Toronto Raptors will shuffle roster, but O.G. Anunoby can’t be part of it

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While Masai Ujiri and his front office comb the corners of the basketball world for the next Raptors’ head coach, they do so knowing the core their last head coach had to work with probably won’t be back.

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A coaching change is one means of rebuilding a team’s culture, something Ujiri identified needed to be done — but bringing back the same foundation and asking the new guy or the new gal (hey there, Becky Hammon) to flip the script isn’t a recipe for success.

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The question becomes what part of that Raptors core changes?

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Ujiri left little doubt at his year-end media availability that Nurse’s face was not going to be the only one missing next September when this team gets together again.

“I think changes are going to be made on all fronts,” Ujiri said that day. “We’re going to address that with the team. We saw how different players on our team would rise, would do well. But we never did it collectively. Maybe that could be fit. Maybe that could be system, sometimes role orientation, sometimes accountability — all the things we are going to really look at in how our roster is built. We believe in the players we have. Whether it’s tweaks or major changes, we’re definitely going to look at everything.”

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Some of the change may not even be in the Raptors’ control. They have two players with player options in Fred VanVleet and Gary Trent Jr. Both are expected to turn down those options and become unrestricted free agents joining two others, Jakob Poeltl and veteran reserve Will Barton, as the freest of Raptors this summer.

Dalano Banton and last year’s two-way players Jeff Dowtin Jr. and Ron Harper Jr. are all restricted free agents meaning the team can hold on to them if they choose.

But assuming VanVleet and Trent Jr. join Poeltl and Barton as unrestricted free agents, those are four players that are making their own decisions about leaving or coming back.

It’s highly unlikely given the economics of the salary cap and the stage the roster building is currently in that the team will go into the luxury tax to sign all those players though Ujiri does have that leeway from ownership he says.

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Gary Trent Jr. may not be considered part of the core at this point though he has been a starter for most of his time in Toronto. A departure would change the fabric of the team but would it change the core?

We would suggest it does not and therefore likely means more change than just that, if in fact, Trent Jr. does not return.

It’s a problem for Ujiri and his front office because they seem to be relatively happy with the individuals who make up their core, just not what that core collectively has brought.

One player whose name should not even be crossing Ujiri’s lips when he starts talking change is O.G. Anunoby.

The problem with that is he is perhaps the most coveted member of Toronto’s core right now. He’s the team’s most versatile defender, not to mention its best lock-down defender to boot.

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He’s also one of the few Raptors who made huge strides in his overall game a year ago, if for no other reason than he was finally able to stay healthy for most of the year excluding those nine missed games in late January and February because of a sprained left wrist.

Over the course of the year, Anunoby’s three-point game rose steadily. It took a bit of a hit after the return from the wrist injury but pre All-Star he shot the three at a 36.6% clip. After the break, he was locked in at 42.4%.

And an improving shooter on a team that struggles to shoot the ball even to NBA average standards wouldn’t seem like the place one would start in terms of change if the goal was to ultimately improve the team.

Anunoby drew interest at the trade deadline and he’s almost assuredly a name Ujiri is being asked about a lot when he talks with opposing management teams these days.

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But if you start the process saying Scottie Barnes is untouchable then the next most sure thing to stay on the roster has to be Anunoby.

He’s still just 25 (turning 26 in July) and is still improving.

Moving him, just when he’s showing everyone what a two-way monster he can be would certainly require a hefty package coming back, but would any of it move the needle more than Anunoby already does?

The answer here is no. The Anunobys of the NBA are too hard to come by to part with in hopes of finding a better collective group.

The move has to be elsewhere, although quite frankly, parting ways with any of Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam or Jakob Poeltl, the remaining members of that core, is going to be a tough pill to swallow for management. That said, it’s more likely one of that group is moving on than Anunoby or Barnes.

The focus, for now, is on the head coach, something Ujiri said he would like to have settled by the draft on June 23. Free agency heats up in early July and somewhere in and around all that the roster is going to need some rather serious tweaking.

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