killer instinct in him to take over a game. Will he ever develop that? We’ll see.