They Better be Right About This...

Last night without Kawhi Leonard, the Toronto Raptors took 38 threes in Minnesota and only made 10. If you take out Jacoby Walter and Emmanuel Quickley and everyone else, they went two for 22. Kawhi's knee is swelling. The backup center Nate Biddle is out with a fracture in his foot. So the noise is already setting in. Go get help. Go make a trade. Go sign a player. You have an open roster spot. But realistically, they cannot right now. Toronto's less than a million dollars away from the first apron making a trade really difficult to negotiate and making even a minimum signing literally impossible which means especially in the short term the next guy that can come up and actually help this roster isn't coming via trade or signing or anything like that they are coming up from Mississauga and this week the Raptors 905 went out and got a whole new group a draft pick who can fill it up a national champion a shooter from Ajax a seven foot five center they gave up two draft picks for that's been a familiar name for Raptors fans over the past few months and they better be right about the moves that they made but let me first re-emphasize how important this is specifically for this year because most of the time people just ignore the Raptors 905 and just leave it as something in the background but this season when the Toronto Raptors traded for Kawhi Leonard this summer they took back more salary than they sent out, and that triggered the hard cap at the first apron. That line is $209 million, and it doesn't move for the whole season. The Raptors pay their players $201.2 million in actual salary, but the apron counts for bonuses as well, even the unlikely ones. RJ Barrett, who has a $3.6 million All-Star and All-NBA bonuses, Immanuel Quickley has a $2.5 million bonus, and Jakob Poeltl has a bonus of $500,000. Add it all up, you get $208.1 million. So the Raptors have a hard limit right now at $209 million, and that is the first apron. They are currently working at an operating rate, you know, the contract amounts with all these bonuses at $208 million. So you can't sign a player, especially right now before the contracts are prorated later into the season, but you can do some wiggle room out there with your Raptors 905 players. There is a little wrench thrown into this, as the tax line and the apron are almost $9 million apart, and Toronto's sitting right in that gap. They're a little bit more than the $1 million over the tax, and trimming the salary late in the year could save about $1.6 million against it. So they're stuck between two lines right now. They're too expensive to dodge the tax by accident, and they're too close to the first apron to sign anyone new. And the trade chips are a little bit thinner than most would think, as the Raptors have already moved two first-round picks and four second-round picks, and they have two tradable firsts and three tradable seconds left. And as someone that's been pretty adamant about not trading R.J. Barrett, especially with the performance he's had to start off this season, it makes it a little bit tougher for this team to really make moves. And that wall is the reason why the Toronto Raptors are carrying 14 players rather than 15. Jayden Bradley got the last roster spot because he was the only player in the league who fit under the apron and still got them to 14. The other option was holding 13 players, keeping Jayden Bradley at that two-way contract spot, and then that puts you in a tough spot because you're only allowed to hold 13 players for 14 days at a time and 28 days total over the course of a season. So they can't add someone to that final roster spot till mid-February when these contracts are prorate it maybe a little bit earlier depending on how all the cap financials play out and the trade deadlines not till mid-February as well so the Raptors are in a tough spot right now especially dealing with all this Kawhi in and out of the lineup you know the concerns after the Timberwolves game have definitely escalated a little bit but if they see an obvious hole in the roster a need for some shooting they need to have the right players and the right pieces in that position and obviously as of recording there's still question marks about who's going to get that final Raptors two-way spot it's open as of right now I'm sure it's going to be signed over the coming days but these are the reasons you're hearing so much talk about these two-way contracts probably more than you've heard in recent seasons for the Toronto Raptors for a team that's in desperate need of depth that doesn't have a lot of options a lot of mobility a lot of you know paths forward to get the right players in those positions they have to nail their two-way signings and they have to nail their prospect pool that they have with this team right now obviously we never wish for injuries but they always happen over the course of a regular season and when someone gets hurt you know in the coming weeks in the coming months or however it happens Kawhi Leonard's still going to be in and out of the lineup there's going to be some time some stretches early on in this season the Raptors have to figure something out and the Raptors bench isn't just going to be the guys that are currently on the roster it's going to be also the players that are called up for these two-way spots and who are in the Raptors 905 but if you're enjoying the daily Toronto Raptors content we're delivering every single day make sure you hit that subscribe button we are so close to 45,000 subscribers huge milestone for the channel so if you're enjoying the daily content it's completely free i've been tuning in lurking and you know never hit that sub button never thought about it make sure you do it so you join this community as we hit this big milestone mark for the channel now if you're still not sold on why the G League matters this organization is proof that it does in 2017 the 905 won the G League title and the Finals MVP was named Pascal Siakam 23 points 9 rebounds in a game in the finals in the clincher Fred Van Vleet had 28 points and 14 assists. And two years later, you guys know the story. Both of them were crucial pieces on the championship winning team that we had. And then of course, were faces of the franchise for multiple seasons after. And it's not just history for the Toronto Raptors. Just last season, they had a guy on a two-way contract in Elijah Martin, who is now a full-time roster player. So even though I know most fans kind of ignore what's going on with the Raptors 905, but over the past week, they've basically overhauled their entire roster. And when you look at the circumstances of the Raptors this season, that is not a side story. That's the farm system that in the past has built us championships, and right now, we are going to be relying on them for our team that's looking to be competitive right now. So who's actually new? The Raptors 905 opened their camp today, and let's go through some of the different names. We can start with the draft on Saturday with the 27th pick in the G League draft the 905 took Day Day Thomas, a six-foot guard