Raptors Sign Masai Ujiri To Extension
The Raptors have locked up their team president and their primary basketball decision-maker for a few more years, the team announced today in a press release. Masai Ujiri, who had two years remaining on his previous contract, has signed a multiyear extension with Toronto, according to the announcement.
In addition to Ujiri’s extension, the Raptors also confirmed a couple other pieces of front-office news, announcing that Jeff Weltman has been promoted to general manager, while Bobby Webster will get a new title of assistant GM/VP basketball strategy.
“I am grateful to the Board and Mr. [Larry] Tanenbaum for the opportunity to continue our progress to build the Raptors into one of the top franchises in the NBA,” Ujiri said in a statement. “I’m also excited that Jeff and Bobby are being rewarded for their hard work and valuable contributions to our program. My family thanks the NBA, Raptors players and coaches, staff, Raptors fans, the city of Toronto and Canada for this opportunity. Toronto is home for us.”
Ujiri, who was named the Raptors’ president and general manager back on May 31, 2013, has helped lead the franchise to three consecutive playoff berths, and has overseen the best stretch in franchise history. After failing to top 47 wins in their first 18 years of existence, the Raptors have established a new high in wins in a season for three straight years — the team won 48 games in 2013/14, 49 in 2014/15, and 56 last season. Toronto also earned a spot in the Eastern Conference Finals this past season, after having never previously won a seven-game playoff series.
Under Ujiri’s watch, the Raptors have turned into a contender in the East while also continuing to develop young talent. Bruno Caboclo, Lucas Nogueira, Delon Wright, Jakob Poeltl, and Pascal Siakam are all currently on rookie contracts. Toronto has also retained draftees such as DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas, and Terrence Ross with long-term deals, while adding players like DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph in free agency.
An ESPN report last month first indicated that the Raptors and Ujiri were discussing an extension.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Emmanuel Mudiay, Bruno Caboclo Change Agents
3:31pm: Mudiay isn’t the only young player making the move to Wasserman. According to Marc J. Spears of The Vertical (via Twitter), Raptors forward Bruno Caboclo is also being represented by the agency now. Caboclo has two years remaining on his rookie contract, and will be extension-eligible next summer.
2:45pm: Emmanuel Mudiay has a new agent, according to a report from Sportando (via Twitter). A source tells Sportando that Mudiay, who had been repped by Jason Martin of Rival Sports, has now hired Wasserman for representation.
Mudiay, the seventh overall pick in last year’s draft, is coming off a solid rookie season in Denver in which he averaged 12.8 PPG, 5.5 APG, and 3.4 RPG. Mudiay will need to improve his 36.4% shooting percentage from the floor going forward, but he’s still just 20 years old, and is a key part of a Nuggets roster that features several talented young players.
Because Mudiay is currently playing on his four-year rookie deal, his new representatives shouldn’t have to do much work on the contract front anytime soon. Denver will make decisions on Mudiay’s 2017/18 and 2018/19 team options this offseason and next offseason, but the young point guard won’t be eligible for a contract extension until the summer of 2018.
Assuming the Nuggets exercise Mudiay’s 2017/18 team option before this year’s deadline, which should be a lock, he’ll be in line for a $3,381,480 salary a year from now. He’s set to earn $3,241,800 in 2016/17.
Teams Not Projected To Have 2017 Cap Room
During the first few years of the NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement, many teams had virtually no chance to open up cap room. The salary cap remained in the $58MM range for three straight seasons, making it tricky for teams to get under the cap unless they were in rebuilding mode and shed high-priced players. However, with the cap now up to $94MM+, and projected to blow past $100MM next summer, that’s no longer the case.
This year, 27 of 30 teams used cap room at some point to acquire players, leaving just three teams that never went under the cap. Plenty of those 27 teams have since used up all their space and gone well over the cap, but not many currently project to be over the cap in future seasons.
The NBA’s most recent estimate for the 2017/18 salary cap, released last month, was $102MM. At this point in the league year, cap estimates are usually on the conservative side, so we can probably expect a slightly higher figure next year, but that’s no lock — particularly since the NBA and the players’ union may make changes to the CBA by next July.
Still, even if we assume that the $102MM projection is accurate, there are currently only two teams whose guaranteed salaries for 2017/18 exceed that figure. Here are those teams:
Projected to be over the 2017/18 cap:
- Portland Trail Blazers: Incredibly, no NBA team has more guaranteed money on its 2017/18 books than the Blazers, whose $123.71MM blows away the competition. That total doesn’t include team options for Noah Vonleh and Shabazz Napier, a qualifying offer for Mason Plumlee, or Festus Ezeli‘s non-guaranteed salary. Throw in those figures, plus a few more non-guaranteed salaries, and Portland’s commitments total $140MM+. Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Allen Crabbe, and Evan Turner combine to make $86.58MM in ’17/18.
