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What Free Agency Moves Are Left for the Raptors?



What Free Agency Moves Are Left for the Raptors?

it is day five of NBA free agency and the Raptors have been extremely quiet outside of just simply resigning their own guys if the Toronto Raptors want to make any more moves this off season they will have to clear roster spots with grer temple and emanu quickly both being resigned and the Raptors selecting four rookies at the draft the team has 15 players under guaranteed contracts and three players on two-way contracts so if the Raptors want to bring back a like Sharpshooter Gary Trent Jr or Javon Freeman Liberty who played kind of a decent role last year with the team they’re going to either have to wave somebody or make some trades to clear the room for those guys it does seem pretty unlikely though the Raptors will bring back Freeman Liberty with Davon Mitchell on the team and selecting Jamal shed with the 45th pick at the draft [Music] I think the most interesting point left of this off season is what is Gary Trent Jr’s future with the team and just in the league overall Toronto had very high hopes for Trent when they trade for him three seasons ago moving Norman Powell to the Portland Trailblazers however since then Trent has really struggled to improve and keep his minutes up and earn more with this new coaching staff with Coach Darko the front office also has made it very clear that reigning Gary Trent Jr and bringing him back on the team is not a priority and actually seems like something that they’re pretty against doing there’s no buzz around the team offering him a new contract and it seems that even if Trent were to take a pay cut which is seeming extremely likely if he wants another contract in this league the team is going to be okay letting him walk the Raptors pretty much selected Trent replacement at this year’s draft in the first round picking jacobe Walter with a 19th overall pick Walter is a 64 guard out of Baylor College one of the best college programs in the country he’s an elite Sharpshooter off movement and off the catch and carried a large offensive load for Baylor last season Walter’s coach spoke very highly of him said he’s a real gym rat great guy very nice and someone who wants to get better each and every day with all of that I really don’t think Gary Trent Jr is coming back to the team and I think Gary Trent Jr is just another example of players in this new CBA that are good enough to earn more money than like a mid-level exception or a vet minimum but there just simply isn’t money on a roster for him to get paid that money teams just don’t want to spend 1617 million on like a three and d d with a quotation marks surrounded player in today’s CBA we saw this with Kelly UB last year having to take like a vet minimum just to get on a team with Philadelphia as well as Christian Wood taking a vet minimum just to get on a team in La I think Gary Trent Jr is going to be in a very similar role and I don’t think he’s getting a big contract he kind of squandered his opportunity last off season with getting an extension opportunity but sometimes you bet on yourself and sometimes you lose and I think Gary Trent Jr unfortunately has lost on that bet and with Walter Grady dick oai abaji Davon Mitchell Jamal Sheed there’s just a lot of other young guards on this team and I think the Raptors are going to give those players a chance over trying to get Trent back on the [Music] roster the Raptors do have the ability to make some moves in the off season being a cap space team they have about 12. M it’s probably less now but they have about like $10 million in cap space left as well as having $33 million in expiring contracts with Bruce Brown and Chris buet on the roster that money plus their leftover cap space could be used in a deal with like a Golden State Warriors or another team that has a bad contract that they want to get off of and they’re willing to attach maybe one or two picks with that contract Brown’s name has been floated as a trade chip since the Raptors acquired him last season but with a new CBA agreement teams are really hesitant to try to trade for a player making $23 million which Brown is brown has shown that he’s capable of helping a contender at the highest level winning with the nuggets at a six-man but it’s pretty unclear what type of Market Brown has if any and honestly with him not being moved yet I think it’s very likely that he’s back on the roster to start the season next year and probably will have just finished on the roster for the entire season I just don’t see him getting moved I feel like that trade would have already happened by now if there was one on the market the next player who is part of this expiring package is Chris bue bushe is just in a very interesting place as an NBA player but also on this team with the Raptors he saw his playing minutes pretty much disappear last season especially when this team transitioned to the new core of Barrett Barnes quickly and this youth movement he completely fell out of the rotation and just couldn’t find a way back in the 31y old Ford is only making 11 million next season which might make it easier for him to be moved but Chris bu’s skill set is just not very valuable in today’s NBA being like a 69 610 skinny small forward who can’t really shoot isn’t a great defender makes his living being like a hustle energy guy it’s hard to find a team where that works especially for a guy his age and making 11 million the team did look to trade him at the deadline but no deal materialized but one thing about having Bush still on the roster which is kind of nice that if this team wants to resign Gary Trent Jr or bring in another free agent and they really like them they could cut buet and while it is a pretty big amount of money to just have in dead salary next year it’s not crazy like Bruce Browns is and I think bu is probably a guy who you can find on the biomarket and a team would be interested in signing if they can get him for the cheat well what’s next for the Raptors for the rest of this off season and free agency I mean I think there’s pretty much two things left for this team to do which is either look to trade Chris buet and Bruce Brown round or just simply run it back try to find a role for both players on the team and then just kind of try to build around this young core I think the Scotty bar extension makes perfect sense that’s just the type of money that these players are making now I get that two like 270 million sounds like a lot he probably won’t be making that it’s more likely that’ll be 227 over 5 years and when you look at the level of play that he’s already produced at that’s a pretty reasonable deal that’s the type of money that any of these other top rookies are going to be getting the next few seasons if not more because the C is steadily increasing onto the Emanual quickly contract once again $35 million a year seems very large and seems like a lot of money but having checked the numbers that makes Emanuel quickley the 16th highest paid point guard in the league next season and I think the 18th highest paid guard overall quickley is better than the 16th best point guard in the league and he certainly isn’t the 18th worst guard overall in this league yes it’s a big number but that’s just how these numbers are going to look for the next few seasons and moving forward indefinitely quickly is worth that money it’s about 20% of the cap throughout the Four Seasons that’s reasonable I think he has a lot space to grow and he’s already shown that last year getting progressively better with the team as the season went on lastly RJ Barrett I think is either in for a star leap or is going to be able to produce at a similar level that he did last season and if that’s the case that’s just a really good player I like the contract I’m just very excited about this team I think there’s a lot of young players to really like I think there’s a lot of Talent on this team that’s being underrated and I think this team is ready to show everyone that like you know we’re not here to compete or win next season but we’re going to be here and we’re going to be ready to compete sooner than a lot of people think and I think most fans will be surprised um if you made it to this far thank you so much for watching I hope you have a great day and take it easy

Music by FASSounds from Pixabay

3 Comments

  1. GTJ is as good as gone! I would love to see him go to Denver and succeed. I love Bouch! The last game I had floor seats at was against the Pelicans. I yelled we love you Boucher at a break and a lot of fans chimed in chatting his name. Great video,

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