Ujiri will be a big player in free agent market
Raptors general manager has plenty of cap space to attract some top-of-the-line talent
Masai Ujiri has spent months, no, years, assembling the kind of assets he needs to make the changes he deems necessary to the Raptors roster.
The team’s president and general is going to have about two weeks to use them or a large part of the work will have been for naught.
Now armed with potentially even more cap space than he had on Monday, Ujiri has to hit the ground running in the NBA free agency season or risk being left with a pile of money and no way to intelligently spend it.
In whirlwind world of the NBA, Ujiri needs to find a couple of forwards and at least one guard between now and the middle of July to turn his team from promising to more complete.
He isn’t waiting around. The Raptors have a meeting scheduled with free agent big man LaMarcus Aldridge, they have a privately expressed interest in Wesley Matthews and either will close a gaping hole in the roster.
And with Aldridge seemingly bent on a quick resolution to his contract situation — reports suggest he’ll meet immediately with four or five teams besides Toronto — it’s unlikely he’ll be free too long after July 9 when the NBA’s moratorium on signings is lifted.
Mathews is a bit different since the Portland swingman is still rehabbing a torn Achilles, but there is enough interest elsewhere — Dallas is reportedly a suitor, Portland would love to have him back — to expect that situation will be resolved quickly.
History would suggest the top- flight free agents — and those are the guys Ujiri is targeting — like to have their business taken care of quickly which puts an onus on the general manager to act with alacrity.
While there may be bargains to be had as the summer drones on, they are rarely impact players. Ujiri may be able to wait to find a backup point guard in mid-July, but the front-ofthe-line forwards he so badly needs will be gone.
He did make life a bit easier Tuesday when he shipped off 2012 second-round draft pick Tomislav Zubcic to Oklahoma City for a bit of cash and Luke Ridnour, the 34-year-old point guard who was traded for the fourth time in a week.
The benefit to having Ridnour is that his contract, worth about $2.75 million, is not guaranteed if he’s waived before July 10, a move that would give Ujiri even more money to spend.
But the other side of the equation — and one that at least one NBA source held out as distinctly possible — is that Ridour and his deal would look nice in a trade package, indicating that some think it’s just a precursor to a bigger move before July 10.
Toronto also took care of some minor business Tuesday, finally getting around to agreeing with former star swingman Jerry Stackhouse to join Dwane Casey’s staff as an assistant coach.
Stackhouse had a series of meetings and interviews with Toronto going back to before the early-June start of the NBA final and sources said he should be formally named to Casey’s staff later this week.