Ibaka, Gasol leaving town as Raptors pick up centre Aron Baynes,
With Ibaka and Gasol gone to L.A., opening at centre creates opportunity for the taking
Open up the weight room and load up the barbells. Call up Bryson DeChambeau for protein-shake recipes. Have Serge Ibaka to relinquish his stash of beef-penis pizza before he leaves for Los Angeles.
As the dust cleared after a big-man exodus from Raptorland over the weekend — Ibaka chose Kawhi Leonard’s Clippers and Marc Gasol signed with LeBron James’ Lakers — suddenly one of Toronto’s best options at centre happened to be a certain six-foot-nine string-bean listed at 200 pounds, and possibly generously. That would be Chris Boucher, of course, the undrafted Montreal-bred energy guy who averaged six minutes a game for Nick Nurse in the playoffs, and who signed a two-year deal Sunday to remain a key piece to what the Raptors hope will remain a competitive team.
Which is not to suggest it’s time to panic. The Raptors will also have journeyman Aron Baynes in the fold when the season begins on Dec. 22, after agreeing Sunday to bring the 33-year-old New Zealander aboard on a two-year deal worth about $14.3 million (U.S.). Baynes, who most recently played for the Phoenix Suns, is six-foot-10 and a sufficiently robust 260 pounds.
And though he’s spent his career mostly a role player, there are those who will tell you he comes attached with plenty of potential upside given his late-career discovery of an impressive long-range shooting touch. Though Baynes had never hit more than three three-pointers in an entire season before 2018-19, he went a jaw-dropping 9-for-14 from deep in a game back in March in which he exploded for 37 points. He shot a respectable 35 per cent from behind the arc last season, averaging 11.5 points and 5.6 rebounds game — not quite the offensive production Ibaka provided the Raptors, but decidedly better than what Gasol gave them.
That is not to say the events of the weekend don’t add up to a net frontcourt loss for Toronto’s NBA team. The only other big man under Toronto’s control happens to be Dewan Hernandez, the 2019 secondround pick who has so far been a nonfactor in the NBA. So
Baynes needs to be good. And it’s safe to say the bone-thin Boucher is likely going to be asked to carry more weight, both literally and figuratively. Given Toronto’s history of developing unlikely specimens into rotational mainstays, it would be silly to bet against a competitive jump from the lively leaper. But it’s not a given.
Ibaka’s departure is a bit of a gut punch, even if the 31-yearold veteran offered a classy adieu to Toronto and to Canada on his social-media accounts. As a role-playing purveyor of consummate toughness and clutch shotmaking, reasonable facsimiles just aren’t readily available. Toronto’s loss is the Clippers’ considerable gain.
That has to burn Raptors president Masai Ujiri, at least a
little. In some ways, this is the second time in two off-seasons that Kawhi Leonard has thrown a wrench in Toronto’s plans; his presence in L.A., after all, is undoubtedly a factor in Ibaka’s move. Leonard, the story goes, grew close to Ibaka during Toronto’s championship season, even showing some rare personality in an appearance of Ibaka’s cooking show, “How Hungry Are You?”, in which the resident chef served the self-styled Fun Guy a pizza topped with the aforementioned bovine genitals.
It’s no fun for a fan base, an off-season after Leonard and Danny Green made tracks in free agency, to see more championship linchpins leave town.
Still, for the Raptors, bringing back the 35-year-old Gasol, as hard as they tried, wouldn’t have been a panacea. If you
watched him play in the Orlando bubble, you know his legs looked beyond spent. Even with opponents begging him to let it fly from deep, he shot a dismal 19 per cent from threepoint range in the playoffs, this while averaging a post-season career-low six points a game.
What are the odds he’ll be able to reverse that fall-off as a ring-chaser with the reigning champions? The NBA is about to embark on an unprecedentedly packed-in sprint of a regular season that will begin Dec. 22 and end May 16. That’s 72 games in 145 days, essentially a game every other day. Then the league will begin another sprint to get the playoffs out of the way before the Tokyo Olympics begin in late July.
So as much as L.A. can look at Gasol’s incredible career and cross their fingers that he’ll be able to conjure some magic when it matters, there are no guarantees. That said, the Raptors probably have a better idea than any team how much gas remains in Gasol’s tank, and they tried hard to bring him back.
That could have had more to do, mind you, with the lack of viable options than with Gasol’s viability. DeMarcus Cousins was a name that got thrown around over the weekend, given his status as a four-time all-star and a former U.S. Olympian. But he hasn’t played in the league since his turn as a largely ineffective bit player for a Warriors team that lost to the Raptors in the Finals in 2019. And his reputation as an insufferable malcontent made him an unlikely pickup. You could have counted another volatile character who entered the conversation, Hassan Whiteside, in that same camp. And while there was an inkling the Raptors might have mined their past to help fill out their present, former Toronto fan favourite Bismack Biyombo re-signed with Charlotte on Sunday.
If the free-agent market wouldn’t have provided a palatable, playable option at centre, there was always the possibility of swinging a trade. Norman Powell, the six-foot-four swingman, was the name that emerged as theoretically expendable — and don’t be surprised if it emerges again. In a week that saw the Raptors re-sign six-foot-one Fred VanVleet to a four-year deal worth $85 million, after they picked six-foot-one Malachi Flynn with the 29th selection in the NBA draft, it’s safe to say the franchise, whose beating heart remains a six-foot point guard named Kyle Lowry, remains well-stocked with undersized hoopsters.
Upsizing the roster was the organizational mission of the moment. Bringing in Baynes and bringing back Boucher doesn’t replace the best of what Ibaka and Gasol brought. But it does leave the Raptors’ cap sheet in solid shape to pursue their long-held hope of signing a maximum-salary star in the summer of 2021. And it does introduce an intriguing possibility that’s always hard to envision until it surfaces — the idea that both Baynes and Boucher, suddenly presented with the biggest roles of their basketball lives, might actually grow into them to a fan base’s delight and surprise.