Currently the Raptors roster is:
pg: Jose Calderon, Roko Ukic, Marcus Banks
sg: Qunicy Douby
sf:
pf: Chris Bosh, Reggie Evans, Kris Humphries
c: Andrea Bargnani
Note: team options to Patrick O'Bryant and Pops
qualifying offer to Joey Graham
The Raptors also have a couple of free-agents that they may wish to resign. They include: Shawn Marion, and Anthony Parker
According to hoopshype information, the Raptors have 43,285,411 in guaranteed salary for next year, 2,356,420 in team options and 3,441, 104 for the qualifying offer. This is hoopshype's breakdown of salary for the Raptors over the next four years.
The Raptors have roughly 45 million in guaranteed salaries for next year. According to Dave's excellent series of articles of NBA team's salary commitments, he predicts the salary cap to be at 58 million and the luxury cap to be at 69.4 million.
With this information in place, the raptors have approximately 13 million dollars to play with to either add a big free agent signing and some cheap pieces or a mix of depth at reasonable (say 4 million dollars) contracts.
A list of unrestricted and restricted free agents could be found here. The unrestricted names that pop out at me are:
Ronald Murray (Atl)
Eddie House (Boston)
Lindsey Hunter (Chicago)
Ben Gordon (Chicago)
Wally Szczerbiak (Cleveland)
Brandon Bass (Dallas)
Dahntay Jones (Denver)
Von Wafer (Houston)
Rasho Nesterovic (Indiana)
Trevor Ariza (L.A Lakers)
Quinton Ross (L.A Clippers)
Luther Head (Miami)
Rodney Carey (Minny)
Maurice Ager (NJ)
Anthony Johnson (Orland0)
Hedo Turkolu (Orlando)
Matt Barnes (Phoenix)
Restricted
Marvin Williams (Atlanta)
Glen Davis (Boston)
Linas Kleiza (Denver)
David Lee (New York)
Macin Gortat (Orlando)
Louis Amundson (Phoenix)
Rashad McCants (Sacremento)
Note: I tried to pick players that are not going to be immediately resigned by their clubs (Kobe, etc.) because its self-defeating and useless. Restricted free agents was given a bit more leeway, but not much more. I am also assuming no trades for simplicity. Maybe a trade article later on though.
There are several options that BC can go in this draft, the first of which being the home run
Option 1: The Home-Run Approach
This approach is trying to maximize your cap space in order to sign the best possible free-agent and adding cheap depth around it. For the Raptors, this means renoucing the rights to Graham and declining the team options on Pops and O'Bryant. This will give the Raptors 13-15 million in cap space, enough to sign a high quality free-agent that ranks just under elite. Some options are: Turkolu, and Lee (possibly). In truth, there are not many names that deserve that amount of money in this class. If the Raptors were to sign Turkolu to a 11 million dollar per annum contract and sign Maurice Ager and Dahntay Jones to 2 million dollar contract respectively, and adding their first round pick, their roster would look like:
pg: Jose Calderon, Roko Ukic, Marcus Banks,
sg: Dahntay Jones, Maurice Ager, Qunicy Douby
sf: Hedo Turkolu, First round Draft Pick (DeRozan?, Heraldson?)
pf: Chris Bosh, Reggie Evans, Kris Humphries
c: Andrea Bargnani,
Depending on how Kris Humphries is doing, they may need to add another backup center (with the purchase of a draft pick?) and a swingman but overall, this team look fairly solid and capable of challenging for a upper seed in the Eastern Conference.
Some potential concerns may be the length of Turkolu's contract but this team looks well primed to grow together as the draft pick would take over for Turk and cheap free agent signings and draft picks will continue to regenerate the squad.
