Raptors wing Gary Trent Jr. has decided to exercise his player option for the 2023/24 season, agents Rich Paul and Lucas Newton of Klutch Sports tell Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report and TNT (Twitter links).
The move will guarantee Trent’s $18.79MM salary for next season and will keep him off this year’s free agent market, lining him up instead for unrestricted free agency in 2024.
It’s a surprising decision, given that Trent had long been expected to opt out in order to sign a longer-term deal worth perhaps $18-20MM annually. The 24-year-old is coming off a solid two-and-a-half year stint in Toronto in which he averaged 17.7 points per game on .420/.374/.843 shooting while chipping in 1.6 SPG.
Trent, who is still entering his prime, projected to be one of the best three-and-D players on the market. It’s possible his agents quietly gauged his market and found it wasn’t robust as anticipated.
A desire to remain in Toronto also factored into Trent’s decision, according to Haynes, who says the two sides intend to explore a multiyear agreement. Once he officially picks up his option, the former Trail Blazer will be on track to become extension-eligible in July. The NBA’s new extension rules would allow him to receive a raise of up to 40% on a new deal.
While Trent’s decision to opt in will keep one key Raptors contributor off the free agent market, two others are still expected to become free agents on July 1. Starting point guard Fred VanVleet already declined his own ’23/24 player option, while center Jakob Poeltl will see his current contract expire on June 30.
As Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca tweets, Trent’s $18MM+ cap hit will make it more challenging for the Raptors to bring back both VanVleet and Poeltl on market-value deals and avoid the luxury tax. While it’s not impossible, it may require a cost-cutting move or two.
The full list of player option decisions for 2023/24 can be found right here.
Maybe hell get an in season extension.
Maybe he does want to be in Toronto long term, but it’s weird for him at 25 years old to opt into an at or slightly below market value on a one year deal when he 100% has suitors around this number on a multi year deal. Toronto must have something cooking with Trent contractually speaking going forward.
Trent is not a 3 and D player. You have to play D for that, and Trent is bad at defense. Has been for his entire career. Don’t let the steal numbers fool you; when opponents target Trent on offense, they shoot better than average from every range. He’ll jump passes well, but as an on-ball defender he isn’t good.
He takes care of the ball and can shoot, but he’s not really versatile with low rebound and assist numbers, so he’s a score-only player. And his shot selection isn’t great; he takes 40% of his shots from the midrange, and despite solid enough accuracy, he should be attacking the rim more often. Only 12% of his shot attempts last season came from 0-3 feet, and that was a career high despite being above-average there for a guard; most guards with his level of accuracy at that distance are taking at least 30% of their shots at the rim.
He’s a good 6th man, but I wouldn’t trust him as my starting 2-guard. I think his agent was wise to tell him to take his option. I don’t see him getting anywhere near $18.75 M in FA.
Don’t disagree with a lot of what you’ve said (although I wouldn’t say he’s bad at defense, just quite overrated, and his shot profile, while it will never be great, wasn’t helped by the Raptors being so desperate for his shot-making and generally terrible offensively), but with the new TV deal on the horizon 18MM a year isn’t going to be much. And I doubt he would’ve had trouble get a multi-year deal just shy of that amount annually even with all his faults. Like, a 3-year, 50MMish deal should’ve been easily doable given the state of the market.
That said, given those faults and his desire to stay in Toronto there is some sense in picking up the option, though it’s still surprising to me personally. But perhaps he can take another step under a developmental head coach and re-enter the market with a better perception around the league.
That and he has the possibility of a long-term extension with the Raptors. Also, which I didn’t mention, it’s possible he feels a lot of loyalty towards the organization after they got him “out of jail” in Portland, so to speak, given how depressed he reportedly was there.
The shot profile thing is a long-term problem. 12% at the rim is both terrible *and* a career-high from Trent (he averaged 9% at the rim the year prior and 10% the two years before that). He’s just not efficient.
True, although that may depend in part on what direction Masai decides to take the franchise in. Either way, I hope the decision doesn’t backfire on him.
Oh, I realize that. I was just saying it was exacerbated by the fact that he was relied upon so heavily in the mid-range to create his own shots. He’ll never get to the rim but ideally he wouldn’t have to create so many of his own shots, which might help him to be a little more efficient in the long run (40.5% on C&S threes vs 29.9% on pull-up threes this past season, for instance).
Even still, his efficiency at the rim puts him on par with guys who are taking 15 to 25% of their shots in that range. He’s more like a forward in that regard. I don’t think it’s that he has that much trouble getting to the rim, just that he’s not maximizing his profile. More shot selection like prime Klay Thompson and less Tyler Herro would be welcome for Trent fans.
His current shot profile at the rim puts him on par with pop-up shooters like Joe Harris, Kevin Love, and Seth Curry. He’s not anywhere near that bad at getting to the rim.
Just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this nice mature and informative discussion between @EonADS and @SheaGoodbye.
I do have to agree though, really surprised he opted in. He may still have some untapped potential as a 3 and D, but we’ll see if Coach Darko can unlock it #betonyourself
Thing is by picking up his option he also becomes extension eligible. Which he wasn’t beforehand.
That synopsis indicates his shooting & offensive skills trainer as a youth got him into some great habits – he learned them well and (obviously) still puts them to use today! Clearly, he doesn’t get paid for that 12%!
Wow. Fire your agent bud.
Agents work for the players….
It’s usually a pure economic decision made after a guy’s agents determine the probable market, both short and long term. In his situation (young, has his first big deal under his belt, son of an NBA player), I could see him not wanting to take less this year in exchange for more years.
Hopefully, for him, staying in TOR was not a big part of his decision. Basically, he immediately becomes trade bait. Even if his one year salary is frothy, a team might value the fact that he comes without a long term commitment.
I thought he was going to get the same deal as Norm Powel, 5 years $90M
That would basically be his current deal extended. You wouldn’t think that would be hard to replicate two years later. But I’m guessing (betting) his agents came to him with a significantly lower number than that (in either salary or years or both). Obviously, they (agents) want him to opt out, so they wouldn’t low ball.