2015/16 D-League Usage Report: Raptors
The NBA’s relationship with the D-League continues to grow, and this season a total of 19 NBA teams had one-to-one affiliations with D-League clubs. Those NBA organizations without their own affiliates were required to assign players to D-League clubs associated with other NBA franchises. D-League teams could volunteer to take on the assigned players, and if no volunteers emerged, the players were assigned at random.
This significant change from the 2014/15 season came about after the Pacers purchased the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and turned them into their one-to-one partner for the 2015/16 campaign. Other NBA teams have interest in following suit in the years ahead, and the NBA’s ultimate goal for the D-League is for all 30 NBA franchises to have their own D-League squads. You can view the complete list of D-League affiliates here.
We at Hoops Rumors are recapping the D-League-related activity for the 2015/16 campaign for each team and we’ll continue with the Toronto Raptors, whose D-League affiliate is the Raptors 905:
The Raptors made a whopping 47 assignments for the 2015/16 season, sending five players to the D-League for a total of 155 days. Listed below are all the assignments and recalls made by Toronto for the 2015/16 campaign:
- November 13th: Assigned Lucas Nogueira (1st) — Recalled November 21st
- November 13th: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (1st) — Recalled November 29th
- November 24th: Assigned Delon Wright (1st) — Recalled November 27th
- November 27th: Assigned Delon Wright (2nd) — Recalled November 29th
- December 4th: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (2nd) — Recalled December 5th
- December 4th: Assigned Delon Wright (3rd) — Recalled December 5th
- December 7th Assigned Bruno Caboclo (3rd) — Recalled December 7th
- December 7th Assigned Delon Wright (4th) — Recalled December 5th
- December 12th: Assigned Delon Wright (5th) — Recalled December 20th
- December 12th: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (4th) — Recalled December 20th
- December 19th: Assigned Norman Powell (1st) — Recalled December 20th
- December 20th: Assigned Anthony Bennett (1st) — Recalled December 20th
- December 21st: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (5th) — Recalled December 23rd
- December 21st: Assigned Norman Powell (2nd) — Recalled December 23rd
- December 29th: Assigned Norman Powell (3rd) — Recalled January 1st
- December 30th: Assigned Anthony Bennett (2nd) — Recalled January 1st
- December 30th: Assigned Delon Wright (5th) — Recalled January 1st
- January 16th: Assigned Anthony Bennett (3rd) — Recalled January 19th
- January 16th: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (6th) — Recalled January 19th
- January 16th: Assigned Delon Wright (6th) — Recalled January 19th
- January 22nd: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (7th) — Recalled January 26th
- January 22nd: Assigned Norman Powell (4th) — Recalled January 26th
- January 22nd: Assigned Lucas Nogueira (2nd) — Recalled January 26th
- January 26th: Assigned Delon Wright (7th) — Recalled January 27th
- January 26th: Assigned Norman Powell (5th) — Recalled January 27th
- January 26th: Assigned Lucas Nogueira (3rd) — Recalled January 27th
- January 27th: Assigned Anthony Bennett (4th) — Recalled January 30th
- January 27th: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (8th) — Recalled January 30th
- February 2nd: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (9th) — Recalled February 7th
- February 21st: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (10th) — Recalled February 28th
- February 29th: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (11th) — Recalled March 2nd
- March 3rd: Assigned Norman Powell (6th) — Recalled March 4th
- March 3rd: Assigned Lucas Nogueira (4th) — Recalled March 4th
- March 3rd: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (12th) — Recalled March 4th
- March 5th: Assigned Delon Wright (8th) — Recalled March 6th
- March 5th: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (13th) — Recalled March 6th
- March 5th: Assigned Lucas Nogueira (5th) — Recalled March 6th
- March 10th: Assigned Delon Wright (9th) — Recalled March 10th
- March 10th: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (14th) — Recalled March 10th
- March 10th: Assigned Lucas Nogueira (6th) — Recalled March 10th
- March 11th: Assigned Delon Wright (10th) — Recalled March 12th
- March 11th: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (15th) — Recalled March 13th
- March 11th: Assigned Lucas Nogueira (7th) — Recalled March 12th
- March 14th: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (16th) — Recalled March 14th
- March 14th: Assigned Delon Wright (11th) — Recalled March 14th
- March 14th: Assigned Lucas Nogueira (8th) — Recalled March 14th
- March 18th: Assigned Bruno Caboclo (17th) — Recalled March 20th
Here’s how Toronto’s players performed while on assignment to the D-League this season:
- Anthony Bennett: In six appearances Bennett averaged 9.2 points, 3.2 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 17.9 minutes per outing. His shooting line was .339/.250/.786.
