Toronto Raptors Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Atlantic Notes: Brunson, Knicks, Olynyk, Agbaji, Brown, Sixers

February 11th, 2024 at 9:31am CST by Luke Adams

The Knicks appear to have avoided an injury scare with Jalen Brunson, as the All-Star point guard returned to the lineup on Saturday following a one-game absence due to an ankle sprain. Brunson showed no ill effects from the injury, scoring 39 points on 14-of-25 shooting, per Mark W. Sanchez of The New York Post.

Despite Brunson’s return and the debuts of newly acquired role players Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks, the Knicks remained shorthanded due to injuries and lost on Saturday to Indiana, writes Peter Botte of The New York Post. The team is especially banged up in the frontcourt, where Precious Achiuwa was forced to play 43 minutes vs. the Pacers. With Mitchell Robinson, Julius Randle, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Jericho Sims all inactive, Taj Gibson logged 19 minutes on the first day of his second 10-day contract with New York.

“I thought for the first game (with the new additions), there were some obviously good things and obviously there’s a lot for them to adjust to. As a team, I think we have to do a lot better,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We’re shorthanded. We’re going to have to play a lot harder and a lot tougher.”

While their first game with the Knicks didn’t go as planned, both Bogdanovic and Burks expressed excitement about the opportunity to join a playoff team after spending the first half of the season with the league-worst Pistons. According to Botte, Burks – a former Knick – didn’t want to leave New York in the first place and said repeatedly that he’s “glad to be back.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

As Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca details, new Raptors Kelly Olynyk and Ochai Agbaji both have connections to the franchise — Olynyk grew up in Toronto rooting for the Raptors, while Agbaji’s father is old friends with team president Masai Ujiri. The two former Jazz players expressed excitement about their new circumstances, with Agbaji suggesting it feels like a “fresh new start” and Olynyk noting that he and the Raptors have had mutual interest in the past. “It’s always been on our radar, both of our radars,” the big man said. “I think maybe it’s been close [before], but it’s hard for me to know [for sure]… But [now that] it did happen, it’s pretty awesome.”
Raptors wing Bruce Brown was considered one of the top trade candidates on the market leading up to the deadline, but he ended up staying put. He’s happy with that outcome, as Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca tweets. “It feels great, it feels great,” said Brown, whose contract includes a $23MM team option for 2024/25. “Obviously it’s nice to have some stability. … I”m glad to be here for the rest of the season and then try and work things out.”
Although the Raptors were enthusiastic about the moves they made on the trade market, they’ve completed a full-fledged overhaul of their roster in the past six weeks or so, and their lack of continuity showed in Saturday’s blowout loss to Cleveland, Grange writes at Sportsnet.ca. “Obviously, it’s really tough,” Olynyk said. “You don’t know really what’s going on on both ends of the floor. I think that was probably pretty evident in the first half.”
Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer takes a look at a “whirlwind” couple days for Sixers trade deadline additions Buddy Hield and Cameron Payne, who played significant minutes as starters for an injury-depleted Philadelphia team on Friday, then helped lead their new club to a victory in Washington on Saturday.

Raptors Sign Mouhamadou Gueye To 10-Day Contract

February 10th, 2024 at 4:32pm CST by Luke Adams

4:32pm: Gueye has officially signed his 10-day contract, according to a press release from the team.

12:39pm: The Raptors have agreed to sign forward Mouhamadou Gueye to a 10-day contract, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Gueye and Justise Winslow, who is also signing a 10-day deal with Toronto, will fill the two open spots on the team’s standard 15-man roster.

Not to be confused with Hawks rookie Mouhamed Gueye, the Raptors’ newest addition went undrafted out of Pitt in 2022 and spent his rookie season with the Texas Legends in the G League a year ago. Toronto signed Gueye to an Exhibit 10 contract during the 2023 offseason and acquired his G League rights from the Legends, setting him up to spend this season with the Raptors 905 after he was waived by the Raptors in the fall.

In 28 total Showcase Cup and regular season games for the 905, Gueye has averaged 14.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, and an impressive 2.7 blocks in 30.9 minutes per game, making 56.0% of his shots from the floor.

Gueye will earn $64,343 over the course of his 10 days on the Raptors’ roster and will be eligible to play in the team’s final three pre-All-Star games before his deal expires.

Raptors Sign Justise Winslow To 10-Day Deal

February 10th, 2024 at 4:30pm CST by Luke Adams

4:30pm: The signing is official, the Raptors announced in a press release.

