A win for a young-ish player looking for an NBA opportunity, a win for a team with a need for some depth at centre, a tough day for Toronto Raptors play-by-play voice Matt Devlin, and a challenge for long-time equipment manager Curtis Andrade.
The Raptors signed Sandro Mamukelashvili to a two-year deal worth $5.5 million on Tuesday, the second day of NBA free agency. The team made the deal official on Friday.
The six-foot-11 centre who was born in New York City but raised in the Republic of Georgia just turned 26 and has played 191 games over parts of four NBA seasons since being drafted 54th overall out of Seton Hall University in 2021.
He’s only averaged 11.5 minutes per game during his career, but he’s shown the ability to be productive with them. Last season with the Spurs, he averaged 20.4 points, 9.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.9 blocks while connecting on 37.3 per cent of 8.5 threes on a per-36 minutes basis.
His NBA claim-to-fame is scoring 34 points in 19 minutes in a win for the Spurs over the Knicks this past March, which set a league record for most points scored in under 20 minutes of floor time.
The deal, along with the Raptors' signing of Garrett Temple and the expected guarantee of Jamison Battle’s contract on July 10, puts the Raptors slightly over the $187,895,00 luxury tax threshold with all 15 full roster spots accounted for (presuming the Raptors sign second-round pick Alijah Martin to a standard NBA contract and not a two-way deal), but not onerously so.
The Raptors can get under the tax threshold by shedding one minimum contract by season’s end (when the tax is calculated), which assumes that they don’t make any other more significant moves before that.
