Raptors Share Vision For Using Potential Cap Space this Summer

The Toronto Raptors see flexibility in their potential cap space if the organization does let Gary Trent Jr. and Bruce Brown walk this summer

Free agency hasn’t been kind to the Toronto Raptors.

Historically speaking, it’s been bleak. When it comes to signing free agents from other NBA teams, Toronto has never had success. Cory Joseph was fine. Bismack Biyombo outperformed his contract. But other than that, it’s been rough.

Why?

First of all, it’s really hard to find success in free agency. Unless you’re Miami, Los Angeles, or the hometown of an NBA free agent, the chances are you probably haven’t had much success either. These days, the odds of landing a star on the open market are even less likely with top-tier players rarely hitting the open market. The top free agent who changed teams last year, for example, was Fred VanVleet who isn’t exactly some All-NBA superstar.

But for Toronto, there haven’t even been many bloop singles.

Since 2020, the Raptors have signed Aron Baynes, Alex Len, Otto Porter Jr., Juancho Hernangomez, Jalen McDaniels, and Dennis Schröder. Each time there were reasons to be excited about the signing. They all made sense at the time and yet every single time they failed.

“We just haven't done very well in assessing what those fits could be,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri acknowledged Wednesday. “We 100 per cent need to do like a better job of finding some of those players.”

This year could be different.

Toronto could enter free agency this summer with cap space for the first time since 2015 when the organization inked DeMarre Carroll to a four-year, $60 million deal. All those aforementioned deals had been minimum signings, bi-annual exception deals, or with the mid-level exception. This time, though, the Raptors could free up roughly $30 million in space if they want to.

But there’s a price.

To create that kind of space, Toronto is going to have to let Gary Trent Jr. walk and opt out of Bruce Brown’s $23 million team option.

“I think we are going to continue to assess that as we go,” Ujiri said of Trent and Brown. “I think they do have special talents that they bring, and we'll see how we continue with that and how the market assesses that.”

For comparison’s sake, neither Trent nor Brown is worth $30 million per season, but it wouldn't be surprising if their combined contracts next season eclipse the total salary cap space Toronto would create by letting them go. In essence, Toronto could be losing more than $30 million combined value from Trent and Brown just to create roughly $30 million in flexibility.

But flexibility has a value too.

“You can view it in many ways,” Ujiri said of that hypothetical cap space. “I think where we are as a team, we're going to see how we develop and how we grow we're going to see how the summer starts off with our players and we'll see how we use that cap space.”

One option, for example, would be to rent out that cap space to a contender looking to shed some money to potentially dip under the luxury tax threshold. The Oklahoma City Thunder have repeatedly used this trick to add future draft capital by taking on expensive contracts. Maybe there's a route for Toronto to take on an expensive contract for a first-round pick or a couple of seconds.

In terms of attacking free agency this summer with cap space, the list of players isn’t particularly exciting. The top players ironically are all former Raptors: Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas, and even Kyle Lowry will hit the open market. Don’t expect any of them to be back with the organization this summer.

Malik Monk, Isaiah Hartenstein, Nic Claxton, and Jalen Smith could all make sense to varying degrees, but those aren’t exactly franchise-changing players.  

If none of those options are particularly exciting, maybe it makes sense to just run it back and roll that flexibility over for a little longer. At the right price, Trent still makes sense with Toronto moving forward, and picking up Brown’s option to move in a trade still holds value.

What’s clear is Toronto has options.

Figuring out how to best navigate that flexibility without making the free agency missteps of the past will be a key next step for this organization as it builds back to the top.