Option 2: Spread the Wealth
Another option is to spread the cap space on several mid-priced free agents with the idea being to gain the superior depth which made the Raptors so strong in 2006-2007. With this option, the Raptors may try to sign an Ariza (if the Lakers don't want him) to a 6 million/annum deal and Delfino to a 4 million/annum deal, Rasho to a 2 million/annum and Dahntay Jones to a 2 million / year contract. With the first round draft pick, the roster would look like:
pg: Jose Calderon, 1st round draft pick (Jonny Flynn?) Roko Ukic,
sg: Dahntay Jones, Qunicy Douby, Marcus Banks
sf: Trevor Ariza, Carlos Delfino
pf: Chris Bosh, Reggie Evans, Kris Humphries
c: Andrea Bargnani, Rasho Nesterovic
This roster also looks fairly competitive with the addition of some minimum contract players.
Option 3: Spread the Wealth (restricted style!)
Another way to spread the wealth would be to sign Macin Gortat to a 4 million dollar offer sheet, Von Wafer to a 3 million dollar deal (risky), Quinton Ross to a 1.5 million dollar deal, and Linas Kleiza or Marvin William to a 6.5 million dollar offer sheet. If all accept (unlikely), the roster would look like:
pg: Jose Calderon, Roko Ukic, Marcus Banks,
sg: Quinton Ross, 1st Round Draft Pick (Evans, Holliday, Flynn), Qunicy Douby
sf: Marvin Williams/ Linas Kleiza, Von Wafer,
pf: Chris Bosh, Reggie Evans, Kris Humphries
c: Andrea Bargnani, Macin Gortat
Another interesting option.
Conclusion
Even though much has been said about the lack of free agent possibilities and money, there are still several options that BC can navigate to get to the roster he wants. Generally, this options seem unlikely because of the lack of conisderation beyond the first year, but that was done internationally because I feel those squads can compete with those starting fives and depth added through cheap free agents or rookie scale contracts. I have aimed for younger players so the core can last for a significant amount of time and can have multiple shots at the championship.
Posts
Hey Dino Gunner,
ReplyDeleteI only got $7-9 million in cap space for the Raptors. I use Sham Sports salary pages instead of Hoopshype because their information is more reliable. They don't have team options for O'Bryant or Jawai, which is part of the difference. The other difference was the lottery pick which counts against the Raptors cap even if he's unsigned, as long as the club holds his rights. And a slight cap charge for open roster spots. That rose the Raptors bill from $44.5mil to $48.8mil.
I think the first option is still somewhat possible though, the Hedo Turkoglu part. I think the Raptors would have a chance at getting him for $9mil per annum on an increasing contract over 4-5 years. Orlando would likely offer similar terms and hold onto him, but there's a possibility that they don't. The Magic are trying to keep that contract as low as possible, the length of the deal might scare them off.
I don't like Dahntay Jones for a contract worth over the minimum. A better option would be Quinton Ross off the Memphis Grizzlies, who the Raps could get for the minimum, and he's a better player than Jones.
I'm not a fan of Mo Ager's. Three years in and he's shown nothing. If you're a fan of him though, I do think he can be had for a minimum contract. He'd be easy to acquire.
To ramble onwards ...
ReplyDeleteOverall though, my preference is for the Raptors to spend no free agent money this offseason -- or to spend, but keep the contracts to one year. I'm not overly enamored with the Raptors options in free agency and don't like the idea of tying up that much money on role players when the core of the team still needs so much work.
By all appearances, it looks like Bryan Colangelo will resign Marion and Delfino. Perhaps Parker too. And then he'd be left with the MLE to spend. I don't like this plan, but this is what we're likely to see.
At the MLE (roughly $5.5mil), you lose Turkoglu, Ariza and Marvin Williams as targets. You could still get Rasho, Gortat or Kleiza for that money though.
I'm a big Marcin Gortat fan, very good player, but I'm not sure how good a fit he'd be alongside Bosh. I'd probably pass on him. Unless the Raps were planning for a post-Bosh-era, because then I'd definitely try to sign him for the MLE, he's a bargain at that money.
Kleiza is an interesting target and the Nuggets will likely let him leave due to luxury tax concerns. I'd be a bigger fan of signing him if Marion was let go, because I'd only really be interested in paying him $4-5mil per annum if he was playing 30+ minutes a night.
Hey Dave,
ReplyDeleteSorry that was my mistake. I forgot to take into account the salary of the first round pick (and any other picks that BC may buy/trade for) as well as cap charges, as I am sure the Raptors do not want to go over for no reason. Therefore you are right, the salary cap would be around 7-9 million.