- Cleveland Cavaliers: Even without a new contract for J.R. Smith, the Cavs already have more than $113MM in guaranteed salaries on their books for ’17/18. LeBron James‘ $33.29MM salary is the biggest number, but the team has four more eight-digit cap hits, ranging from about $10.34MM for Iman Shumpert to $22.64MM for Kevin Love.
While the Blazers and Cavs are the only two teams whose guaranteed salaries for next year exceed $102MM, there are a few more clubs joining them above that threshold when taking into account non-guaranteed salaries, options, and/or qualifying offers. Here are those teams:
Projected to potentially be over the 2017/18 cap:
- Washington Wizards: After locking up Bradley Beal and Ian Mahinmi to expensive long-term deals this summer, the Wizards have $94MM+ in guaranteed salaries on their books for 2017/18. The team will have to add another $2MM+ to that total for Kelly Oubre, and then may need to commit more than $12MM in total to qualifying offers for Otto Porter and Trey Burke, potential restricted free agents.
- Los Angeles Clippers: The Clippers have less than $60MM in guaranteed money on their ’17/18 cap, but that figure doesn’t include either Chris Paul or Blake Griffin, who have early termination options on their contracts. If both players stay in L.A. – either on their current deals or new ones – the Clippers will remain well over the cap.
- Detroit Pistons: This summer, the Pistons maxed out their cap room, then went over the cap to sign Andre Drummond to a max deal. Once the club exercises its 2017/18 option on Stanley Johnson, it will have about $95MM on the cap for next year. Detroit must also account for qualifying offers for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Bullock, along with Aron Baynes‘ $6.5MM player option, taking the team over the projected cap.
- Toronto Raptors: The Raptors’ current guaranteed and non-guaranteed commitments for 2017/18 total about $104MM, and the team figures to pare down that figure to below $102MM before the season begins. Still, if the club intends to keep Kyle Lowry beyond next season, he’ll likely require a big raise on his current $12MM player option, meaning Toronto’s remaining cap space will be chewed up quickly.
There are some other NBA teams that may not be involved in free agency because they’ll need any cap room they may have to re-sign their own players. Despite only currently having $37.3MM in guarantees on their 2017/18 cap, the Warriors may very well fit into this category, since Stephen Curry will be getting a huge raise, and the team will want to retain Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala as well.
Of course, these outlooks could change between now and next July, depending on in-season trades, draft-day deals, and potential CBA changes. For now though, the teams listed above appear to be the least likely candidates to go below the cap next offseason.
Information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.
Latest Contract Details
- The summer contracts the Raptors inked Drew Crawford and Yanick Moreira to are both non-guaranteed deals worth $543,471 apiece, per Pincus (Twitter link). Each deal would become fully guaranteed on December 15th, 2016, provided they made the regular season roster. Toronto currently has $106,077,999 in guaranteed salary already on the books for this campaign.
Raptors, Masai Ujiri Talk Contract Extension
The Raptors and team executive Masai Ujiri are engaged in advanced discussions regarding a contract extension, Marc Stein and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com report. The two sides are nearing a deal, according to the duo’s sources, though the length and terms of the proposed extension are unknown at this time.
Ujiri still has nearly two years remaining on his current pact, a five-year, $15MM arrangement that he inked back in May of 2013. The 46-year-old had won the NBA Executive of the Year Award the prior season for his work with the Nuggets, with Denver having notched an impressive 57 wins that campaign. He has since built Toronto into an Eastern Conference power, with the team reaching the Conference Finals this past season.
Under Ujiri’s watch, Toronto has an overall regular season record of 153-93, plus, three consecutive playoff berths.
Raptors Sign Drew Crawford, Yanick Moreira
After playing for the Raptors last month in Summer League action, guard Drew Crawford and center Yanick Moreira will join the team in training camp this fall. The Raptors announced today (via Twitter) that they have signed both Crawford and Moreira to contracts.
Crawford and Moreira each spent last season overseas, with Crawford playing for Bnei Hertzeliyya in Israel, while Moreira split time between UCAM Murcia (Spain) and Rouen (France). Crawford has also spent some time in the D-League, playing for the Erie BayHawks in 2014/15 after playing his college ball at Northwestern. Moreira spent two seasons at SMU before going undrafted last year.
Neither Crawford nor Moreira will head into camp with great odds of earning a regular-season roster spot for the Raptors. The club already has 14 players with guaranteed contracts, which ostensibly just leaves one opening available.
[RELATED: Toronto Raptors’ depth chart at RosterResource.com]
Besides Crawford and Moreira, Fred VanVleet and Jarrod Uthoff will also be competing for that open roster spot, and the Raptors – who still have two openings on their offseason roster – may bring in a couple more players to join that competition. With Delon Wright sidelined for several months as he recovers from shoulder surgery, VanVleet may be the frontrunner for that 15th spot.
