Raptors prioritizing VanVleet & Bigs While Maintaining Space for 2021
The 2020 offseason is not going to be an easy one for the Toronto Raptors and president Masai Ujiri.
Toronto has three key players heading into unrestricted free agency this fall with Fred VanVleet, Marc Gasol, and Serge Ibaka all on expiring deals. Retaining them all will be "priorities," Ujiri said Thursday, with VanVleet being a "big priority," but balancing the team's short term aspirations and long term goals is going to be no easy task.
To start, Ujiri and the Raptors still don't know exactly what the NBA's salary cap is going to look like this offseason. It was initially expected to rise to around $115 million next year prior to the pandemic, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. But now, with all the lost revenue from COVID-19, the cap will reportedly stay around $109 million next season, the same as this past year, according to The Athletic. All the confusion about the cap situation is just the tip of the iceberg for the Raptors' offseason.
Once that's sorted out, Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster are going to have to figure out how to retain the Raptors' free agents while maintaining cap space in 2021 when Giannis Antetokounmpo may headline a star-studded free agency class that could include Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James.
"We have to really look at what is now, we have to look at the short term future and we have to look at the long term picture," Ujiri said. "We have to look at a key year which is '21 and free agency then."
The Raptors have long been tied to Antetokounmpo, who is eligible for a contract this offseason from the Milwaukee Bucks. The 25-year-old reigning MVP has already had conversations with Bucks' ownership about a possible future together, but until he signs an extension, the Raptors will continue planning for the possibility of him coming to Toronto in 2021.
"We have to figure out how we maneuver where we keep our cap space for the future and for that year, ’21," Ujiri said. "We have to address that in some kind of way. We are going to speak to all the agents when the time is right and speak to all the players when it is right and we’ll try and figure this out the best way we can."
It's going to be difficult for the Raptors to bring everyone back while maintaining enough cap space to reel in a big fish in 2021, but few front offices are better suited to figure out the cap machinations to get it done than Toronto's.
