With the Raptors mired in another losing streak and sitting 11 games under .500, now a nearly insurmountable 6.5 games out a playoff spot, much of the talk among fans and observers is about what the Raptors have to do to improve, specifically in the short term.
Much of the talk is about what moves have to be made. But if you ask me, the real concern for a team at a delicate stage of a rebuilding process should be more about what moves have to be avoided.
More than any game related performance or story, the talk of the town this past week has been about what the Raptors rotation will look like when the season opens up against the Pacers on Halloween night. The spark for the discussion came earlier this week when Dwane Casey mentioned that he planned to use the last few pre-season games to pare down his rotation in preparation for the regular season, and that he’s planning on using a more traditional eight-man rotation that could expand to nine or possibly 10 on some nights.
Casey did add that a lot of his game to game decisions will be based on matchups (ie- Aaron Gray getting playing time against bigger centres), but if and when the Raptors coach does decide to cut down his rotation to eight or nine men, the hard part of having a deeper roster at his disposal will come into play, as Casey will surely have some tough calls to make.
Let’s examine some of those upcoming decisions.
With Jose Calderon out of the picture, does Amir Johnson become the main amnesty target for the Raptors?
The 2012 deadline for NBA teams to use the amnesty provision has passed, and it appears safe to assume that the Raptors elected not to utilize the option, meaning they will still have the ability to amnesty one of their pre-lockout contracts next July.
On Thursday night, I wrote about where the acquisition of Kyle Lowry leaves the Raptors. The major component of that post was a look at the point guard situation in Toronto, where Lowry joined Jose Calderon and restricted free agent Jerryd Bayless.
So much for that, as on Friday, the Raptors pulled their qualifying offer (roughly $4 million) to Bayless, officially making the 23-year-old guard an unrestricted free agent. The biggest difference, of course, is that the Raptors no longer have the option to match any offers for Bayless. If he and another team come to an agreement on a contract, he becomes an ex-Raptor.
Between Bryan Colangelo referring to the upcoming summer as an “exciting and active” off-season and recent reports/rumours linking the Raptors with the likes of Steve Nash and Jeremy Lin, Raptors fans have become rightfully anxious to get the 2012 off-season underway.
While the May 30th Draft Lottery, the Draft itself and free agency are the obvious talking points for fans and media alike, I’ve been quietly wondering how, if at all, the amnesty clause might come in to play for Toronto this summer.
