This past weekend, the Toronto Raptors got their core back.
Kyle Lowry comes back with a guaranteed $90 M for 3 years, with a supposed $10 M extra in incentives. I love the term that Masai got KLow back for, especially since he'll be 34 by the time his 3 year contract is over. He'll be off the books in 2020, and that'll give us extreme cap space for that off season.
Check out Kyle's announcement on Player's Tribune! It's quite touching. Toronto is home.
Serge Ibaka also agreed to re-joining the Raptors for 3 years, 65 M! An amazing deal for a good, versatile scorer, rebounder, and defender.
You would have to know that Masai is clearly not done with his work this off-season. After a heart breaking loss of PJ Tucker, I think the Raptors need to find a wing defender that can replace the prowess and tenacity of PJ. We also have question marks with our other core pieces: Cory Joseph alleged was brought up in trade discussions, as did Demarre Carroll and Jonas Valanciunas! To me, the odd men out are DC and JV. DC is just getting too old and too skinny to be the defender that we need, and JV is too slow footed to keep up with the pace and space offense that's trending in the NBA. I'm looking for those two assets to be dealt, perhaps for merely nothing or draft picks to save on the tax! If not, do we keep this core and have another crack at it? Do our young guys: Bruno Caboclo, Jakob Poeltl, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet get into the rotation? Do the Raptors have enough assets to entice another team via trade?
There as so so so so so many questions yet unanswered! It's OK, we're only 4 days into free agency :p It's nice to speculate though!
What do you guys think about the Raptors situation? There's so much craziness that is happening in the league! Let me know if you want me to discuss and post other NBA news below! Don't forget to comment, upvote and resteem :)
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