Raps will put D League team in Mississauga

The Raptors are poised to announce they have acquired a D League team that will begin play this fall in Mississauga, according to multiple sources. The team — to be named something along the lines of the Raptors905s as a nod to the suburban area code — will play out of the Hershey Centre and the official announcement could come as early as Monday, the Star has learned.

Toronto has sought a minor league affiliate for months and gained final NBA and D League approval for an expansion franchise in the last two weeks, the sources said.

The cost of a franchise is in the $6 million (U.S.) range, putting a price tag on the team’s sole minor league affiliate that equals about the cost of one year at the NBA mid-level salary.

Toronto president and GM Masai Ujiri and his staff see a D League team as a huge step for the franchise, giving them control over players and coaching and the first minor league team outside of the United States.

“It would be the biggest deal of the year in our opinion,” Ujiri said Tuesday. The Raptors have shared a D League affiliation with other NBA teams since the founding of the league in 2001. Last season, they were one of 13 NBA teams affiliated with the privately owned Fort Wayne Mad Ants, an unworkable arrangement at every imaginable level.

Bruno Caboclo, Toronto’s firstround 2014 draft pick, spent a handful of wasted days in Fort Wayne, seldom used by a team that had no vested interest in his development.

Caboclo averaged less than nine minutes a game in seven games with the Mad Ants and while Lucas Nogueira was used more — 20 minutes per game in four games — neither got the individual attention that a single affiliation with an NBA team would afford them.