Vinsanity part deux?
Reunion with Carter could be in the works if he’s bought out by Kings
It’s a delicate process, this building of an NBA team is, and even armed with the tools to tinker with the Toronto Raptors, team president Masai Ujiri remains leery of doing something just because he can.
The Raptors will explore all possible avenues to add a player before the NBA playoffs begin — signing a player bought out by some other team, plumbing the depths of Europe and Asia — but there can be no guarantees that Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster will do something or that it will work if they do.
“I keep saying this, and I know it’s old for everybody, but it’s a growing process,” Ujiri said Friday morning. “We have to figure out how to fix as we go and some of these fixes are not immediate and there’s some impact on our team where, yes, you can get help and there’s some times where that help is not necessarily that positive.”
Regardless, the Raptors will investigate adding a player with the open 15th roster spot between now and the March 1 deadline for players to be playoff eligible.
Ujiri can’t mention any specific player because of harsh NBA tampering penalties, but he does have a sense of who might eventually become available.
A host of names are in widespread speculation — Atlanta’s Marco Belinelli, Sacramento’s Vince Carter and Joe Johnson — and all will be given due consideration.
“I think there are going to be a couple surprises, you never know,” he said. “And then I think there are a couple of obvious names that are out there.”
The team president is adamant that the 38-16 Raptors will be an attractive destination to a suddenly free player — “I have no doubt. There is no issue there. Zero,” he said — and that there will be lots of possibilities to investigate.
“It’s going to be, I think, a more active buyout market than it has ever been,” he said.
Ujiri also admitted that the decision to move on from former first round pick Bruno Caboclo, moved to Sacramento for Malachi Richardson, was a difficult but necessary move, even if it was, in part, the fault of the organization.
“We started the right process a little late, which is something we failed at, but I think we’ll learn from,” Ujiri said.
“On the part of talent, I think we got that part right. He is a real talented kid. But in the process we got the D-League team a couple of years later (than they drafted Caboclo) and it’s a question from me whether he should have stayed (in Europe to develop).”
Regardless, the Raptors have constructed a roster so deep that it would have taken exponential development from Caboclo to even crack the rotation. And with his contract expiring in the summer and Toronto possibly on the hook for a $3.5-million (U.S.) qualifying offer and a $7.3-million cap hold, there was little chance of him sticking around.
Toronto saves about $900,000 this year on Richardson’s contract and has him under control for about $1.5 million next year.
“I thought this was better because (for Caboclo) for where we are with our young guys and for where he is to come and try and break through, it would have been like a challenge for him,” Ujiri said.