- Bruno Caboclo: In 37 appearances Caboclo averaged 14.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 34.3 minutes per contest. His shooting numbers were .403/.335/.727.
- Lucas Nogueira: In 11 appearances Nogueira averaged 9.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in 25.2 minutes per outing. His shooting line was .570/.250/.762.
- Norman Powell: In eight games Powell averaged 24.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists in 39.6 minutes per contest. His shooting numbers were .500/.333/.796.
- Delon Wright: In 15 appearances Wright averaged 17.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.5 assists in 35.7 minutes per night. His slash line was .536/.360/.806.
Raptors Pre-Draft Workouts
- The Raptors held workouts today for Daniel Hamilton (UConn), Kyle Collinsworth (BYU), Perry Ellis (Kansas), James Webb III (Boise State), Guerschon Yabusele (France) and Chinanu Onuaku (Louisville), the team announced.
Elgin Cook Worked Out For Raptors
- Oregon’s Elgin Cook, the 77th-ranked prospect on DraftExpress.com, recently workout for the Raptors and will audition next for the Nets, who are hoping to trade for a pick, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders.
Raptors To Target Shooting, Defensive Toughness
- In a conversation with TSN’s Josh Lewenberg (video link), Raptors head coach Dwane Casey talks about his new contract and about Toronto’s offseason, suggesting that the team will target shooting and defensive toughness this summer.
DeMar DeRozan Reaches Incentives
- As Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders explains, Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan earned $850K in incentives in 2015/16 based on his free throw attempts, assists per game, and Toronto reaching the Eastern Conference Finals. Now that certain bonuses in his contract are considered “likely,” DeRozan’s cap number for his player option next season has increased to $10.35MM. However, that point ultimately figures to be moot, since DeRozan will turn down his option by next Wednesday’s deadline.
Raptors, Dwane Casey Agree To Extension
The Raptors have agreed to a new three-year extension with head coach Dwane Casey, the team officially announced today in a press release. The agreement was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowksi of The Vertical, who noted that the Raptors and Casey “essentially tore up” the remaining year on his previous contract, so the new three-year deal only runs through 2019, rather than 2020.
While at least one report indicated that Casey’s job would have been in jeopardy if the Raptors hadn’t defeated the Pacers in the first round of this year’s playoffs, Toronto ultimately squeezed past Indiana in seven games and did the same against Miami in the second round. The Raptors then became the only team so far to win a game against the Cavs in this year’s postseason, ultimately falling to Cleveland in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals.
On the heels of that playoff run – the most successful in Raptors history – reports surfaced indicating that the team would offer Casey an extension, which GM Masai Ujiri later confirmed. ESPN’s Marc Stein suggested that there was optimism in Toronto about Casey’s new deal getting done by the end of last week.
A longtime assistant coach in Seattle and Dallas, Casey also had a brief stint as the Timberwolves’ head coach before he was hired as the Raptors’ coach for the 2011/12 season. Toronto has increased its win total every year since Casey arrived, going from 23 wins in 2011/12 to a franchise-record 56 this year. Overall, in his five seasons as the Raptors’ head coach, Casey has a 210-184 regular-season record, three playoff appearances, and a 13-18 postseason mark.
Casey’s three-year contract will be worth $18MM, according to Wojnarowski. Prior to the agreement, Stein had wrote that Casey’s deal figured to be similar to the one Terry Stotts received from the Trail Blazers after their playoff run. Stotts, who also had a year left on his contract, agreed to a three-year extension worth approximately $5.5MM per season.
Dave Zarum of Sportsnet.ca first reported that the Raptors and Casey were closing in on an extension agreement.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bismack Biyombo Opts Out Of Contract
June 6th: 10:20pm: Biyombo has officially opted out, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.
May 28th 9:10pm: Raptors center Bismack Biyombo will decline his $2.9MM option for next season and become an unrestricted free agent, sources told ESPN.com’s Marc Stein. Biyombo’s floor in contract negotiations is anticipated to be $15MM annually, thanks to the impending salary-cap increase (Twitter links).
