While the Raptors‘ veteran free agents – Fred VanVleet, Marc Gasol, and Serge Ibaka – will receive much of the attention this offseason, Doug Smith of The Toronto Star points out that the front office has key decisions to make on a couple other players who were part of the team’s top seven in 2019/20.
OG Anunoby will be eligible for a rookie scale contract extension this offseason, and while he earned an offer with his strong play in his third professional season, Smith anticipates the Raptors will wait until the forward reaches restricted free agency in 2021 in order to maintain cap flexibility.
Meanwhile, swingman Norman Powell is coming off the best season of his career and is entering a potential contract year (he has a player option for 2021/22), prompting Smith to suggest that the Raptors should think about gauging his value on the trade market.
As Smith writes, Powell is one of the team’s more intriguing chips and could be used to acquire a big man who would be a longer-term piece than Gasol or Ibaka. However, the Toronto Star scribe ultimately expects Powell to be back with the Raptors next season.
Here’s more out of Toronto:
- Blake Murphy of The Athletic makes predictions for which Raptors are most and least likely to stick with the team through the offseason, speculating that Fred VanVleet (73.8%) is a better bet to return than Serge Ibaka (48.8%) or Marc Gasol (42.3%).
- Elsewhere at The Athletic, Eric Koreen digs into whether re-signing VanVleet is essential for the Raptors’ future success. In Koreen’s view, it seems far more likely that the team will pay to retain the former undrafted free agent, rather than letting him walk and hoping its player development group can strike gold again on a long-term replacement.
- In case you missed it, Nick Nurse‘s new contract extension with Toronto is reportedly worth about $8MM per year. That item and many others can be found on our Raptors team page.
Ibaka value is underrated
I think his market is about 2 years 50 million
Where are the Knicks？
25 million per year? Maybe if he was a pitcher. He’s not going to get that much in the NBA. I guess I shouldn’t complain about your number unless I have a prediction myself but I really have no idea what he’ll get. It’ll be such a crapshoot this offseason for contracts.
I can’t see him getting more than a full MLE offer…and that’s his ceiling
This almost made me fall off my chair lol. Another PF/C WHY?
He isn’t going to get anywhere close to that. Are you joking?
He should be their starting center. Nurse misses a trick by not playing him more. Gasol needs to be kicked to the curb. Raptors have to make the choice between Lowry or Fred going forward. Powell needs to be the starting 2 guard.
Bro u smoking sillivan, I feel like his value is like his current contract or slightly less
Ibaka just runs and shoots if open and tries to block shots but doesn’t care about most things on the court; doesn’t stick to his man for long. MLE tops.
Norman Powell is too cool also but the team would benefit from getting him going consistently. He is next in line if FVV leaves and he is ready to step up. Make him do it Ujiri & get your money’s worth. Find a new 2G at the trade deadline if not.
What a poor assessment of what Ibaka brings to the court
I don’t believe there is a big market for VanVleet. Plus there aren’t enough teams who have money to spend. Raptors can probably resign Ibaka n VanVleet for descent value. To it’s obvious what Kawhi meant to this team. He commanded attention. Therefore other players benefited from that. They don’t have that now. And Siakam is not Kawhi. Not easy to replace a true star. Gasol probably walks. They have the #29 pick in draft. And can move Lowry by trade deadline or sooner. They can still have a competitive team. Maybe even a contender for East. If these moves work out. But I don’t see them winning a ring anytime soon.
The priority is to re up Vanvleet & Ibaka. Gotta keep OG & Powell too.