HumbleRen wrote:I think letting go of Ochai for RJ would be a pretty bad mistake.
Cheap 3&D guys are hard to come by but if the FO gets the sense that some team will be willing to pay Ochai in the off-season, I’d get it.
If Ochai was moved over RJ, my assumption would be...
1. The Raptors think they can more easily replace him/refresh their cap sheet via a 1st rounder to replace him i.e. the deals around RJ aren't great and...
2. Ochai's lesser salary makes him easier to trade. Beyond the tax implications, any sort of deal around Agbaji is much easier to match with his...$6 million-ish contract? The exact amount eludes me but with the MLE functioning as a trade exception and other teams having a much easier time taking in his money should they see him as a playoff piece/long-term fit, ergo you'll likely have more suitors and I can easily see a contender or a team that thinks they're a contender (Hawks, Celtics if they somehow are a playoff team, Rockets, Cavaliers, Mavericks...though I think they lack a future 1st until the 2030s) trading a future pick for him (Bucks 2027 1st? I doubt that Pelicans 2026 1st is on the table, certainly not without protections).
3. They think they can get RJ to take a paycut/a sweetheart deal under the new CBA. We'll ignore that no one asked Boucher for a similar Canadian cut or that 2027 is projected to have more cap space to throw around.
4. RJ being bigger/broader makes him a lot easier to play as a 3 or even a smaller 4. Ochai is a good defender but he's not otherworldly and his size is a major limitation - even if he is a much better defender than Barrett is or likely will ever be.
5. We have no idea what Ochai's extension is looking like in terms of the talks or the $$$. Big wild card in all this, of course. But one that's really too early in the offseason to make a call with how little we know about said number.
I personally think RJ is the more likely of the two to go but if the best offers you're getting are Kuzma + stuff or Monk straight up, I can see why Bobby "Cap Master" Webster would view Ochai as the more immediate "get out of the tax free" option.
