DeMar DeRozan’s new five-year contract will almost certainly make him the most accomplished and decorated player in Toronto Raptors history by the time it’s up.
Barring anything unforeseen the formerly shy rookie from Compton will spend the entire prime of his career in Toronto and finish as the Raptors’ all-time leading scorer while setting benchmarks for team success that won’t be easily surpassed.
His legacy will be as the first elite player to make the franchise his own, who chose Toronto as the place to build something lasting and create a standard for those who follow. DeRozan has already evolved from a raw kid who barely understood the NBA game to a savvy veteran who has figured out how to bend possessions to his will while emerging as a reliable, all-business tone-setter for an organization that has had plenty of great players but all as renters.
But as the highs of last seasons fade and the reality of the 2016-17 campaign begins to round into focus it’s worth wondering exactly what DeRozan has enlisted for.
On paper a 56-win Eastern Conference team featuring a fairly young core – Kyle Lowry is the only returning rotation player over 30 – should be aiming higher.
But on the wood making the jump from good to great is the hardest thing to do in the NBA, particularly without the one generational player that erases all kinds of roster sins and acts as the singular sun around which lesser stars orbit – we’re looking at you LeBron James, shielding our eyes from the light.
The Raptors falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals was a good news/bad news type of event. Sure the Raptors won two games and made things respectable, but they also lost four games to the eventual NBA champions by an average of 28.5 points per game.
Improving on last season by definition means advancing to the NBA Finals, which means beating LeBron which means good luck.
And should something befall James and the Cavaliers there is the matter of Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors, a super-team of 20-somethings that promises to make the Larry O’Brien Trophy a full-time resident of NoCal for the foreseeable future.
This was supposed to be the summer when the Raptors were going to be at the table for Durant’s free agency. Former MLSE president Tim Leiweke’s fever dream was the summer when the Raptors would make the great leap forward. It turns out Drake’s tampering fine for calling out to Durant from the stage at OVO Fest was in vein as the childhood Vince Carter fan never had the Raptors on his shortlist and ended up leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder for the record-setting Warriors, who would have been back-to-back champs but for Draymond Green’s penchant for flicking opponents’ testicles in times of stress.
But for all the justifiable feel-good generated by DeRozan’s return, it’s worth noting the opening act on Thursday is the introduction of Jared Sullinger, the under-achieving Boston Celtics first-rounder who will fill the spot vacated by Luis Scola and Bismack Biyombo, the two notable Raptors departures this off-season – all apologies to James Johnson.
Signing Sullinger on a one-year deal for the mid-level exception – DeRozan’s $137.5-million deal having put the Raptors over the salary cap – is decent value for a high-level rebounder (11.1/36, career) who has posted better-than averaged PERs on a playoff team the past two seasons, there is no question. But Raptors fans can be forgiven for feeling a bit underwhelmed. The soft-handed and soft-bodied Sullinger is like the bizarro version of Biyombo and while it’s a waste of time lamenting the Congolese crowd favourite’s departure – you can’t spend $72-million on a back-up centre – the defensive depth and knock’em down attitude that Biyombo provided will be missed, even if Sullinger can catch and make a pass in traffic here or there.
After a season in which the Raptors could legitimately say they arrived on the NBA’s main stage, it wasn’t wrong for Raptors fans to expect more.
The legwork was done. League sources confirm the Raptors were oh-so-close to signing Pau Gasol, only to be left at the alter after the big, skilled Spaniard opted to replace Tim Duncan in San Antonio. They were prepared to figure out how to clear cap room to fit sharpshooter Ryan Anderson into their salary structure – even if they gagged at little bit at Anderson’s $80-million price tag – and believed Anderson was serious about coming, but could only watch as the Houston Rockets snapped up the New Orleans Pelicans forward.
But would either either Gasol or Anderson move the mountain that is James and the Cavaliers? Hard to imagine.
The Raptors got ahead of the curve by signing Terrence Ross and Jonas Valanciunas to long-term extensions last season. Ross’s four-year deal for $40 million is completely in line with what his market value would have been as a restricted free agent this summer, based on other signings.
And Valanciunas’s $64 million over four years is verging on robbery given Andre Drummond, a reasonable comparable, signed a five-year deal for $127 million to stay with the Detroit Pistons.
But those deals, sensible as they were, meant Masai Ujiri didn’t have the cap space to go big game hunting this summer, even if landing a trophy was a real possibility. Al Horford, the next biggest name on the free agent market, though a big step down from Durant, didn’t consider the Raptors either before eventually signing with the Celtics.
What will DeRozan’s next five years look like as a Raptor? Hard to tell from here, obviously. The reality Raptors fans may need to accept is last season may prove a high-water mark for the moment, short of LeBron’s back aging rapidly.
Going short on Sullinger keeps the Raptors’ powder dry for next summer when the salary cap goes up again – though not as much – and might offer an opportunity for a team that was patient this off-season.
But going short also might indicate that even as they go all in on DeRozan the Raptors may wisely be hedging their bets as they head into Lowry’s walk year. After five years of steady improvement there could be some idling ahead.
History proves that being second to LeBron isn’t the most stable real estate in the NBA. In the six years his teams have ruled the Eastern Conference roost the challengers have climbed the mountain to take on the King only to tumble back down. The Chicago Bulls were a 62-win team with oodles of promise in 2011 that were undone by Derrick Rose’s knee problems in 2012 and never challenged again. The ageing Celtics gave it one last shot with the Big Three in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals and have been rebuilding since. The Indiana Pacers were next in line, making it to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2013 and 2014 but Paul George broke his leg and now Indiana is drifting. The Hawks were a 60-win team in 2015 only to be swept by the Cavaliers. They slipped to 48 wins in 2015-16 and were swept by the LeBrons in the second round this past May and have now pinned their hopes to Dwight Howard.
The Raptors? They’ll be trying to buck that trend in an Eastern Conference that seems deeper if lacking a true emerging power to challenge James’ hegemony.
Signing DeRozan and returning the core of the Eastern Conference finalists largely intact gives the Raptors continuity, character and confidence.
But in the fight to climb the NBA’s peaks, it’s hard to believe that will be enough.