AUGUST 6: The Raptors have made it official with Birch, formally issuing a press release to confirm his new deal.
AUGUST 5: The Raptors have reached a three-year contract agreement with one of their own free agents, center Khem Birch, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
The deal will be worth $20MM. Toronto only held Non-Bird rights on Birch, so it will likely use part of its mid-level exception to re-sign Birch. It’s also conceivable that the Raptors could open up sufficient cap room to make it happen, but if they take back Goran Dragic or another high-salary player in the Kyle Lowry sign-and-trade with Miami, they’ll need to use the mid-level.
Birch joined the Raptors in April after the rebuilding Magic bought him out. He started 17 of 19 regular-season appearances with the Raptors, averaging 11.9 PPG, 7.6 RPG and 1.2 BPG in 30.4 MPG. The 28-year-old Birch played his first three-and-a-half NBA seasons with Orlando but was mainly used off the bench.
The Raptors waived Aron Baynes on Wednesday, so Birch could compete with Chris Boucher for a starting role with the club.
Nice, I like Birch. He ain’t a Stud Center, but he is serviceable.. I’m good with this.
@cyberhawk serviceable indeed. I’m down let’s go. Liked what I saw in his audition.
$20mm for 3 yrs is too rich as Khem is a back up at best. Masai needs to step it up on the 5. Powell for Dragic is trash. Get Kleber, Brunson and more importantly,Moses Brown.
They switched powell for Gary Trent jr, lowry for dragic
Get with the program buddy. Dwight Powell is being offered by Dallas
Dallas would love to trade Kleber; not sure why he is on your list and Birch not.
Raps already have 2 or 3 short guards, so one would likely go for Brunson.
Also Birch is already obtained, while Presti may not want to move Brown and getting the others means losing something.
I don’t know why some people don’t enjoy watching Birch beating bigger players. He doesn’t even have to step outside or throw his butt around.
OKC traded Brown to Boston who re-routed him to Dallas. Kleber is a decent shooter and Brunson would be a step up to G-leaguer Flynn. Would rather take 1st Rd pick from Dallas but they’ve Masai over the barrel. Birch is ok, just ok. Overpaid because he’s good cdn boy.
I couldn’t follow that, but right now TOR is just OK so Birch fits. A full year should leave better stats.
TOR executed a nice discreet tank and got Suggs, but I hope Ujiri does not keep doing it. I think signing Birch represents a desire to win, not just blowing another year acclimating Suggs and getting another high pick.
Raps drafted Scottie Barnes not Suggs though
thx, I was so sure TOR would take Suggs, I put him there in my head.
Noel got 3 yrs for 33 mill; I think birch is pretty equal player and he signed for cheaper
That’s why the Knicks will always be among the worst runned franchises. Who were they bidding against???
Not the Raptors