Raptors Mostly Pass on Free Agency
Slow but Steady, I'm told, wins the Race...
NBA Free Agency came and is mostly over now with the Raptors not adjusting their Core at all. It’s a decision that is being met with a little derision from the Fan base, but mostly with optimism…something Raptors Fans lead the league in. Let’s review their Free Agency quickly and talk about next year a bit as well.
Sandro Mamukelashvili
Bobby Webster decided to bring in the bare minimum in Center depth in a less than Bold move scooping up Sandro from the Spurs who replaced him with suddenly high priced Luke Kornet. Sandro is a ‘small Big’ who pulls the trigger on deep balls like Chris Boucher (remember him?). When they drop it’s All Good, when they don’t…well let’s not talk about that shall we.
At 26 ‘Mamu’ has had a 1 and 1/2 in Milwaukee and 2 and 1/2 years in San Antone. In both places he was an end of bench guy except for the end of 2023 where the Spurs got him in trade and leaned on him for 23 mins per game to close out that season. So let’s focus on that season when he was only 23 years old. 10.8/6.8/2.4 pts/brd/ast However Sandro has put in 2 more seasons since then and his scoring bag has improved with a higher scoring rate per minute last year, his highest ever in fact! So the Raptors can hope for a boost offensively in some bench sets however Sandro will be able to play ‘5 Out’ ball, allowing the coaching staff to experiment with some modern basketball that could really excite and energize Darko’s movement and cut heavy offense. Take the non-shooting center out of the paint and watch cutters run wild!!!
Defensively ‘Mamu’ isn’t really a Center, he’s just bigger than most players so gets put there. He’s not a blocking machine, he’s not Huge to shut down the paint. He’s the modern battler inside trying to make it as tough as possible. Don’t expect amazing defense and you won’t be disappointed.
Who’s Gone?
It’s pretty clear the Raptors don’t have Cap Space anymore for Chris Boucher, which is breaking my heart and souring me on Bobby Webster already. Treboucher is an incredible local Canadian story and clearly better than ‘Mamu’. As time passes it looks like Boucher will be settling for a small contract as well, so Raptors management jumped early here when they probably could have waited and simply kept Chris on the near min contract Mamu got. Chris never seemed on the same page as Darko so moving forward was always questionable as soon as Darko stayed after the 30 win Season was rung up.
Next Year
Next Year starts real real soon actually as Summer league kicks off in days. The Raptors have sent a huge part of their NBA bench to Summer league so expect them to Dominate. Most teams sent prospects and try out guys so seeing Top rookies from last year listed raised my eyebrow in a hurry. It might just be a way to keep the young guys engaged in Basketball during the Summer break, which gets shorter and shorter for players every year.
Starting Five
Most of Raptors Fan hype is around their starting group, which looks down right Juicy on paper. Barnes, Jak, RJ, IQ and incoming Ingram. The Center can score and defend. RJ attacks the Rim very well. BI is a one on one ISO shooting Beast. IQ has one of the best 3 balls above the break in the NBA. Barnes is the Straw that stirs the whole combination to success. Pretty easy to see why Bobby (and the departed Masai) were looking to stand pat this Free Agency. The only thing this Core group lacks is tough Defense with RJ a bit undersized and BI not known for shutting opponents down. Which might be why management drafted SO MANY Defensive studs this Draft!!!
Bench
Dick, Battle, Mamu, Agbaji, Mogbo, CMB, Shead, Ja’Kobe round out Darko’s ‘useable’ bench. Martin, Chomche and Temple will likely spend time elsewhere or have babysitting roles instead of real rotation minutes. There are some really interesting positional fights coming this Pre-Season to see who’s off the Bench first in the rotation.
Dick / Battle
Gradey has the draft pedigree and edge over Battle, who holds the size and possibly even better shooting over Gradey! Yeah I said it! Battle might actually shoot better than Gradey! We’re gonna need some gunslinger shootouts head to head in practice to decide which one is better. It’s that close. I suspect Darko will reach for Gradey first most nights, but Battle’s size and better D could get him up first in some match up situations.
Agbaji / Ja’Kobe
With clear differences in style here the Defense first Raptors will be calling Ochai’s number first almost every night. However Ja’Kobe has put together some good games last year and he’s knowing how to get to his comfy shooting spots much better this second year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ja’Kobe warm up and get plucked off the bench first later in the Season.
Mogbo / Colin MB
Johnathan might be the first victim on this team to a new draft pick this year! Mr. Murray-Boyles is kinda beastly if you don’t know. While Mogbo will easily be in games first at the start of the year, I doubt that’s how the year ends. CMB, if he adjusts well to the size and strength of the NBA as predicted, could take a Lunch here. Watch this one closely!
Shead / Martin
Hands down Shead has this match up in the bag! Or does he??? Martin is a Freak…in a good way! Monster Football star who decided making money in the NBA was gonna be easier. Let’s just say it’s time for him to start making some money!!! I expect Shead to run back up PG at least for the first 1/2 of the season. After that it all depends on how Martin adjusts. If you think Jamal Shead is a tough defender just wait until Martin gets up in some Pre-Season faces! And if you lose the Rock to Martin he isn’t gonna just run it out and lay it up…He’s gonna Big Man it and Slam it Home so you remember your mistake!
Way Too Early Prediction
Ok, Ok, everyone wants to know how this team is going to do. Fair question. I really like the starting 5’s diversity and Fit (no, not the walk in clothes). They are going to need enough time together to LEARN how to play properly together. They can’t last shot second hand grenade it to Ingram when IQ is more that guy. Scottie has to apply that pressure and break things down before RJ go on his cut. There is just a lot for everyone to get use to together so the early season ‘returns’ might not be great. If this Core group is gel’in expect games 10-30 to be a good win streak. After that injuries likely disrupt the Core too much and we have to pull play together with stats to figure if the Core is working together at the end of the season.
The Bench is tighter this year with more experience and more ‘raw talent’ I’d also admit. I expect them to defensively hold the team in more games even if they end up losing close games…a possibility. I don’t expect many bench guys to come on and ‘win games’ for the team…yet. Dick, Ja’Kobe and Battle have the ability to Heat up, but I haven’t seen enough of it to expect to see much of it this year. That really limits the Bench help most nights.
41 - 41
That’s the early Call. Great improvement on a 30 win season. Not enough to challenge in the playoffs.
Great work. Love your analysis and the efforts made to make it easy to follow. Well done, Sir.