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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO – Thursday’s trade deadline was a strange one in that, while it certainly wasn’t boring, one team accounted for most of its intrigue as the rest of the league’s contenders mostly watched from the sidelines.

Of the NBA’s top-10 clubs – Golden State, Houston, Boston, Toronto, San Antonio, Minnesota, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Washington and Oklahoma City – only the Cavaliers chose to make significant changes to their roster and, man, did they ever make significant changes to their roster. They overhauled half of it.

Fewer buyers meant many sellers were unable to unload their expendable players, which – when the dust settles – should make for an unusually competitive post-deadline buyout market.

Every year around this time, several rebuilding – or, to put it less diplomatically, tanking – teams waive expensive or unwanted veterans that either didn’t command a return on the trade market or they were acquired in a deal as salary filler. It’s a win-win. The team frees up minutes to play and develop their young guys, presumably brightening their future, while also losing games in the process, an added benefit as the draft lottery approaches. The player still gets paid, but has an opportunity to go and sign with a contender for the stretch run and postseason.

After a quiet deadline, there should be more of those players available this year but there will also be more teams vying for their services.

The Raptors are expected to be one of them, thanks in large part to the small, under-the-radar move they pulled off on Thursday. In exchanging Bruno Caboclo for Malachi Richardson – a financially motivated deal with the Sacramento Kings – Toronto will save just under $1 million for this season, which should allow them to offer a prorated minimum salary contract and fill their vacant 15th roster spot without dipping into the luxury tax.

“We intentionally kept that 15th roster spot open for precisely this,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said on TSN 1050 Radio Friday morning. “We do have the flexibility [and] we gained a little bit more in the deal yesterday.”

“So all the names that will be thrown around over the next week or two, we’ve already started to debate them. We knew it was something that was coming, we have our internal lists, [and] we’ve spoken to a number of people internally to figure out what we need. It’s a long way of saying nothing but it’s also a short way of saying, I imagine we’ll be active in the buyout market.”

It’s no secret that the team’s primary need is shooting, regardless of which position it comes from. While there could be some surprises – guys that are expected to get bought out and aren’t, or a player that unexpectedly becomes available – there are a number of candidates that might be of interest.

The first domino to fall may also be the most intriguing of them, former Raptor Marco Belinelli, who is reportedly finalizing a buyout with the Atlanta Hawks. The Italian guard is shooting 37 per cent from three-point range this season, a hair under his career mark.

Among the other names that could find themselves on the open market, of varying levels of interest, are forwards Ersan Ilyasova (also with the Hawks), Channing Frye, who was just traded from Cleveland to the Lakers, and Joe Johnson, now – and likely only temporarily – a member of the Kings.

And then there’s another Sacramento forward that has been on Toronto’s radar in the recent past: the ever-polarizing Vince Carter. The Raptors offered Carter a contract in free agency last summer so it would stand to reason that they would be interested again if he became available, ‘if’ being the key word.

On Friday, Marc Stein of The New York Times reported that while the Kings would be open to working with Carter on a buyout agreement if he requested it, they’d like for him to finish out the season there. It’s not unreasonable to imagine him playing out his one-year deal with the Kings, despite their 17-36 record – third-worst in the NBA.

According to sources close to Carter, a couple of the reasons he chose Sacramento over Toronto and other interested playoff teams – in addition to the $8 million contract the Kings offered him – was the promise of playing time and the chance to be a mentor, both in the locker room and on the floor. He didn’t go there with the intention of winning or being in the spotlight, as he would be if he returned to the Raptors, and as of last month he was still content with his situation.

Although he may be the most compelling name of the aforementioned buyout candidates, that probably speaks more to the narrative than what he would bring on the court. At 41 and shooting just 39 per cent from the field in this, his 20th NBA season, he would be a questionable fit.

Whoever the Raptors pursue and perhaps add, that player would have to sign off on coming in and filling a sporadic role outside of the team’s regular rotation, at least initially. Dwane Casey has been using a 10-man rotation, which features one of the best benches in the league. They already don’t have enough minutes for Norman Powell, who they like and signed to a $42 million extension before the season. Anyone they bring in would serve as an insurance policy, giving Casey another viable option off the bench.

“We have our starters and we have our bench, we’re playing 10 and sometimes 11 guys,” Webster said. “Where are the extra minutes to be had? So I think we have to be thoughtful about who that player is, what their role is, what their expectations are. Because really we’re trying to build a team that competes in May and deep into June and so we just need to be thoughtful about what the player is. It’s not something where you’re going to have X minutes a night and you’re going to get X number of shots. It might be something where you come in and you play sometimes, you might not play all the time, obviously depending on the calibre of player.”

While the Raptors can’t offer guaranteed playing time and they might not be able to offer as much money as some of their rivals, they’re confident in their sales pitch, and they should be.

This is an unfamiliar position for the franchise. Outside of Jason Thompson, who they signed after he was waived by Golden State following the 2016 deadline, the Raptors have never been active in the buyout market, let alone in the mix for a coveted piece at this time of year. Those types of players generally prioritize winning and target teams with a legitimate path to the Finals, which has always ruled Toronto out, until now.

As of Friday afternoon, the Raptors sit second in the Eastern Conference, breathing down Boston’s neck for first. They’re third in the league in net rating, only trailing the Warriors and Rockets. Their mix of veteran and young talent on top of their revamped style of play is turning heads around the association, and they’ve built one of the NBA’s most well regarded organizations from top to bottom.

“I have no doubt [we can sell players on Toronto],” Ujiri insisted. “There is no issue there. Zero. There is no question in my mind. Whether it’s a winning situation, culture, city, blah, blah, blah. And it’s getting warmer.”

“Yeah,” he joked. For the buyout guys it’s getting warmer!”

While the Raptors can sign a player at any time, free agents need to be waived by their previous team before March 1 to be eligible for the playoffs.