True north strong and free
Sixth man Montrezl Harrell may be what Raptors need,
There probably aren’t going to be planes stalking the limousines of Raptors free agents visiting town this time around, and there don’t seem to be any close relatives/advisers who ingratiate themselves with the process and hold great sway.
But unlike the last time the Raptors ventured into NBA free agency — dealing with Kawhi Leonard and that hysteria, including his uncle Dennis Robertson and his influence — this coming period is bigger and more significant than any the team has faced in years.
Three key players — Fred VanVleet, Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol — are unrestricted free agents, Rondae HollisJefferson’s future is in doubt, Chris Boucher can seek employment elsewhere and general manager Bobby Webster and president Masai Ujiri have some difficult decisions coming.
“This is our time,” Ujiri said after the season ended with a second-round playoff loss to the Boston Celtics. “This is where you support as much as you want during the bubble, during the playoffs, during the season, (but) now is the time for us to work. Now is the time for us to do our jobs.”
When the work needs to be done is in question, though.
There has been no official word from the NBA on when free agency will begin, but it will be a truncated process compared to other seasons. Most recent speculation suggests a late-November opening of the market and about a week or 10 days to fill roster spots, sure to be an intense period of player movement.
Which side that benefits — player or team — is hard to say.
Players might be more anxious to have their futures settled sooner rather than later, so they can get on with preparations for the coming season. In past years, the late-July signing period was followed by three months of off-season; this time, there’s not likely to be three weeks before training camps begin, and getting settled fast might be more to a player’s liking.
And teams may want to move more quickly, especially filling back-of-the-roster spots. The stars normally sign quickly, and then there’s a shaking-out period as teams pick over what’s left to fill whatever holes they have. Filling those vacancies now becomes a more immediate concern.
There has surely been some behind-the-scenes negotiation going on — there always is, even in “normal” times — but there will be a great sense of urgency this year.
The most prudent moves for management to make — and it’s not always up to them, if players are bound and determined to move — would be to re-sign VanVleet and one of Gasol or Ibaka (on a shorter deal), then fill out the end-of-rotation spots like those occupied by Boucher and HollisJefferson with a couple of the many players who’ll be seeking new deals.
There are certainly options available for the Raptors:
> Montrezl Harrell of the Los Angeles Clippers is an unrestricted free agent not currently making a lot of money ($6 million U.S.) and might be a good frontcourt fit.
> Kris Dunn of the Chicago Bulls is a restricted free agent and a top-notch defender still learning the NBA craft.
> The Raptors are also historically known for finding cheaper, short-term additions — Hollis-Jefferson comes quickly to mind — and could very well have a group of lesser-known players they’d be willing to take a short-term flyer on.
They aren’t going to have a lot of money to spend, regardless of what they want to do with their own free agents.
Because of cap holds — which enable them to retain the right to sign their own free agents without regard for the salary cap — and the fact that they don’t want to commit too much long-term money in order to explore the coveted 2021 free-agent class, they will only have a few cap exceptions to play with.
The most lucrative of those is the so-called mid-level exception of about $9.2 million, which they can offer to one player or split among multiple acquisitions.
This year, that might be enough.
Coming off the pandemicruined season that played havoc with leaguewide revenue, there is a chance that players will be willing to take shorter, less-lucrative deals so they can become free agents again in a year, when there should be more money in the system to be spent and more teams with cash on hand to splurge.
That may not be perfect for long-term roster building, but if 2020-21 is considered more a transitional year than a foundational one, there might be bargains for teams to take advantage of.
“You have the challenges and we have to face them,” Ujiri has said. “Yes, there are challenges. We don’t know what the cap numbers are. We have to figure out how we manoeuvre where we keep our cap space for the future and for that year, ’21.”