Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
Another year, another missed playoff birth for the Nuggets. But hey, at least they're on the upswing, right? Paul Millsap should hopefully be healthy for a full season, or at least healthier. Jokic should be dolled up with a shiny, new, nine-figure deal, more motivated than ever with more money and experience on his side. Harris and Murray should continue to take strides to become one of the premier young backcourts in the league. The rest of the roster is still a work in progress, however, and that's okay because they have the whole summer ahead of them to improve it.
I'll be taking a look at some moves that teams around the league can look at making this offseason in pursuit of the elusive Larry O'Brien trophy, starting today with the Toronto Raptors in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference and ending with our Denver Nuggets in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. This is part one of a thirty part series.
Toronto Raptors
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The Toronto Raptors finished 59-23, good enough for a first-place record in both the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference before being swept by LeBron James and his deadly, turnaround, fadeaway midrange in the second round en route to his eighth NBA Finals appearance. Dwayne Casey managing to finish in the top three in Coach of the Year voting and simultaneously be fired pretty much sums up this Toronto season.
The priority for them at the very moment would be to find out who will be their coach for next season. I expect it to either be Jerry Stackhouse, former head coach of the Raptors 905 G-league team, or another in-house type of option, perhaps in the form of assistant coaches Nick Nurse or Rex Kalamian.
The Raptors also face fairly important and pertinent tasks of moving under the luxury tax line of $123M, of which it currently lies about $4M over, and of resigning restricted free agent Fred VanVleet, who anchored one of the best benches in the entire league last year and finished in the top three of Sixth Man of the Year voting. Any discussion of moving on from stars Kyle Lowry or DeMar DeRozan will be tabled for this exercise, as they were the two best players on a 59-win team and also carry exorbitant contracts that are borderline unmovable for any player in this current salary climate.
This leaves Toronto with very few movable assets, but still movable assets nonetheless. Namely, a front-court player such as Jonas Valanciunas, who had a very good year, and a wing such as Norman Powell, who did not have a great year, but still holds a lot of promise. By managing to trade these two players (and perhaps gaining a second-round pick or two in the process), the Raptors would bank on an improved year from Serge Ibaka, continued development from Jakob Poeltl and Pascal Siakam, and further contributions from wings O.G. Anunoby and C.J. Miles, all of which are very within the realm of possibility. Doing this would also open up a comfortable amount of room to resign Fred VanVleet.
While most of the roster is set in stone at this point, there are other small additions that they could make. The stretch big specifically should be a point of emphasis, as they have not been able to adequately replace Patrick Patterson's contributions of the past and Serge Ibaka's marksmanship has taken a big hit with age. Some targets could be a free agent such as a Nemanja Bjelica or Mario Hezonja, or a late round prospect such as a Mo Wagner or Alize Johnson. Toronto does not currently possess a first or second-round pick, although it has $5.1M which could be used to buy a second-round pick, which I fully expect them to do.
Going into the 2018-2019 season, this is a very competitive roster. Their inability to match up with LeBron is a commonality shared by the entire league, so they should not be discouraged. They have the personnel to both contend now and develop for the future, so no radical action or changes should be taken for quite some time.