12:19pm: The Raptors are promoting former lottery pick Justise Winslow from their G League affiliate and will sign him to a 10-day contract, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

Winslow, the 10th overall pick in the 2015 draft, has spent time with the Grizzlies, Clippers, and Trail Blazers since playing in Miami for the first five years of his NBA career. The 27-year-old underwent ankle surgery in March 2023, which delayed his ’23/24 debut.

In 17 appearances for the Raptors 905 at the G League level this season, Winslow has averaged 16.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.8 steals in 26.8 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .514/.276/.625.

A rangy, versatile wing, Winslow will provide some depth for Toronto and fill one of the team’s two open 15-man roster spots. The Raptors traded Dennis Schröder and Thaddeus Young to Brooklyn on Thursday in exchange for Spencer Dinwiddie, then waived Dinwiddie, creating a pair of roster openings.

Winslow’s 10-day contract will cover Toronto’s final three games before the All-Star break and then expire before the Raptors’ first post-All-Star contest on February 22. The club would be able to ink him to a second 10-day deal at that point, then would have to decide whether to sign him for the rest of the season or let him go (he could report back to Raptors 905 in that scenario).

Winslow will earn $166,176 over the life of his 10-day contract, with Toronto taking on a cap hit of $116,075.

Raptors Notes: Deadline, Brown, Olynyk, Agbaji, Trent, Dinwiddie, Barnes

February 9th, 2024 at 8:25am CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors made a pair of deals on deadline day, but they did their most significant work on the trade market earlier in the season when they sent OG Anunoby to New York and Pascal Siakam to Indiana. In the view of general manager Bobby Webster, Thursday’s moves were more about balancing the roster a little and preparing for the offseason, as Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca relays.

“We did our heavy lifting about a month ago,” Webster said. “So I feel like this trade deadline we cleaned up a lot of things and we addressed some of the things we talked about after the OG and Pascal trades.”

The new-look Raptors currently have an 18-33 record, the sixth-worst mark in the league. A poor finish to the season could put them in position to hang onto their own 2024 first-round pick, which will be sent to San Antonio if it doesn’t land in the top six.

However, as Webster pointed out on Thursday, the NBA’s lottery system offers no assurances – the sixth-worst team is more likely to end up in the No. 7-9 range than to pick in the top six – so there will be no effort to game the system down the stretch. Toronto’s focus will be on developing young talent and getting the new core players familiar with one another.

“We’re going to prioritize seeing this group play,” Webster said. “If it ends up that we’re in the top six, sure. But especially with the way the new NBA rules are, to try to game that doesn’t make a ton of sense. At the end of the day, it’s going to [come down to] the lottery balls. I think the big priority for us is playing that young group together, getting (2023 lottery pick) Gradey (Dick) in there with that group, seeing how they fit together because that will give us a lot more information about how to build this team and what moves to make this summer.”

Here’s more on the Raptors:

Toronto was seeking a first-round pick beyond 2024 for Bruce Brown and didn’t want to take back multiyear money, according to Lewenberg. With no team willing to meet that asking price, the Raptors hung onto the veteran wing, whose deal includes a $23MM team option for next season. “Had we gotten the offers we wanted for Bruce we would’ve done something,” Webster said (Twitter link). “At the same time, Bruce is 27, he has a really interesting contract, he provides a professionalism and toughness that we value, and there’s options with Bruce this summer.”
The Raptors will look to sign newly acquired big man Kelly Olynyk to a new contract and keep him beyond the current season, sources tell Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports. Webster said on Thursday that Olynyk wants to be in his hometown of Toronto, per Eric Koreen of The Athletic. “We’ve been big fans of Kelly,” Webster said. “I think the way we view him specifically is he’s a steady hand and I think we’ve seen it with the bench units, especially with the bigs, he’s going to provide a skill set of veteran presence, a voice that we think that unit could use some help with.”
Reiterating that the Raptors never intended to use all the 2024 draft picks they controlled, Webster suggested the team was happy to use one of those lesser assets to acquire Olynyk and to add a young player in Ochai Agbaji, tweets Lewenberg. Webster described Agbaji as a “hard-working, high-character” player with “a lot of upside.”
Gary Trent Jr., who is on an expiring contact, remained with the Raptors through the trade deadline. Webster said the plans for Trent are “a little TBD” and that the team is looking forward to evaluating him down the stretch (Twitter link via Lewenberg).
The decision to waive Spencer Dinwiddie after acquiring him from Brooklyn means that Scottie Barnes will get more point guard reps the rest of the way, according to Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter). Murphy adds that Toronto intends to fill its two open 15-man roster spots and will consider all avenues, including prospects from the G League and overseas.
In a story for Sportsnet.ca, Murphy explores how the Raptors’ latest in-season trades alter their salary cap outlook going forward.