Camp invitees who don’t make the Raptors’ regular-season roster could ultimately end up playing for Toronto’s D-League affiliate.
Sullinger Signing Viewed As One Of Summer's Best Values
- In an Insider-only ESPN.com piece, Jeremias Engelmann and Steve Ilardi outline their picks for the eight best free agent signings of the NBA offseason. Three of those signings were completed by the Warriors, with Kevin Durant, Zaza Pachulia, and David West all making the cut. The Suns‘ addition of Jared Dudley and the Raptors‘ signing of Jared Sullinger are among their other picks.
Community Shootaround: Toronto Raptors
After consecutive first-round playoff exits, the Raptors broke through this spring, winning a pair of postseason series before becoming the only Eastern team to win any games against the eventual-champion Cavaliers. Toronto ultimately fell 4-2 to the Cavs, and the series didn’t really feel that close, but it was still an impressive step forward for a franchise that had never before been on the winning end of a seven-game series.
This offseason, the Raptors were relatively quiet, with the exception of the one massive deal they handed out to DeMar DeRozan. With no cap room to spare after completing that move, Toronto lost veteran free agents Bismack Biyombo, Luis Scola, and James Johnson, ostensibly replacing them with Jared Sullinger and a pair of first-round picks — Jakob Poeltl and Pascal Siakam.
While the Raptors may not be any better on the court in the short term, the team’s roster is one of the youngest in the NBA, with Poeltl and Siakam joining an under-25 group that also includes Jonas Valanciunas, Cory Joseph, Norman Powell, Delon Wright, Lucas Nogueira, and Bruno Caboclo. There may not be a budding mega-star in that group, but Valanciunas and Joseph are already key contributors in Toronto, and Powell and others could join them in that group.
Still, for now, the Raptors don’t appear to have the firepower to match up with the Cavaliers, and the division-rival Celtics gained significant ground this offseason as well. That brings us to today’s discussion question: What do the Raptors have to do to take the next step?
Does the club need to package some of its assets in an effort to trade for another impact player to complement its All-Star backcourt of DeRozan and Kyle Lowry? Is it just a matter of being patient and waiting for young players to improve? Did the team make a mistake this summer by letting Biyombo go and/or giving DeRozan a huge contract? Should Valanciunas and Terrence Ross – both on very affordable deals compared to most of the contracts signed by free agents this summer – have been dangled as trade chips? And will Lowry, who can opt out in 2017, be around for the long term?
Take to the comments section below to share your opinions on the Raptors. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Six Free Agents Signed Five-Year Contracts
The NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement is designed to give teams certain benefits when it comes to re-signing their own free agents. Many players who reach free agency, for instance, are permitted to get 7.5% annual raises from their own teams, while they can only get 4.5% raises from another team. More notably, Bird rights free agents can sign five-year contracts with their own teams, but can only go up to four years with other clubs.
In some cases, that extra year doesn’t make much of a difference. Al Horford left Atlanta for Boston and signed a four-year contract with the Celtics, even though there were reports suggesting the Hawks were open to going to five years (albeit not quite for the max). Kevin Durant signed with the Warriors on a two-year contract that he’ll likely opt out of after the first year in order to maximize his future earnings.
Still, for at least a handful of players, that five-year contract appears to have played a part in their decisions to return to their own teams. As our Free Agent Tracker shows, six free agents signed five-year deals this year, and all six of those contracts were worth at least $85MM. Three of them were maximum-salary pacts.
Here are those five-year contracts, which will run through the 2020/21 season:
- Mike Conley (Grizzlies): Five years, $152,605,578 (partial guarantee in year five)
- DeMar DeRozan (Raptors): Five years, $137,500,000 (player option in year five)
- Andre Drummond (Pistons): Five years, $127,171,313 (player option in year five)
- Bradley Beal (Wizards): Five years, $127,171,313
- Nicolas Batum (Hornets): Five years, $120,000,000 (player option in year five)
- Evan Fournier (Magic): Five years, $85,000,000 (player option in year five)
Although Conley drew significant interest from the Mavericks, he was always a favorite to return to the Grizzlies, and none of the other five players on this list were seriously linked to another suitor, which is interesting.
Drummond and Beal were restricted free agents who got max deals, so there was never any suspense about their destinations, but plenty of teams would have been interested in prying away DeRozan from the Raptors, Batum from the Hornets, or Fournier from the Magic. The fact that those players’ teams were willing to offer five years likely made negotiations much simpler, since no rival suitor could offer that fifth year.
A five-year contract provides additional long-term security for free agents, and also gives the team the opportunity to give the player some agency as well. In four of the six deals listed above, the contract features a fifth-year player option.