out of Cincinnati last season he averaged 11.5 points and 3.5 assists for the Bearcats and he got hot in February he dropped 26 on Oklahoma State and made three three seven threes in that game and the season before he shot 40.1 percent from three leading Cincinnati in their three-point shooting. And there's also a hometown guy as Jalen Celestine is now officially with the Raptors 905 as he was Day Day's teammate out there in Cincinnati. Last season, he made 40.5% of his threes in 32 games in the summer league finale for the Toronto Raptors. He also shot three of five from behind the three point line. We also have a familiar name to a lot of Raptors fans as he was competing for one of those final roster spots in Namari Burnett. He was a national champion. He started all 40 games for the Michigan team that went 37-3 and won the national title in April. He shot 37.5% from three as a senior, then averaged 10.6 points per game for the Toronto Raptors over the course of summer league. Then there's a deep cut that is a fairly interesting player. With the second pick of the second round, they took Justin Wilson, played for four colleges, then a season in the Georgian league, and this guy has taken the long route to get where he is today. So I want to mention all of these guys first, because obviously last night against the Minnesota Timberwolves, everyone outside of Jacoby Walter and Emmanuel quickly shot two for 22 from behind the three-point line. You can notice a trend brewing out there with this Raptors team with some of the new guys they brought in. Thomas, Celestine, Burnett, all three guys can shoot the basketball, and that's not an accident. That's the exact thing that this Toronto Raptors team is missing. Then there's the big swing, a name that's been around this team for the past few months, and that is Jamerion Sharp. As the team doubled down on getting him as the Raptors 905 gave Texas their 10th pick in the draft and a 2027 first and a 2027 second, basically all the G League picks in order to bring him in. Sharp is 6'5". He was the G League's defensive player of the year last season with 4.1 blocks per game. With Biddle Hurt, he's an emergency big that has a legitimate shot at getting called up to the real roster. The 905 also have new guys on the bench as well, as new GM Scott Brown Jr. is just 30 years old, and they also have a rookie head coach in Noah Lewis, who's just 32. Both came up inside of this Raptors organization. Bobby Webster said they've grown within our system and earned the trust and respect of everyone around them. And with that, they kept some internal guys as well that know that Raptors 905 system as Tyree Key he is back with the Raptors he went 74 of 185 from three for the 905 last season shooting 40% and of course is a player that a lot of Raptors fans were interested in having on the main roster as well Tyson Degenhardt and AJ Hogarth are back as well Malik Smith Nate Biddle are both on two ways so that's why Malik Smith hasn't been suiting up with the club because he's down there training with the Raptors 905 even the NBA rookies have a shot at getting some runs down with the Raptors 905 as Alan Graves said this just a week ago but if they see the best fit is 905 or whatever it may be and come bring me in later then that's what it is that's the mindset because as we broke down at the beginning of this video because of our cap sheet because of the injuries that are surely bound to happen some of these dudes are going to get important minutes out there for this Raptors team over the course of this regular season So here's how the call-up board looks right now. If the Raptors need a big, because Jakob Pirtle, CMB, Trace Jackson Davis start dealing with injuries, of course Nate Biddle is already out, Jamerion Sharp is the name to watch. If they need a boost in shooting, Tyree Key, Thomas, Celestine, even Amari Burnett are all in Mississauga just around the corner. Of course, Burnett brings you a little bit extra defense, while Key is a guy that we saw out there in summer league as well as preseason can really just stroke it those are the names that are really in the mix depending on how well they play for the 905 for a little call up but none of these names are on a two-way contract just yet there's still that one open roster spot there's rumors about Rob Dillingham, different players getting that spot and there's specific rules with how this will go, the key number to remember is 90 as 90 games is what you can really be looking at as if they fill that third spot, three two-ways split 90 games This is something that surprised me in my research because we know two-ways could play a maximum of 50 games as individuals, but as a whole, as a collective, they can only play 90 games in total. So if you split it evenly, it actually only ends up being 30 games each. So depending on the role, depending on the needs for this Raptors group, there's some interesting spots and developments that are going to be happening over this Raptors 905 team and it's not just from this pool of players I brought it up in this video and in previous vids Rob Dillingham is a name that's been looked at for that final spot and if you remember from those videos of course Dillingham is the eighth overall pick in the 2024 NBA draft and he's an upside swing very talented guard but struggles with his three-point shot and guys like Tyree Key I've even seen in that video people say well he's a better shooter so he is a better fit and i already told you on the channel i like the idea of Rob Dillingham maybe not because of my head or my brain but more so because of the story and how interesting it would be to have a guy that was in a draft pick that was talked about so much and of course i'm biased because i talk about the raptors every day coming back into this team but last night you saw what was missing from that Minnesota Timberwolves game the shooting is going to be crucial for this roster and is something that they're going to have to seriously look at for these 905 guys so when you have under a million dollars to work with until February when you know those prorated contracts end up opening things up a little bit more you have to be smart you have to be intelligent with who you give your open roster spots to and also who you're looking at with your G League players when they get the call up they cannot be a project they have to be able to insert into the lineup and be ready to go. Of course, if you have the need of the big man spot, Jamarian Sharp is great insurance to have out there in your farm system. But if you need shooting, there are a lot of guys out there on that list in that team that have to be seriously monitored over the course of the season. So in theory, who would you want with that last two-way roster spot? Tyree Key, Rob Dillingham, let me know in the comment section down below. And if you want a full breakdown on this Toronto Raptors ugly loss and more importantly the trends that have stemmed from the first three games of the season have Raptors fans a little bit concerned even if we're still very excited about the season check this video out right here