New Raptors trade acquisition Brandon Ingram remains a projected month away from making his debut for Toronto. In a new piece, Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca unpacks five critical arenas in which the 6’8″ forward’s fit with his new club can be assessed.
Murphy speculates as to how Ingram and fellow All-Star Raptors forward Scottie Barnes will mesh in pick-and-roll actions, what Ingram’s shot profile will look like, how Ingram’s playmaking will impact Toronto, and more.
Per Eric Koreen of The Athletic, head coach Darko Rajakovic must figure out how best to integrate Ingram into his offense.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of work that we need to put in,” Rajakovic told Koreen on Saturday. “(Ingram) is very open. He’s very willing to accept what this team is doing. And he already started using his voice with the team and talking in the film sessions. He’s opening up, which is great. I really respect that.”
Ingram has only been healthy for 18 games this season. When available, he’s putting up big numbers. The 27-year-old is averaging 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 5.2 assists. The Duke alum is logging a shooting line of .465/.374/.850.
“All of us, we want the same thing,” Rajakovic said. “We want to win. And winning demands certain things. I think he will embrace that without any problem — ball movement and body moment. I think he’s a very, very unselfish player. I think that he’s a player that can see the court really well. And I think that’s going to be the driving force for us when we get him on the court.”
There’s more out of Toronto:
- In a separate piece, Murphy takes a look at the Raptors’ salary cap setup heading into the future, following the new contracts for Ingram and newly promoted forward Jamison Battle’s fresh three-year standard deal. Because Ingram opted to waive his trade bonus and Toronto offloaded some other salaries, the team was able to accommodate Battle.
- Ingram inked a three-year, $120MM contract extension upon being dealt to the Raptors. As Koreen observes in another story, his lucrative new salary compel the Toronto front office to make some difficult choices about its other personnel. Koreen notes that Toronto will now owe an estimated $177MM to just 10 players next year — four shy of the required minimum.
- In case you missed it, Ingram’s contract extension will be paid out in an ascending structure, with 5% annual raises.
Don’t put too much stock in what Koreen says about the team. According to him the sky is always falling.
Plus if you look at spotrac it’s 177 million for 11 guys not 10. They will likely start the year just over the tax and will make a decision at the deadline on of they want duck under it. Which can be accomplished by trading Ochai Agbaji. Their salary situation is being blown out of proportion by the media looking for clicks from the crazy Raptor fanbase.
Battle isn’t guaranteed so 10 guaranteed deals if you really need to nitpick that much.
Don’t put too much stock in Koreen because you think they’ll probably start the year over the tax line and figure out something by the break?
If everyone is pulling stuff out of their rear lets just call all of it crap instead of pretending yours smells good.
The facts are they just added a 40 mil contract and are heading to the lottery. pretending a billion dollar corporation in that situation should wander around until next ears trade deadline and then make a move based on how much their tax bill is going to be makes me want to barf.
Play to win or just go home. They have a really good core that should be finished this offseason so they can open up an extended playoff window. It’s time to make some hard final choices. Trade deadlines should be for fine tuning your roster. You don’t target the deadline 360 days before it gets here.
Boucher gets bought out……. Knicks better be on it. Our bench is atrocious……