The chance of the Raptors getting a new, impact face for their frontcourt in free agency has dwindled to nothing but there remain options — familiar, mostly — to fill a major void.
They have lost out on retaining Serge Ibaka, which may not be a calamity but it certainly can’t be spun as good news, and they are getting close to being in scramble mode with the pickings getting slimmer by the hour.
“All will be well,” a highly placed team source said Sunday morning, but that may be as much wishful thinking as anything.
Ibaka fled Toronto for a two-year, $19-million (U.S.) deal with the Los Angeles Clippers late Saturday, spoiling the feel-good mood of earlier in the day when Fred VanVleet agreed to a four-year, $85 million contract to stay.
It was more important for the Raptors retain a 26-year-old guard still ascendant in his career rather than a 31-year-old power forward who would have only gotten a one-year deal, so Toronto had a net free agency win Saturday. But it’s time to look at the possibilities of Ibaka’s replacement and there isn’t any reason to think any major player is coming.
A combination of the labour force — the likes of DeMarcus Cousins, Aron Baynes and Hassan Whiteside are available — and the desire to limit any contract to one year to protect 2021 cap space leaves Ujiri and Webster with few legitimate options.
Marc Gasol and Chris Boucher would be near the top of the list and would provide the familiarity and consistency good teams need.
But Gasol will turn 36 about a month into next season and he’s coming off a year where injuries and the pandemic layoff robbed him of a lot of his effectiveness. He is also attracting interest around the league, although the Raptors have the upper hand in salary they can offer him. Reports indicate both the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors are intrigued by the possibility of signing him.
Boucher has never logged big minutes in the NBA and it might be a reach to trust him to be a regular on a top-four conference team might be a reach.
The others? They’re just guys for the most part, good but not great, intriguing to some degree if you can talk yourself into their usefulness. None would swing the balance of power in the East and trying to convince them that a one-year deal is worth taking might prove difficult.
The Raptors do have money to spend, if they can find someone they feel worth spending it on. Under salary cap rules, they can pay Gasol anything they want. There are limits to what they can offer the restricted free agent Boucher but they do have up to $9.2 million to spend on a mid-level exception.
One option that remains for Ujiri and Webster is to find a trade that will fill the frontcourt void. What it would cost might be an issue — the only player likely to fetch something on the market who could be a difference maker is Norm Powell.
But Powell is coming off an excellent season and the Raptors see him as a key piece of the future. It’s incomprehensible they wold consider moving Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam or OG Anunoby, and it would be a stunning development if Kyle Lowry’s $31-million contract was moved, with his value to the franchise.
Even if nothing happens between now and the Dec. 1 opening of training camps, the team’s front office has a proven history of making deals under the right circumstances.
The loss of Ibaka, regardless of what comes next, is a bitter pill for the Raptors. His evolution since arriving in a February 2017 trade for Terrence Ross was quite something to see unfold.
He arrived a tentative and somewhat reluctant addition, unsure of where he fit in the organization’s plans and even what position he would play. He morphed into an integral part of a championship team — its best rim protector, a big man with deep shooting range, a tenacious defender and a mentor to young players like Anunoby and Terence Davis II.
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Off the court, he thrived and became one of the team’s most popular players, able to connect with fans on a variety of levels. His YouTube cooking show “How Hungry Are You?” was a huge hit — sautéed worms for DeMar DeRozan and pizza topped with bull penis for Kawhi Leonard were memorable episodes — and his “How Bored Are You?” social media hits at the start of the pandemic were entertaining.
With his fashion pursuits and his presence, Ibaka was a fun piece of a roster that was one of the best blends of basketball talent and personalities around Toronto in years.
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2020-11-22 21:09:21Z
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