Biyombo’s stock rose dramatically during the Eastern Conference playoffs, when his playing time spiked after Jonas Valanciunas was injured. He averaged 5.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.6 blocks while appearing in every regular-season game, then bumped those averages to 6.2/9.4/1.4 in 20 playoff games.
He had two double-doubles in the Eastern Conference semis against the Heat, including a 17-point, 16-rebound outburst in Game 7. He also had a 26-rebound effort against the Cavaliers in Game 3 of the conference finals.
An Eastern Conference GM told Sean Deveney of The Sporting News earlier this week that Biyombo could command a salary in the $16-17MM annual range, while another said that a contract averaging $20MM per season is a possibility.
Biyombo has been in Toronto for just one season, so the team only holds his Non-Bird rights. That means that, unless the Raptors renounce DeMar DeRozan‘s rights or get creative elsewhere on the roster, there’s virtually no chance that the club can retain Biyombo if he receives offers of $15MM or more per season. The Raptors already have nearly $70MM in guaranteed contracts on their books for next season.
Raptors Host Seven Prospects For Workouts
- The Raptors will have an individual workout for Gonzaga big man Domantas Sabonis today, as Sportsnet’s Michael Grange tweets. Toronto will also be hosting a six-player workout that features Winston Shepard (San Diego State), Jake Layman (Maryland), Damian Jones (Vanderbilt), Diamond Stone (Maryland), and Stephen Zimmerman (UNLV). Brandon Austin, whose workout with the Raptors was previously reported, is also participating today.
- In a weekend mailbag, Doug Smith of The Toronto Star tackles several Raptors-related questions, discussing potential outside free agent targets and predicting the odds of Toronto’s own free agents returning.
Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Toronto Raptors
Plenty of teams around the NBA will have more cap space than they know what to do with this offseason due to the impending leap from $70MM to an estimated $92MM. That’s not the case in Toronto though, where new contract extensions for Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross will help increase the team’s total guaranteed salary to nearly $70MM. All that guaranteed money will make it very difficult for the Raps to find a way to keep both of its marquee free agents — DeMar DeRozan figures to sign for the max, while Bismack Biyombo‘s strong finish to the season could land him a deal in the $15MM-per-year range. Toronto only has Biyombo’s Non-Bird rights, so if the Raptors intend to keep both players, they’ll have to get creative, a challenge GM Masai Ujiri will likely welcome.
See how Toronto’s cap situation looks for 2016/17 as Hoops Rumors continues its offseason salary cap digest series.
Guaranteed Salary
- Jonas Valanciunas ($14,382,023)
- DeMarre Carroll ($14,200,000)
- Kyle Lowry ($12,000,000)
- Terrence Ross ($10,000,000)
- Cory Joseph ($7,315,000)
- Patrick Patterson ($6,050,000)
- Lucas Nogueira ($1,921,320)
- Bruno Caboclo ($1,589,640)
- Delon Wright ($1,577,280)
- Norman Powell ($874,636)
- Total: $69,909,899
Player Options
- DeMar DeRozan ($10,350,000)
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- None
Restricted Free Agents (Qualifying Offers/Cap Holds)
- None
Unrestricted Free Agents (Cap Holds)
- DeMar DeRozan ($15,500,000) — pending player option
- Luis Scola ($3,480,000)
- Bismack Biyombo ($3,376,800)1
- James Johnson ($3,250,000)
- Jason Thompson ($980,431)
- Total: $26,587,231
Other Cap Holds
- No. 9 pick ($2,253,300)
- Nando De Colo ($1,901,900)
- No. 27 pick ($996,700)
- Total: $5,151,900
Projected Salary Cap: $92,000,000
Footnotes:
- Biyombo has declined his player option for 2016/17.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Kalamian Will Remain In Toronto
Raptors assistant Rex Kalamian has turned down offers from the Rockets and Wizards and will remain in Toronto, tweets TNT’s David Aldridge. Kalamian just completed his first season with the Raptors after six years in Oklahoma City. A 20-year veteran, he has also been on the bench with the Clippers, Nuggets, Timberwolves and Kings.
- Iona guard A.J. English has workouts set for this week with the Bulls, Magic and Raptors, Zagoria tweets.