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TSN Raptors Reporter

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LAS VEGAS - True to character, Masai Ujiri didn't succumb to some outside pressure to make a big and quick splash in free agency and on Monday, at least from a value standpoint, his patience paid off.

The Raptors will sign former Celtics power forward Jared Sullinger, according to multiple reports and the big man himself over Twitter. They'll use their mid-level exception, roughly $5.6 million, to add him on a one-year, low-risk deal: a bargain in this new NBA economy.

The move is reminiscent of a couple Ujiri used to fortify what turned into a 56-win team last summer: the under-the-radar signings of Cory Joseph and Bismack Biyombo. Toronto hopes it has found another diamond in the rough with the 24-year-old Sullinger.

Like Joseph a year ago, Sullinger became available to the Raptors after his team rescinded their qualifying offer to land a big fish (Boston: Al Horford, San Antonio: LeMarcus Aldridge), making him an unrestricted free agent. With the market beginning to thin out, Ujiri didn't waste time in meeting with the forward on Sunday and agreeing to terms shortly thereafter.

Sullinger comes to Toronto as something of a reclamation project and, like Biyombo before him, he's hoping to turn this make good, short-term contract with the Raptors into a bigger and richer one next summer.

Although he started in 73 of the 81 games he played during his fourth NBA season with Boston, Sullinger saw his playing time go down slightly and averaged 10.3 points, three fewer than the year before.

Whether he starts in the front court with Jonas Valanciunas or comes off the bench behind Patrick Patterson remains to be seen and probably won't be decided until training camp as both players will almost certainly split time at the position. His addition gives Dwane Casey another option and some much needed depth at the four.

Drafted 21st overall by the Celtics in 2012, Sullinger is an intriguing talent and, if nothing else, an interesting fit with Toronto. His strength is on the boards, where he averaged a personal-best 8.3 rebounds last year, despite his inconsistent usage. He's had some success as a mid-range shooter but has struggled beyond the arc, shooting just under 28 per cent over his career. With better shot selection and more looks from the corner, aided by the defensive attention Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan draw in the lane, the hope is that Sullinger can continue to extend his range and become a three-point shooting threat in their system. Around the rim, he uses his strength and high basketball IQ to score and can also make plays with the pass.

Defensively, he's a bit of a mixed bag. He's not especially mobile and, as a result, struggles to guard the pick and roll at times but he's a solid defender in single coverage and comes from a Celtics program that excelled on that end of the floor.

Ujiri is still not done. The Raptors will have a smaller exception, just over $2 million, to use after adding Sullinger and making the DeRozan signing official, likely later this week.

Sullinger is probably not the type of power forward Raptors fans had hoped to see their team add this summer and it wasn't plan A for Ujiri either, to be sure.

Ujiri, like every general manger at this time of year, would have preferred to hit a home run. He was in on Serge Ibaka but Oklahoma City's asking price was substantial (three rotation players in Joseph, Patterson and emerging sophomore Norman Powell, in addition to the ninth-overall pick Toronto used to select Jakob Poeltl, another player they're very high on). They made a run at Hawks all-star Paul Millsap but Atlanta decided not to sell.

As Ujiri has reiterated, as recently as last month, he won't be rushed and he won't be strong-armed into making a move just for the sake of making a move. Acquiring either of those players would have come at a steep cost. Acquiring enough money to make a run at a high profile free agent would have required them to dump assets for no return and, with the cap skyrocketing this summer, most of the players signed contracts their new team could live to regret in a year or two.

Considering the cost, and with players of Sullinger's talent and resume getting more than twice as much on the open market last week, it's a good signing, a smart signing.