Columnist image

TSN Raptors Reporter

| Archive

TORONTO - Prior to the summer of 2015, the Toronto Raptors had opened 10 consecutive seasons with 10 different starting small forwards.

Joey Graham, Jason Kapono, Jamario Moon, Hedo Turkoglu, Linas Kleiza, Rasual Butler, etc. - the list reads as a who's who of unremarkable NBA journeyman. To say the position had been a revolving door would be an understatement. It was one of the primary factors that prompted Masai Ujiri to go out and make a big splash in free agency that offseason.

The Raptors signed DeMarre Carroll to a four-year, $60 million deal, hoping the veteran three-man would compliment their core of Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas and help take the team to new heights (they were just a couple months removed from being swept out of the first round by Washington). Carroll was coming off of three productive seasons, including a career year in Atlanta. He not only played a position Toronto needed, but filled a role it was missing as one of the league's premier perimeter defenders and an improved three-point shooter.

Carroll would put an end to that streak, becoming the franchise's first small forward to start on opening night in back-to-back seasons in over a decade. However, that's just about the only thing that went according to plan during his forgettable Raptors tenure, which will come to an end before he can make it three straight opening-night starts.

In a long anticipated cost-cutting move, Toronto will send Carroll and the remaining $30.2 million on his contract, along with a lottery-protected first-round pick and a second-round pick - both in next year's draft - to Brooklyn for centre Justin Hamilton, as first reported by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski just after midnight on Sunday morning.

Subsequently, Wojnarowski and Yahoo's Shams Charania reported the Raptors were finalizing a sign-and-trade that would send Cory Joseph to Indiana in exchange for free agent forward C.J. Miles, who would then sign a three-year, $25 million deal with Toronto. The deal is agreed to in principle, sources confirm to TSN, but can't be made official until the Carroll salary dump is completed.

That first domino is not a basketball trade, to be clear. Hamilton, 27, has played for four teams in three NBA seasons, averaging 6.9 points and 4.1 rebounds in just over 18 minutes per game with the Nets last year. He's unlikely to factor into Toronto's rotation and could very well be moved again, or even waived, before the season begins. He's going into the final year of his contract, which will pay him $3 million, and therein lies his value to his new team.

After the signings of Lowry and Serge Ibaka were made official on Friday, the Raptors figured to have roughly $130 million committed to 14 players for the 2017-18 campaign, putting them about $11 million into the luxury tax. Making a dent in that figure and creating more salary-cap flexibility had been a priority for Ujiri and while he was reluctant to part with assets to do so, that's the cost of conducting business.

Currently, the league is flooded with teams looking to unload salary. Only a small handful of clubs possess the coveted cap space to absorb that unwanted money and, with it, the leverage they need to ask for significant compensation. As TSN reported last week, the asking price to take on Carroll's contract was multiple assets, including a first-round pick.

The Carroll signing, back in 2015 - one of the lone blemishes on Ujiri's otherwise spotless Raptors resume - was only a mistake in hindsight. Among the most sought after free agents on the market that summer, he turned down similar offers to come to Toronto - seen as a coup for Ujiri at the time.​ Alas, a series of injuries - most notably a nagging knee ailment that required surgery - limited him to just 26 games in his first season and, even upon his return, he never looked like the same player that helped lead the Hawks to 60 wins. Not for a lack of hard work and professionalism on the part of Carroll, it just didn't work out. 

The difference between what Carroll is owed next season ($14.8 million) and Hamilton's salary could be enough to get Toronto under the tax threshold, or at least get them close to it. Overall, they'll save 27.2 million over the next two years. Meanwhile, at $8.3 million annually - great value for a player of his calibre - Miles will make just over what Joseph was due ($7.63 million). 

While injuries prevented Carroll from living up to expectations, Joseph has been a big part of the Raptors' success since bringing him over from San Antonio that same summer. A hometown kid, who realized his dream of playing for the team he grew up watching, Joseph will be missed but - with a surplus of talent at the point guard position - Miles addresses a more pressing need.

Miles, a 12-year NBA veteran and one of the league's more unheralded two-way players, will likely step into Carroll's vacated role and become the next in a long line of Raptors starting small forwards. He brings a lot of the things they had hoped to get from Carroll - a versatile defender, high IQ offensive player and knockdown three-point shooter (he hit 41 per cent of his threes with the Pacers last season).

In Carroll and Joseph, along with P.J. Tucker and Patrick Patterson - who signed in Houston and Oklahoma City, respectively - ​the Raptors lose a combined 27 years of NBA experience. Miles should help make up for some of the leadership that's walking out the door but there will be added pressure on the young guys to develop in a hurry.

Even if Miles starts alongside DeRozan on the wing, Norman Powell is expected to see an uptick in playing time going into his third NBA season. Delon Wright, also entering year three, will step in for Joseph as the backup point guard behind Lowry, with Fred VanVleet moving up to third on the depth chart. Despite his limited NBA experience, the Raptors are high on Wright and feel confident he's ready for the added responsibility - it's what they drafted him for in June 2015, before Joseph ultimately became available to them.

Rest assured, the Raptors are not done. It's only early July and there's still work to be done - both in terms of managing their payroll and filling out an imbalanced roster. Toronto now employs four centres - which isn't including Ibaka, who's probably best suited at the five - and, even after adding Miles, they're still very thin at the forward positions. They have been shopping Valanciunas and are likely to continue doing so in the hopes of fortifying other needs on the roster, perhaps adding some more shooting at either the three or four. Currently, they also have the taxpayer mid-level exception of $5.2 million to offer in free agency, though they could open up the full $8.4 million MLE by unloading another salary.

"We have to manoeuvre and there are things that we have to do to balance our roster obviously," Ujiri had said on Friday. "That’s never been an issue with us here but we have to do what makes sense. We’ll do our best to balance it."