Raptors reach for the top
Masai Ujiri is playing the big game, now aand later. It was clear when he traded for Kawhi Leonard last summer; it became clearer Thursday. When you sit aat the big table you have to roll the dice, aand the Raptors are rolling. They’ve come this far. What else was there to do? On Thursday, the Raptors went as
all- in as they could reasonably go. A few hours before the NBA trade deadline, the Raptors traded longtime centre Jonas Valanciunas, guard Delon Wright and spare part C. J. Miles to the Memphis Grizzlies for centre Marc Gasol, 34. He’s a former defensive player of the year, a brutish and skilled and cerebral player, declining but still effective. He is what going for it, right now, looks like. “Phenomenal player and really, I think, a winner that hopefully can come and make an impact,” said Ujiri, Toronto’s team president. “I think these guys have some solid years ahead of them. We’ll see how it goes. We always have to
think about the future with this team. Obviously Kawhi has his (free agency) decision to make at the end of the season, and we’ll go from there.”
It was a significant move, especially considering Ujiri didn’t have many cards to play, and the Raptors anda their leader had been put under heavy pressure late in the day by their closest Eastern rivals. Milwaukeea loaded up. Philadelphia, too. Thea Clippers cleared cap space to chase Leonard, their native son. Ujiri has never worried too much about pressure, but it was there.
It helped that the framework didn’t come out of the blue. According to a league source, this offer was on the table at least two weeks ago, and was
among several indications Ujiri wasn’t satisfied with his team. An executive for
another team said all-star point guard Kyle Lowry had been available for a couple of weeks, but any talks involving Memphis point guard Mike Conley didn’t get too far, and nothing else serious materialized. One source said Lowry was told Monday that he would not be traded.
“I had a very good conversation with Kyle and rumours are rumours, to be honest,” said Ujiri. “And Kyle was aware. We had a very good conversion and I see no issues, honestly, with him. Zero. We’re good, and I think his mind is focused on this run.”
But the pressure was on. The Milwaukee Bucks have the league’s best record and point differential, and acquired three-point shooting big man Nikola Mirotic from New Orleans; Toronto had interest, but the Bucks got better instead. The Philadelphia 76ers had already added borderline all-star Tobias Harris to their all-star core of Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Jimmy Butler.
The Boston Celtics didn’t do anything of note, but will try to pry MVP candidate Anthony Davis out of New Orleans this summer.
So the East was suddenly gladiatorial, with two hours to the deadline, and these are the Raptors now. Gasol is a gifted passer, a one-man defensive co-ordinator — when the Raptors used to try to improve Valanciunas’s defensive instincts, Gasol was considered too good to be the reasonable best-case scenario — and has become almost a league-aver- age three-point shooter. He’s a playoff veteran, and he’ll compete. He’s good.
How he fits, how quickly, we’ll see. The bench is thinner, but Ujiri didn’t give up either rising star Pascal Siakam or stillvalued wing OG Anunoby, who together comprise this team’s best starting point if Leonard decides to leave. You could say the Raptors are chasing it, and maybe you’re right. But if this is the tightrope, they didn’t trade the net.
Still, this is about maximizing Leonard’s presence now, and trying to extend it in the future. The Raptors and Leonard have not been a seamless fit, but there has been an increase in comfort, encouraging signs. Toronto’s free bingo space is that they can offer an extra $50 million (all dollars U.S.) to a player who is known around the league to care about the value of a dollar in his life.
Beyond that, the Raptors can say: Look, sign a max contract and if you’re not happy in a year or two, we will find a way to send you where you want to go. It wouldn’t be the NBA’s first such handshake promise. It would give Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster a chance to build something worth staying longer for.
It would, of course, give them a better chance. It was reported that Davis’s acceptable trade list included Milwaukee, where superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is under contract through 2021. With Leonard, what else could Ujiri, with stars across the league constantly getting jarred free, acquire?
Gasol fortifies the window now, and if he opts in after this year as expected, his $25.6million player option comes off the cap after next season, along with Lowry and Serge Ibaka and Fred VanVleet for a total of approximately $90 million. That’s the real reset button, with or without Leonard.
So Toronto is going for it, along with Milwaukee, along with Philadelphia, with Boston in the fight. And two of them will be gone by the end of the second round of the playoffs at the latest. The Raptors are as all-in as they were willing to be; everyone has something to prove. As Ujiri said, they are dreaming of contending for a championship. This is playing the big game. Now comes the fun part, or something else.