The Toronto Raptors took one of the more conservative paths during the market close. After endless rumors and commercial speculation, the Canadian franchise made a single move aimed at reinforcing its main weakness: the inside game.
The addition of Jakob Poeltl from San Antonio eliminated the possibility of being a seller and confirmed that the Raptors will seek to compete, at least until the end of the season. Already in the summer, the Toronto management will be forced to address various fronts, one of them being Poeltl’s own continuity.
The center will become an unrestricted free agent and a month ago it was leaked that he will seek a new contract that will guarantee him around twenty million dollars per season. Some claims that, a priori, will be satisfied. According to the journalist yahoo sportsJake Fischer, the Raptors are willing to offer him that amount for a period of four years.
In this way, the Canadians would ensure the future of their inside game and could focus exclusively on the perimeter, where they will also have a lot of work to do. Fred VanVleet and Gary Trent Jr. are ‘expirings’ -It is assumed that both will reject their player option for the 2023-24 academic year-, and everything seems to indicate that it will be very difficult to retain them both.
In the specific case of VanVleet, Fischer adds the possibility that the Raptors give him out through a ‘sign-and-trade’ so as not to be left empty-handed, as they already did with Kyle Lowry in 2021, when they transferred him to the Miami Heat.
(Cover photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
