All is quiet with the Raptors ... so far

While Canadian sports fans are caught up in an NHL expansion draft frenzy, much of the rest of the world is tuning in to the annual NBA silly season. The period between the conclusion of the Finals and the start of free agency seldom fails to be memorable.

To wit, it has barely been a week since Golden State won the title and we’ve already seen:

Draymond Green and LeBron James engaging in some amusing off-court trash-talking; Boston and Philadelphia pulling off the first pre-draft mega-deal involving the top pick in decades; Cleveland parting ways with its general manager, David Griffin, who only helped lead the franchise to a championship and three conference titles in a row; superstar Paul George told the Pacers he’s leaving after this season, meaning they should deal him soon to get value. Now the Pacers are trying to get a bidding war going, either from teams looking to rent George or from the Lakers, who would risk losing him later should he like his new fit; Jerry West bolted the Bay for a role with the Clippers, teams are lining up to try to trade for Chicago’s Jimmy Butler and NBA oracle Adrian Wojnarowski got tongues wagging with his report that New York boss Phil Jackson was “weighing the possibility of trading Kristaps Porzingis.” Why would he consider that? Because the NBA is insane, that’s why.

Later Tuesday, the Lakers and Brooklyn Nets completed a stunner, with 2015 No. 2 overall selection D’Angelo Russell being moved along with Timofey Mozgov and his brutal contract (signed only last summer) for veteran centre Brook Lopez and the No. 27 pick on Thursday. The woeful Nets finally have a young asset. Again, this league is bonkers.

“What has happened? Nothing has happened. Very quiet,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri joked, failing to keep a straight face at a predraft media availability on Tuesday morning.

And that was hours before the Russell-Lopez deal.

“I think this is why you wait and go through the process of evaluating your team and see what happens in the NBA. One day it’s quiet, the next day it’s noisy,” said Ujiri. “Things will shake up a little bit and we’ll see how it affects the Raptors.”

Funny Ujiri should say that ... locally, Toronto’s top player, Kyle Lowry, had taken to Twitter late Monday to deny a report that said he had been telling people last month he was unhappy as a Raptor and would not return, even for max money.

Coincidentally, one league source from another team had told Postmedia earlier that day — before the Lowry kerfuffle broke out — “we have strong indications that Kyle does not want to return there.” He wasn’t the only one that had expressed that sort of opinion since the season ended.

The thing is, Lowry and the Raptors need each other and the most likely outcome to all of this still is Lowry returning to the club he has become a perennial allstar with. It won’t be for the five-year max (or near-max) money Lowry had hoped for, but the market is what it is. There simply aren’t ideal landing spots for Lowry. He can take a lot less money in search of a ring. He can cash in for a lot of money on a woeful team, or he can settle with Toronto on a number that will still be a massive raise from his US$12 million annual stipend.

Lowry famously runs hot and cold, but Ujiri says a return is what he wants.

“He says he wants to come back. Listen I know there is speculation ... we all have ups and downs. There are times when he has been down and there are times when we are down. It happens to every team, every player,” Ujiri said.