Raptors An Option For Nash, Lin?

Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News suggests in a column that the Raptors may make free-agent offers to point guards Steve Nash and Jeremy Lin, though they're a long shot to land either player.

Lawrence suggests that, despite Nash's Canadian roots being a potential draw for Toronto, he wants to play for a contender, which rules out the Raptors.

Lin's situation is more complicated, Lawrence writes. Since the Knicks phenom is a restricted free agent with less than two years of NBA experience, offers from other teams are limited by the Gilbert Arenas rule, which forbids teams from going above the $5MM midlevel exception on offer sheets. Because of this, the Raptors will have to back-load any offer they make to Lin, and even though the Knicks are limited financially, Lawrence believes he is too valuable from a marketing standpoint to let go.