Free Agency & Trades Thread 2 **NOW OPEN**

[Los_29]

Regardless of IQ's performance for the remainder of his contract, I'd criticize the FO for paying more than they should have - there's no way IQ would have gotten that contract as a RFA last year or as a UFA this year. As I've mentioned before, I don't think the Raptors have a single "value contract" on the team - a poor reflection of their FO & cap management.

You can say that about nearly every contract that was signed last offseason. They had IQ projected to get around 30 million a year. He got a tad over that. Also had OG and Suggs making less, they both got more.

IQ would have gotten a 5 % raise 4 year contract (possibly 3+1 PO) in FA, probably around 30M AAV from Orlando (they paid 22M 2+1 PO for KCP so def would have paid more for IQ).

A flat 32.5M deal with a fifth year is not bad at all vs 3 years of control only, first of which is wasted on a tanking team

KCP is another guy that got paid last year. Forgot about him. Last year the market was a lot stronger and as a result, all these guys got paid.

[Gold Dragon]

viewtopic.php?f=415&t=2472072

The Miami Heat have traded Haywood Highsmith and a 2032 second round pick to the Brooklyn Nets in order to get under the tax line. The Nets will also send a conditional second round pick in the 2026 draft to the Heat.


Highsmith had knee surgery earlier this month to repair a meniscus issue and the Heat timeline for his return was eight to ten weeks.


Highsmith is on a $5.6 million contract for the 2025-26 season that the Nets were able to absorb using their cap space.


During 74 games last season, Highsmith averaged 6.5 points and 3.4 rebounds for the Heat.

Via Shams Charania/ESPN

With the following factors:

1) few teams using cap space to sign free agents because free agents extend and move via trade
2) the aprons making teams more disciplined with RFAs and signing their own free agents
3) the tax payments dropping because of few teams being over the tax and those that are over are only small amounts over

The value of cap space and the cost of dumping salary has dropped dramatically. By next offseason, I would expect all the teams will be under the 1st apron and 75% of the league will be hovering right around the tax line. The tax payments will be a rounding error.

[Tripod]

Since cap space is being talked about, I saw this...

From 2013-14 to 2019-20, the league went through a period with an average of 17 teams per year with cap space. Since then, the average has decreased to 5.1 teams.

The league has changed

[ForeverTFC]

viewtopic.php?f=415&t=2472072

The Miami Heat have traded Haywood Highsmith and a 2032 second round pick to the Brooklyn Nets in order to get under the tax line. The Nets will also send a conditional second round pick in the 2026 draft to the Heat.


Highsmith had knee surgery earlier this month to repair a meniscus issue and the Heat timeline for his return was eight to ten weeks.


Highsmith is on a $5.6 million contract for the 2025-26 season that the Nets were able to absorb using their cap space.


During 74 games last season, Highsmith averaged 6.5 points and 3.4 rebounds for the Heat.

Via Shams Charania/ESPN

With the following factors:

1) few teams using cap space to sign free agents because free agents extend and move via trade
2) the aprons making teams more disciplined with RFAs and signing their own free agents
3) the tax payments dropping because of few teams being over the tax and those that are over are only small amounts over

The value of cap space and the cost of dumping salary has dropped dramatically. By next offseason, I would expect all the teams will be under the 1st apron and 75% of the league will be hovering right around the tax line. The tax payments will be a rounding error.

I was making this point earlier in the year when TWO was all in on "following the Presti model". The league has really devalued cap space. As you point out, they've made teams disciplined and we're seeing less "bad contracts". They've also made it harder for teams looking to compete to acquire players so there is less value in simply dumping players. And on top of all this, they now make teams spend at least 90% of the cap by the start of the season and made the MLE a TPE, essentially making cap space meaningless in season.

[JB7]

viewtopic.php?f=415&t=2472072

The Miami Heat have traded Haywood Highsmith and a 2032 second round pick to the Brooklyn Nets in order to get under the tax line. The Nets will also send a conditional second round pick in the 2026 draft to the Heat.


Highsmith had knee surgery earlier this month to repair a meniscus issue and the Heat timeline for his return was eight to ten weeks.


Highsmith is on a $5.6 million contract for the 2025-26 season that the Nets were able to absorb using their cap space.


During 74 games last season, Highsmith averaged 6.5 points and 3.4 rebounds for the Heat.

