The Raptors took care of their own business quickly, re-signing guard Fred VanVleet for two years.
But glut in backcourt and luxury-tax worries leave more work to do
It would be hard to find anyone remotely connected with the Toronto Raptors who is not happy for Fred VanVleet today.
Not the fans who came to love his gritty defence, his take-noprisoners style of play. Not his teammates, who counted on him for three-point shooting and late-game leadership.
Not his coaches, who valued his toughness and guile and effort so much that they trusted the second-year guard to run the team down the stretch of nearly every close game.
Not even his bosses, who bestowed a two-year, $18-million contract (all figures U.S.) on VanVleet before the free-agent negotiation period was12 hours old.
“I don’t know what the rules are with that,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri said Sunday morning. “I don’t want to get into trouble, but I love Freddie. I hope I don’t get fined for saying that, but I love Freddie. He’s our player and I love him. Whatever it is, Freddie knows we love him.”
That love was manifested in a lightning-quick strike in NBA free agency as the Raptors took care of their only major roster issue. VanVleet was a restricted free agent and the Raptors would have had the right to match any offer he got, but locking up the 24-year-old for a twoyear term dovetails perfectly with what Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster have put in place.
Four key players — DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas — are now on the same contract path as VanVleet, the undrafted native of Rockford, Ill., who made himself a vital member of the team’s rotation last year.
VanVleet made a relatively paltry $1.3 million last season, when he averaged 8.6 points and 3.2 assists per game, often joining Lowry and DeRozan on the court in crunch time of close games. And besides the whopping raise, VanVleet will have the right to become an unrestricted free agent in two seasons, when the NBA’s salary cap is expected to spike to more than $110 million per year and put more money into the system.
But the move does leave a glut of backcourt players on Toronto’s roster and could hasten other moves by Ujiri and Webster to cut payroll in some fashion.
The Raptors are now firmly in the luxury-tax area with a total payroll of about $135 million covering12 players, with at least two more to add. That would hit them with a substantial penalty at the end of next season — the tax threshold is about $123 million — unless they find some way to shed salary.
And with three point guards — VanVleet, Lowry and Delon Wright — along with fellow backcourt members DeRozan and Norman Powell, Ujiri has given new coach Nick Nurse a plethora of athletes to deal with, probably more than is easily manageable. It sets up further expectations that the president will seek ways to cut salary somehow. Powell, for instance, is now beginning a fouryear deal worth over $10 million a season and he barely got off the bench for long stretches last season. But to cut him adrift, Ujiri might have to sweeten the pot with either a draft pick or one of a cadre of young players.
The president and GM could also investigate ways to pull off a blockbuster deal involving any of DeRozan, Lowry or Valanciunas, or find some team willing to take on the final two years of Ibaka’s deal.
However, with the major summer task taken care of — VanVleet was the lone significant Raptors free agent to be signed — Ujiri’s history of making slow, deliberate moves may be repeated in the coming weeks. Few NBA teams have substantial cap room to simply sign players, leaving trades as the more likely way to move players around.