Raptors Salary Cap Situation (and planning for the future)

[SkywalkerAC]

Was Weezy on a (non-guaranteed) 2-way (that's what they said in some Daily Hive article)? Or is there a chance we retain him on a 2-way?

[DanH]

Was Weezy on a (non-guaranteed) 2-way (that's what they said in some Daily Hive article)? Or is there a chance we retain him on a 2-way?

He was not on a 2-way. He was on a NG regular NBA contract.

I think we could sign him to a 2-way but whether he would want that I'm not sure.

[SkywalkerAC]

So...how much cap space are we looking at this season (assuming we decline Bruce's option)? And will we have this kind of room to swing for it again any time soon?

[DanH]

So...how much cap space are we looking at this season (assuming we decline Bruce's option)? And will we have this kind of room to swing for it again any time soon?

Right now, assuming we decline Brown, but keep Quickley's cap hold on the books (to use cap room before re-signing him), and otherwise let our free agents walk (Gary, Nwora, Olynyk), we would have:

$93.5M committed to 8 players (including Quickley and his hold)
Another ~4M for the Pacers draft pick depending on where they land
Another minimum salary for our 2nd rounder
And then two more minimum salary slot cap holds to fill out the roster

That makes 101M committed and ~40M in cap room (141M projected salary cap).

The max RFA contract is 35.25M. Max offer for a 7-9 year player (typical UFA) is 42.3M.

This all assumes we don't keep our own pick. If we end up in the 1-6 range, that's an additional cap hit of 7.5M-12.5M, replacing a minimum cap hold of 1.2M. So 6.3M to 11.3M less cap space.

For future years, need to assume some stuff. Let's say we lose the pick this year, and our only long term re-sign this year is Quickley, at a starting salary of 23M, then next summer (2025) we have:

122.2M for 6 players (Scottie, Jak, IQ, RJ, Gradey, Agbaji)
Another ~4M or so for the Pacers pick from this upcoming draft
A 2nd year minimum salary for the Detroit pick in this draft
Some amount set aside for our own pick in 2025 (say, 10th overall pick, $6M)

That's 138.5M in a 155M cap. Leaves 16.6M. MLE is 14.1M for reference.

So unless we use cap space this summer, probably best to plan to be over the cap until after the Scottie Barnes era is over (which is hopefully a really long time from now).

[SkywalkerAC]

Thanks Dan. Looks like we’ll have 25-30 mill in cap space to spread around (hard to imagine a major star/starting lineup upgrade) on some winning vets.

[SkywalkerAC]

At the deadline we kept two guys with expiring contracts - Gary and Brown. I don't know why people would assume we won't just go with the cap space and sign a guy or two that better fit what we're trying to do, or facilitate some immediate cap relief for tax teams and pick up assets that way. Maybe it makes sense to sign Gary and pick up Brown's option and trade him (e.g. at the draft) but cap space seems like a viable route as well.

[DanH]

Now that Kelly is extended, the Raps currently project to have at about 28M in cap space, if they let Gary and Nwora walk, opt out of Brown, but keep Quickley's cap hold to re-sign him.

If they luck into the top 4 and keep their draft pick, that number would drop by 8-11.5M, depending on the exact pick they land.

Worth noting there is also the room MLE (about 8M) they can use after using cap room. So smaller re-signs like a Nwora could be put off by renouncing his rights and then just using that exception to sign him after using cap room. But a guy like Gary I would expect to be too expensive to keep without using up some cap space.