Via Shams Charania/ESPN

With the following factors:

1) few teams using cap space to sign free agents because free agents extend and move via trade
2) the aprons making teams more disciplined with RFAs and signing their own free agents
3) the tax payments dropping because of few teams being over the tax and those that are over are only small amounts over

The value of cap space and the cost of dumping salary has dropped dramatically. By next offseason, I would expect all the teams will be under the 1st apron and 75% of the league will be hovering right around the tax line. The tax payments will be a rounding error.

I was making this point earlier in the year when TWO was all in on "following the Presti model". The league has really devalued cap space. As you point out, they've made teams disciplined and we're seeing less "bad contracts". They've also made it harder for teams looking to compete to acquire players so there is less value in simply dumping players. And on top of all this, they now make teams spend at least 90% of the cap by the start of the season and made the MLE a TPE, essentially making cap space meaningless in season.

It is also extremely difficult in managing player relationships when teams try to create cap space. See the Lakers situation right now with Lebron. It is just much easier to use up most of the allowable space, and then trade contracts for players in today's NBA.

Also, think about the difficulties the Raps had post championship, trying to create space to sign Giannis, if he became available.

[ForeverTFC]

viewtopic.php?f=415&t=2472072



With the following factors:

1) few teams using cap space to sign free agents because free agents extend and move via trade
2) the aprons making teams more disciplined with RFAs and signing their own free agents
3) the tax payments dropping because of few teams being over the tax and those that are over are only small amounts over

The value of cap space and the cost of dumping salary has dropped dramatically. By next offseason, I would expect all the teams will be under the 1st apron and 75% of the league will be hovering right around the tax line. The tax payments will be a rounding error.

I was making this point earlier in the year when TWO was all in on "following the Presti model". The league has really devalued cap space. As you point out, they've made teams disciplined and we're seeing less "bad contracts". They've also made it harder for teams looking to compete to acquire players so there is less value in simply dumping players. And on top of all this, they now make teams spend at least 90% of the cap by the start of the season and made the MLE a TPE, essentially making cap space meaningless in season.

It is also extremely difficult in managing player relationships when teams try to create cap space. See the Lakers situation right now with Lebron. It is just much easier to use up most of the allowable space, and then trade contracts for players in today's NBA.

Also, think about the difficulties the Raps had post championship, trying to create space to sign Giannis, if he became available.

There 's still value to taking cap into FA if you have a target, though to your point less players make it to FA now. Where I argue cap space has little value is for tanking teams looking to take on bad contracts for assets - what Presti did during his last rebuild. It's pretty much impossible to follow that route of team building under the current structure.

[Thaddy]

A real rebuild is easier in this type of market. If we had tanked after Barnes and taken picks for our assets we would look really good now. We could have overpaid in FA for players of IQ and Ingram's caliber and had better pick assets to build with.

[Los_29]

A real rebuild is easier in this type of market. If we had tanked after Barnes and taken picks for our assets we would look really good now. We could have overpaid in FA for players of IQ and Ingram's caliber and had better pick assets to build with.

The past four drafts have not been great. In fact, one of them was dreadful. High probability we would be worse off.

Picks that were offered were not good as well.

And what players could we have overpaid for?

[Tripod]

A real rebuild is easier in this type of market. If we had tanked after Barnes and taken picks for our assets we would look really good now. We could have overpaid in FA for players of IQ and Ingram's caliber and had better pick assets to build with.

That's pure speculation.

We were offered 3 late 1sts for OG from NY and all were not even guaranteed. Would it matter a bunch if we had a few more Walter/Dick prospects vs having IQ and RJ? No.

Even with Siakam...we got those picks and people bitched. And we turned 2 of them into Walter and Ochai...useful young guys. But having 1/2 more instead of having BI....naw, give us the much better player.

The only thing the picks do is give you an outside chance of getting a "star". And guess what, if we landed that guy by luck...say Paolo...his max contract would be kicking in next year so we would still be a cap team in a similar situation. Plus, he has lots of the same flaws that RJ is ripped for.

Reality is, only Wemby is a legit #1 guy out of the last 3 drafts so far and that's due to his physical freak of nature...just look at his .339 3pt shooting.

Just accept that our record doesn't match our ability due to the tanking and not having Ingram play yet. The record catches up this coming year.

And hell, we still have tons of youth. Only Temple is in his 30's. Yak 29, then BI 27, then IQ and Manu 26. Everyone else is younger.