No Deadline Deals Involving Lakers, Cavs, Hawks, Bulls, Others

February 8th, 2024 at 4:14pm CST by Rory Maher

While we certainly saw a flurry of activity prior to today’s trade deadline, seven teams didn’t make any moves at all over the past week, observes Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link). That group features the Lakers, Cavaliers, Hawks, Bulls, Magic, Heat, and Pelicans.

Miami and New Orleans made previous trades this season, but the other five teams did not.

According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN and Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter links), the Lakers were actively involved in trade talks, but decided any deal would have been a “marginal upgrade” with a prohibitive cost. L.A. plans to be “aggressive” in the buyout market, however, and will have up to three first-round picks to trade this summer, versus the one it had available during the season.

As Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times writes, Dejounte Murray and Alex Caruso were among the players the Lakers were interested in, but they decided the Hawks’ and Bulls’ asking prices were too steep.

The Cavs — the league’s hottest team — “believe strongly” in the roster they’ve constructed, and they also have a pair of standard roster spots open to peruse the buyout market, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (Twitter link).

The Hawks were reportedly aggressive in proposing trade concepts, yet decided to keep the roster they have, despite their mediocre 22-29 record. Murray was the player most prominently featured in rumors from Atlanta’s roster.

The 24-27 Bulls also decided to stand pat, with center Andre Drummond among the players they retained, confirms Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report (via Twitter).

According to Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel, the Magic’s front office “did its due diligence” in evaluating the market, but it likes the current roster and wanted to maintain continuity ahead of a potential postseason push. Orlando is currently 27-24.

The Raptors made a handful of trades this season, including two on Thursday, yet one player who many expected to be on the move remains on the roster. Toronto decided to hang onto Bruce Brown past the deadline, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The rebuilding Wizards were viewed as sellers ahead of the deadline, and they did trade Daniel Gafford to Dallas. But they also decided to keep veteran guards Tyus Jones and Delon Wright, two players featured in plenty of trade rumors, per Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Raptors Trade Dennis Schröder, Thaddeus Young To Nets

February 8th, 2024 at 2:56pm CST by Rory Maher

2:56pm: The trade is official, according to announcements from both the Raptors and Nets. As we outlined in separate stories, Brooklyn waived Harry Giles to complete the deal, while Toronto immediately released Dinwiddie.

11:47am: The Raptors and Nets have agreed to a trade, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports (Twitter links) that guard Dennis Schröder and forward Thaddeus Young will be heading to Brooklyn, while guard Spencer Dinwiddie is being sent to Toronto.

A free agent addition in the offseason, Schröder is making $12.4MM this season and has a $13MM cap hit for 2024/25. Young ($8MM) and Dinwiddie ($20.36MM) are both on expiring contracts. Dinwiddie will earn a $1.5MM bonus if he appears in two more games this season, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link), while Dinwiddie didn’t formally request a trade out of Brooklyn, both he and the Nets are happy he’s headed out of town.

The Nets can acquire Schröder using their $18.1MM traded player exception, which would have expired tomorrow, observes cap expert Yossi Gozlan (Twitter link). They’ll create a new TPE worth $20.36MM — Dinwiddie’s outgoing cap hit — and it will be good until February 8, 2025.

It’s essentially a salary dump for the Raptors, since moving off Schröder’s salary for next season will give Toronto more financial flexibility to re-sign its own impending free agents. Guard Immanuel Quickley (restricted) and newly-acquired big man Kelly Olynyk (unrestricted) fall into that category.

Schröder has had a solid season, averaging 13.7 PPG, 6.1 APG and 2.7 RPG on .442/.350/.852 shooting in 51 games (30.6 MPG), including 33 starts. But the 30-year-old was clearly was no longer in Toronto’s long-term plans, particularly after acquiring Quickley from New York in a previous in-season trade.