That means DeRozan, Drummond, Batum, and Fournier have a safety net for that 2020/21 season — if they’re still playing at a high level at that point, it might make sense to opt out and sign a new longer-term contract. If their production has slipped, or if they’re battling injuries, they’ll have the option of remaining in their current contract and collecting a big pay check in that fifth year.
The ability to offer an additional year to their own free agents hasn’t always prevented teams from losing top-tier players on the open market, but there are still plenty of instances where that fifth year seems to make a difference. As the CBA opt-out date nears and the NBA and NBPA explore potential changes to their current agreement, it makes sense for this aspect of the CBA to remain unchanged. That extra long-term security may not appeal to every marquee free agent, but it does give a player’s current team a leg up, which is crucial if the league is worried about potential imbalance.
Free Agent Spending By Division: Atlantic
Over the course of this week, we’ve been breaking down 2016 NBA free agent spending by division, examining which teams – and divisions – were the most active this July.
These divisional breakdowns won’t present a full picture of teams’ offseason spending. Some notable free agents, including LeBron James, remain unsigned, so there’s still money out there to be spent. Our lists also don’t include money spent on this year’s first- and second-round picks or draft-and-stash signings. There are a few free agent names missing in some instances as well, since those deals aren’t yet official or terms haven’t been reported.
Still, these closer looks at divisional spending should generally reveal how teams invested their money in free agency this summer, identifying which clubs went all-out and which ones played it safe.
With the help of our Free Agent Tracker and contract info from Basketball Insiders, we’ll focus today on the Atlantic division. Let’s dive in…
1. New York Knicks
- Total money committed: $164,387,929
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $153,474,723
- Largest expenditure: Joakim Noah (four years, $72,590,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Courtney Lee (four years, $48,003,340)
- Lance Thomas (four years, $27,549,950)
- Mindaugas Kuzminskas (two years, $5,773,035)
- Brandon Jennings (one year, $5,000,000)
- Notes:
- Sasha Vujacic will earn a $1,410,598 salary, but the Knicks will be on the hook for just $980,431 of that total, with the NBA picking up the rest of the bill.
- The exact terms of reported deals for Chasson Randle and J.P. Tokoto aren’t yet known, so they haven’t been included here.
- The Knicks also signed Willy Hernangomez, but he was a draft-and-stash player, rather than a free agent, so his deal isn’t included here.
- The fourth year of Thomas’ deal, worth $7,583,975, is fully non-guaranteed, contributing significantly to the gap between the team’s total money and guaranteed money committed.
2. Toronto Raptors
- Total money committed: $146,025,440
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $143,228,000
- Largest expenditure: DeMar DeRozan (five years, $137,500,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Jared Sullinger (one year, $5,628,000)
- Notes:
- The Raptors were one of just three teams that didn’t go under the cap this summer, so their free-agent expenditures came using Bird rights (DeRozan), the mid-level exception (Sullinger), and the minimum-salary exception (other signees).
3. Boston Celtics
- Total money committed: $130,306,661
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $122,306,661
- Largest expenditure: Al Horford (four years, $113,326,230)
- Other notable signings:
- Tyler Zeller (two years, $16,000,000)
- Notes:
- Gerald Green will earn a $1,410,598 salary, but the Celtics will be on the hook for just $980,431 of that total, with the NBA picking up the rest of the bill.
- The second year of Zeller’s deal, worth $8MM, is fully non-guaranteed, creating the gap between the team’s total money and guaranteed money committed.
4. Brooklyn Nets
- Total money committed: $78,488,356
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $74,963,953
- Largest expenditure: Jeremy Lin (three years, $36,000,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Trevor Booker (two years, $18,375,000)
- Justin Hamilton (two years, $6,000,000)
- Luis Scola (one year, $5,500,000)
- Greivis Vasquez (one year, $4,347,826)
- Randy Foye (one year, $2,500,000)
- Notes:
- If offer sheets for Allen Crabbe ($74MM+) and Tyler Johnson ($50MM) hadn’t been matched by the Blazers and Heat, respectively, the Nets likely would have been the Atlantic’s highest-spending team.
- Anthony Bennett, Joe Harris, Beau Beech, Yogi Ferrell, and Egidijus Mockevicius all have contracts that include some non-guaranteed money.
5. Philadelphia 76ers
- Total money committed: $57,346,160
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $44,220,000
- Largest expenditure: Jerryd Bayless (three years, $27,000,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Gerald Henderson (two years, $18,000,000)
- Sergio Rodriguez (one year, $8,000,000)
- Notes:
- The totals above don’t include the Sixers’ previously-reported agreement with Cat Barber, which has not been made official.
- The Sixers also signed Dario Saric, but he was a draft-and-stash player, rather than a free agent, so his deal isn’t included here.
- The second year of Henderson’s deal, worth $9MM, is fully non-guaranteed, contributing significantly to the gap between the team’s total money and guaranteed money committed.