We have a youth but experienced group. Give them time to actually play together. We saw defense become an identity last year. You can bring defense and intensity every night. Let's see how this blends together this year and adjust as needed.

[WuTang_CMB]

Read on Twitter

[Raptorfan2012]

Read on Twitter

And we have been trying very heard to offload RJ Barrett. Let's just do it.

RJ to the Kings for Monk and Carter. Add whatever minor assets needed to get it done.

[ArthurVandelay]

Read on Twitter

And we have been trying very heard to offload RJ Barrett. Let's just do it.

RJ to the Kings for Monk and Carter. Add whatever minor assets needed to get it done.

I don’t believe Raptors want Monk. Thats the hold up. Going to need more teams. September 7 will be interesting as guys who were traded will be permitted to have their salaries aggregated. Simons in Boston comes immediately to mind

[Raptorfan2012]

Read on Twitter

And we have been trying very heard to offload RJ Barrett. Let's just do it.

RJ to the Kings for Monk and Carter. Add whatever minor assets needed to get it done.

I don’t believe Raptors want Monk. Thats the hold up. Going to need more teams. September 7 will be interesting as guys who were traded will be permitted to have their salaries aggregated. Simons in Boston comes immediately to mind

Monk is a much better fit for us than RJ; a shooter that we can play next to Scottie, BI, and Jak. Carter is a decent back up PG behind IQ. IMO pretty good value for RJ.

[causal_fan]

And we have been trying very heard to offload RJ Barrett. Let's just do it.

RJ to the Kings for Monk and Carter. Add whatever minor assets needed to get it done.

I don’t believe Raptors want Monk. Thats the hold up. Going to need more teams. September 7 will be interesting as guys who were traded will be permitted to have their salaries aggregated. Simons in Boston comes immediately to mind

Monk is a much better fit for us than RJ; a shooter that we can play next to Scottie, BI, and Jak. Carter is a decent back up PG behind IQ. IMO pretty good value for RJ.

Except for FT, RJ shot better than Monk last year - so why is Monk a shooter we can play and RJ not?

[mihaic]

Read on Twitter

And we have been trying very heard to offload RJ Barrett. Let's just do it.

RJ to the Kings for Monk and Carter. Add whatever minor assets needed to get it done.

Monk's shooting % is worse than Barrett, and we need to add assets?

[deeps6x]

Read on Twitter

And we have been trying very heard to offload RJ Barrett. Let's just do it.

RJ to the Kings for Monk and Carter. Add whatever minor assets needed to get it done.

Monk's shooting % is worse than Barrett, and we need to add assets?

They are adding Carter to make up for RJ being a better shooter then Monk. But it won't happen. They seem to be too attached to Carter.

[Kingsway_fan]

Rather stick with our roster and see how they perform, before making any trades...

[bobbyp3588]

Until I hear that RJ is officially on the move, I won’t believe for one second that he’s even been in trade conversations.
For idiotic reasons that are beyond me, a large percentage of posters on this board want to move off of RJ so they’ve been more than accepting of these bs rumours.
Fact of the matter is that RJ is essential to all the future success we will or will not have. He’s not just some player, he’s a hometown prodigy who wants to be here over everything else and his father is a local legend in charge of Canada Basketball.
Canadian ballers wanting to play for the Raps is essential to our future success. If the FO plays its cards well, we’ll be contending yearly from 2030 onwards with a constant Canadian-centric roster.
Being short-sighted where RJ is concerned could jeopardize this.
Turning RJ into a disgruntled former Raptor is a look we can’t afford. Provided we ever hope to challenge again, anyway.
Gots to play the long game.

[Tofubeque]

Read on Twitter

How about the other Malik? Get ‘er done Bobby

[HangTime]

Regardless of IQ's performance for the remainder of his contract, I'd criticize the FO for paying more than they should have - there's no way IQ would have gotten that contract as a RFA last year or as a UFA this year. As I've mentioned before, I don't think the Raptors have a single "value contract" on the team - a poor reflection of their FO & cap management.

Agreed

-You don't know that, a few teams could have offered him a contract with raises for us to match,
-that could of changed the way we drafted in 2024, but the draft comes before free agency. So we gave him a slightly larger amount, and it's flat, so essentially a sliding value, eating less of the cap % each year.

It's not as bad as you're making it out to be.

Something I'd like to think, that it show a sign of goodwill and all these other FAs might get jelous and feel "betrayed" by thier by thier current teams, or they're reluctantly over paid.