As for Young, the longtime veteran forward was valued for his locker room presence and production when called upon. However, he’s 35 years old and doesn’t fit the Raptors’ timeline. This will be Young’s second stint with the Nets, having previously played for Brooklyn from 2015-16.

Dinwiddie, 30, has averaged 12.6 PPG, 6.0 APG and 3.0 RPG in 48 games (30.7 MPG) this season, but has struggled with efficiency (.391/.320/.781 shooting line, .530 true shooting), and isn’t a great defender. It’s unclear how much of a role he’ll have with the Raptors, but it’s worth noting that Dinwiddie has performed well as a secondary and tertiary creator in the past.

Schröder will be a major upgrade for the Nets on the defensive end, and they won’t have to worry about losing him for nothing in free agency, since he’ll be under contract until 2025.

Raptors Acquire Olynyk, Agbaji From Jazz For 2024 First-Round Pick

February 8th, 2024 at 2:52pm CST by Luke Adams

2:52pm: The trade is official, the Raptors and Jazz announced in a pair of press releases.

9:38am: The Jazz have agreed to trade center Kelly Olynyk and wing Ochai Agbaji to the Raptors, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). According to Wojnarowski, Utah will receive Kira Lewis, Otto Porter, and a 2024 first-round pick from Toronto in the deal.

That 2024 first-rounder will be the least favorable of the Thunder’s, Clippers’, Rockets’, and Jazz’s picks, per Wojnarowski (Twitter link), so it figures to land near the end of the first round. Utah’s pick is top-10 protected, meaning there’s a scenario in which the Jazz end up hanging onto their own first-rounder and receive a separate pick (likely OKC’s or L.A.’s) as a result of this deal.

While it’s a little surprising to see a lottery-bound team like the Raptors surrender a first-round pick, the deal will net them a solid big man in Olynyk and a promising young prospect in Agbaji, who was the 14th overall pick in the 2022 draft.

Assuming the Raptors intend to hang onto Olynyk, the Toronto native will become the ninth Canadian to play for the franchise and will provide some depth in a frontcourt that’s relatively thin behind Jakob Poeltl. A forward/center who can stretch the floor, Olynyk is averaging 8.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, and a career-high 4.4 assists in 20.4 minutes per game across 50 appearances this season. The 32-year-old has made 42.9% of his three-pointers, boosting his career rate to 37.0%.

Olynyk is on an expiring contract, but the Raptors will control his Bird rights this offseason, giving them the ability to go over the cap to re-sign him or to figure out a sign-and-trade.

As for Agbaji, the young wing hasn’t shown much offensive game since entering the league last season, but is a solid defender who still has room to grow and is under contract through 2026. The Raptors have liked Agbaji for a while, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca, and presumably view him as the type of player who can develop alongside the team’s young core of Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, and RJ Barrett.

The Jazz and Raptors had reportedly been discussing a similar deal that would have included Bruce Brown – rather than a first-round pick – going to Utah. However, Toronto controlled an excess of picks in a 2024 draft that the club isn’t believed to be especially high on, while the Jazz are at risk of losing their own ’24 first-round selection, so the inclusion of the low first-rounder makes some sense.

The Raptors still own the Pacers’ first-round pick and the Pistons’ second-round pick in 2024, and would hang onto their own first-rounder if it ends up in the top six.

Lewis’ salary couldn’t be aggregated in a trade after being acquired from Indiana last month, but that won’t be necessary, since Porter’s $6.3MM cap hit is enough on its own to match Olynyk’s $12.2MM incoming salary, while Lewis’ $5.7MM salary will be used to match Agbaji’s $4.1MM cap hit.

It remains to be seen whether the Jazz will hang onto Lewis and/or Porter for the rest of the season. Lewis is a former lottery pick and Porter has had some strong seasons as a three-and-D wing, but both players have battled injuries in recent years and haven’t played much outside of garbage time in 2023/24.

Raptors Will Waive Spencer Dinwiddie

February 8th, 2024 at 2:15pm CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors don’t intend to keep veteran guard Spencer Dinwiddie on their roster after acquiring him from Brooklyn. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), Toronto will waive Dinwiddie before he plays in a game for Toronto.

Dinwiddie is on an expiring contract and has a $1.5MM bonus in his contract if he appears in 50 games. He’s at 48 games now, so he would’ve locked that bonus in with two more appearances and the Raptors would prefer not to be on the hook for that money, since the point guard isn’t in their future plans.