Regarding Ross, Jones etc., I was just trying to identify cheap guys to fill around the edges of the roster. Hopefully, if there Raptors were to sign a player like this, it would only be a one year agreement.
If the Raptors wanted to compete for a playoff spot next year, I think the Hedo option would be the best way to go. He provides a semi consistent wing player who can take the last shot for the team. He does not have to be the first option as the team has Jose along with Bosh and Bargnani. I would assume the team would function similarly to Detroit, but that would have to be reliant on the coach.
I also agree that the Raptors should not spend any more this offseason and focus on next year. In my opinion, I think it was silly to make that O'Neal trade (regardless of on court-performance) because for some salary cap freedom this year (which is not that necessary) we sacrificed 5 million in cap space and a 1st round draft pick. There are better free-agents to be had next season as you know.
I am also a big fan of Gortat, he impressed me during the playoffs as well as Kleiza.
Hey Dino Gunner,
ReplyDeleteI think BC is goin' with keeping all of his restricted free agents and not giving graham a qualifying offer.
calderon/ukic/douby/banks (his contract makes me cringe)
delfino/draft pick aka derozan
marion/parker
bosh/evans/hump
bargnani/o'bryant
Mike P.
I agree with Mike P. except I see BC looking to sign a FA with the MLE, and an exp PG or 2nd pick, and dropping either Douby or O'Bryant,leaving the following.
ReplyDeleteCalderon/NewPG/Ukic/Banks
Delfino/DeRozan/Douby?
Marion/MLE FA/Parker
Bosh/Evans/Humphries
Bargnani/Nesterovic/O'Bryant?
Johnn19
Who the hell is "Heraldson"?
ReplyDeleteMike P.
ReplyDeleteI think BC is probably going to go that route as well. I was trying to present some other options that are available to him. Its interesting BC made that Marion trade (partially for fit, partially for salary cap relief) and notice now that there are not that many options to go through in free agency.
John19
ReplyDeleteI agree, they might go that route, but I am not sure why. That team looks semi-competitive but clearly not good enough to win a championship (or even a high seed for that matter) and not bad enough to go into full rebuilding mode. I think the only rationale is to try to make a competitive enough team to satisfy Bosh into resigning. If that is the case, I hope the contracts they sign this off-season are short, so they can re-tool with some quality depth next year or the year after.
That being said, I am not sure the Raptors will have any space even if they let all their free agents go.
Consider next years contracts (assuming Bosh signs and Bargnani is given an extension):
Calderon: 8 million
Bosh: 18 million
Bargnani: 12 million (est.)
Marion: 7 million
1st round draft pick: 2-3 million
Banks: 4.5 million
Humphries: 3.2 million
Roko: 1.2 million
That is 57 million tied up and this is excluding cap charges and any other first round picks. BC has put himself in a terrible position and will not even be able to sign free agents above MLE next year, even if all the contracts he does this year are for one year.
Annon.
My bad, I meant Gerald Henderson
Hedo Turkoglu is exactly the type of player the Raptors need the most. A player who can create with the ball in his hands, both for himself and for others. A scorer/playmaker.
ReplyDeleteIf the Raptors are in win-now mode, I think Hedo Turkoglu is the best guy to target in free agency. I think he'd be a great get.
First option is my favourite one too.
Bargs is a PF, not a center. If the Raps ever expect for their rebounding to improve they cant play a non-rebounder at the position where most rebounds are collected. They should trade for a legit post-player/rebounder and slide Bargs back to his natural position.
ReplyDeleteAnnon.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to slide Bargnani to the PF position, then I am assuming that you are thinking that Bosh is not going to be on the team long-term?
What are you thoughts of Bosh resigning next year and how you would handle Bosh. Would you resign or trade him?
Jose Calderon/Roko Ukic/Quincy Douby
ReplyDeleteAnthony Parker/DeMar DeRozan
hedo turkoglu/Joey Graham
Chris Bosh/Pops Mensah-Bonsu/Reggie Evans
Andrea Bargnani/Patrick O'Bryant