Jul 6, 2015
Joseph to be more than token Canadian
In agreeing to terms with Pickering, Ontario native Cory Joseph om Sunday, Masai Ujiri fulfilled a promise he's made repeatedly. But make no mistake - the Raptors were never intending to add a Canadian player just for the sake of having a Canadian player.
TORONTO - In agreeing to terms with Pickering, Ontario native Cory Joseph late Sunday night, Masai Ujiri fulfilled a promise he's made repeatedly since taking over as Raptors president and general manager.
"There is no doubt in my mind, during my time, even if my time is short, there will be a Canadian playing for the Toronto Raptors, 100 per cent," said Ujiri - this most recent vow coming at a Canadian basketball speakers forum back in March. "It's something we think about every day, it's something we study - the guys in the NBA, the ones outside the NBA, the younger kids, the kids in college, the kids playing overseas. We're just waiting for that one to come."
That day has arrived, as Ujiri knew that it would, but Joseph's passport was not driving force in his highly anticipated homecoming.
The Raptors were never intending to add a Canadian player just for the sake of having a Canadian player. Their prerequisites were as follows: first, that person would require the mental makeup to manage the pressures of playing at home - the media demand, the questions, the distractions - but most importantly, they would need to be good enough to justify their role on the team.
Joseph, a player the Raptors have had their eye on for some time, checks both of these boxes.
Toronto will make it official on Thursday (when the league's moratorium period is lifted and the salary cap is set for next season), signing the 23-year-old point guard to a four-year deal worth $30 million US, according to multiple reports.
At $7.5 million annually, he'll get a significant bump in salary, having earned just over $5 million in total during his first four years in the league. Even in today's changing NBA landscape with a rising cap, his contract is on the high end for a backup point guard. However, the Raptors see him as more than that.
Rebuffed in a couple recent attempts to trade for Joseph, Toronto waited San Antonio out. After coming to an expensive agreement with LaMarcus Aldridge and locking up Kawhi Lenard, Danny Green and Tim Duncan, the Spurs reluctantly renounced his rights and Ujiri wasted no time in scooping him up.
The Raptors, like Gregg Popovich before them, became enamoured with Joseph's work ethic, approach and commitment to growing his game.
He's come a long way since leaving home to chase his hoop dreams south of the border at the age of 17. From Findlay Prep in Las Vegas to the University of Texas to the NBA - drafted 29th overall by the Spurs in 2011 - Joseph has quietly developed under one of the most respected programs professional sports has to offer. He made eight trips to the D-League over his first two seasons, once at his own request while fully embracing the opportunity to learn from Popovich and play behind Tony Parker. Now, Ujiri is betting he's ready to take the next step, that the defensive chops and play making ability he showed in part-time duty will translate, and even continue to grow in a larger role.
He averaged 6.8 points and 2.4 assists, logging 18 minutes per contest last season, but took his game to another level while filling in for the injured Parker, recording 13.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists on 56 per cent shooting in 14 starts.
Gone are Greivis Vasquez - traded to Milwaukee on draft night - and Sixth Man of the Year winner Lou Williams, who agreed to a three-year, $21 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday. Williams is a talented scorer coming off a very good season in Toronto - his first and last - but Ujiri is taking his team in a different direction and this latest signing is another indication that defence remains the Raptors' biggest priority.
More often than not, Joseph should be the first guard off Toronto's bench, absorbing most of Vasquez's minutes behind Kyle Lowry and some of Williams's playing alongside the All-Star point guard. He will assist in the tutelage of rookie Delon Wright - the team's 20th-overall selection in last month's draft - like Parker once did for him.
The Raptors will almost certainly waive the non-guaranteed contract of Luke Ridnour - acquired from Oklahoma City for that purpose - prior to the July 10 deadline, freeing up just over $2 million. They don't have much more to spend in free agency - perhaps as much as $4 million, if they maximize their space - but the offseason is young and there is still work to be done. With holes to fill in the frontcourt and expendable assets to dangle in the trade market (Terrence Ross, James Johnson and four first-round picks over the next two years), the Raptors roster is not a finished product as currently constructed.
Joseph is poised to become the second Canadian-born player to suit up for the Raptors and the first to do so in a prominent role, following in the footsteps of Jamaal Magloire, who spent his final NBA season with Toronto. That, in and of itself, is a compelling story but Joseph's homecoming will be a result of what he's made himself into, rather than where he's from.