The deal that sent Dennis Schröder and Thaddeus Young was about creating more cap flexibility for the 2024 offseason by moving off of Schröder’s multiyear deal.

It has been a down year so far for Dinwiddie, who averaged just 12.6 points per game on .391/.320/.781 in 48 games (all starts) for Brooklyn while logging 30.7 minutes per night. Those shooting percentages are well below his career rates and the scoring average is his lowest in a healthy season since he averaged 12.6 PPG in 2017/18.

Still, he’s likely to generate plenty of interest on the buyout market, with the Lakers among the teams that might be a fit. Because Dinwiddie’s base salary of $18.9MM exceeds the mid-level exception, he’ll be ineligible to sign with the Celtics, Nuggets, Warriors, Clippers, Heat, Bucks, and Suns, whose team salaries are above the tax apron. He also won’t be permitted to rejoin the Nets.

Trade Rumors: Tate, Mavs, Rockets, Suns, Porter, Raptors

February 8th, 2024 at 11:38am CST by Luke Adams

The Mavericks and Rockets spoke recently about Houston forward Jae’Sean Tate, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic. However, league sources tell Iko that Dallas only offered a pair of second-round picks and Houston insisted on three, so the two sides didn’t reach a deal.

As Iko writes, if they do trade Tate, the Rockets would prefer to get a player who could contribute right away, but there was a belief that they could potentially reroute those second-round picks to land that sort of player.

With the trade deadline just over two hours away, the Rockets remain in the market for shooting help and a backup center, Iko reports. Houston traded for Steven Adams last week, but he’s out for the season, so the team wouldn’t mind acquiring a big man who could help in the short term.

Here a few more trade rumors from around the NBA:

According to Iko, the Rockets have received some inquiries on guard Aaron Holiday and forward Jeff Green, but won’t be looking to dump those players for minor returns, since they’ve established roles and have good relationships with head coach Ime Udoka.
Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link) has heard veteran wing Otto Porter mentioned as a possible fallback trade option for the Suns. Toronto agreed to trade Porter to Utah earlier today, but there’s no guarantee the Jazz will keep him. Phoenix has no interest in Bulls center Andre Drummond, however, tweets John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7.
A league source tells Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link) that there has been “not a peep” on Raptors trade candidates Bruce Brown, Chris Boucher, and Gary Trent Jr. so far today. However, it remains possible that will change in the next couple hours.

Scotto’s Latest: Mavs, Washington, Grimes, Pacers, Hornets, Hyland, More

February 8th, 2024 at 9:23am CST by Luke Adams

The Mavericks and Hornets have discussed various P.J. Washington trade concepts that include a future first-round pick from Dallas, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.

According to Scotto, if Charlotte is going to agree to take back Richaun Holmes, who holds a $12.9MM player option for next season, in exchange for Washington, the Hornets want that Dallas first-rounder to be unprotected. The Mavs have resisted that idea so far, Scotto writes, adding that Seth Curry has also been part of those trade discussions between the two teams.

While Scotto doesn’t say that Grant Williams has come up in the trade talks between the Mavs and Hornets, he suggests it wouldn’t be a surprise if that’s the case, since Dallas has talked about Williams with multiple teams already.

In addition to Washington, the Mavs have expressed interest in Raptors wing Bruce Brown and Knicks wing Quentin Grimes, among others, Scotto reports. League sources tell HoopsHype that Dallas explored acquiring Grimes in exchange for a package headlined by Josh Green, but New York turned down the proposal.

Here’s more from Scotto, with just hours to go until Thursday’s trade deadline:

Although Buddy Hield is considered Indiana’s top trade candidate, rival executives think the Pacers might move some of their frontcourt depth, with Obi Toppin and Jalen Smith among the players believed to be available, Scotto writes. Lottery pick Jarace Walker, on the other hand, remains off limits based on what the Pacers are telling other clubs, league sources tell HoopsHype.
The Hornets have expressed interest in Bones Hyland, according to Scotto, who says the Clippers are seeking a pair of second-round picks in exchange for the third-year guard.
Despite some speculation that the Nets are interested in D’Angelo Russell, Brooklyn hasn’t had any “substantive” talks with the Lakers and/or Hawks about getting involved in a potential Dejounte Murray trade to acquire Russell, Scotto reports.
The Pistons and Grizzlies continue to talk about a possible Killian Hayes trade, with second-round draft compensation serving as the sticking point, per Scotto.