If the Toronto Raptors decide to let Bruce Brown and Gary Trent Jr. depart this summer, they see flexibility in their possible contract space.
The Toronto Raptors have not been fortunate in free agency.
It has historically been dismal. Toronto has never been successful in acquiring free agents from other NBA clubs. Cory Joseph fared well. Over his deal, Bismack Biyombo performed better. But it’s been difficult aside from that.
First of all, success in free agency is extremely difficult to come by. The likelihood is that you haven’t had much success either, unless you’re Miami, Los Angeles, or the hometown of an NBA free agent. Since elite players rarely appear on the open market these days, the chances of finding a star are considerably lower. For instance, Fred VanVleet, who isn’t exactly an All-NBA talent, was the top free agent who switched teams last season.
However, there haven’t even been many bloop singles for Toronto.
Aron Baynes, Alex Len, Otto Porter Jr., Juancho Hernangomez, Jalen McDaniels, and Dennis Schröder are among the players the Raptors have signed since 2020. There were good reasons to be enthusiastic about the signing each time. Every one of them made sense at the time and yet every single time they failed.
Raptors president Masai Ujiri said on Wednesday, “We just haven’t done very well in assessing what those fits could be.” “We absolutely must find some of those players more effectively.”
Perhaps this year will be different.
This summer, Toronto may have cap flexibility to sign free agents for the first time since 2015, when they signed DeMarre Carroll to a $60 million, four-year conHowever, there’s a cost.
Toronto will have to waive Bruce Brown’s $23 million team option and let Gary Trent Jr. to go in order to make that type of space.
Regarding Trent and Brown, Ujiri remarked, “I think we are going to continue to assess that as we go.” “We’ll see how we proceed with that and how the market evaluates that, but I do believe they bring unique talents.”
Neither Trent nor Brown are worth $30 million a season, for comparison’s sake, but it wouldn’t be shocking if their combined contracts the following season exceeded the total salary cap space Toronto would free up by trading them. To put it simply, Toronto may lose more than $30 million in total worth from Trent.tract. The aforementioned agreements had all involved minimum signings, bi-annual exception agreements, or mid-level exception accords. On this occasion, though, the Raptors have the option to clear about $30 million in cap space.
