What’s next for the Raptors after VanVleet leaves for Houston?

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So, now what for the Toronto Raptors?

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Now that Fred VanVleet is gone to the Houston Rockets for the tidy sum of $130 million over three years — not bad for an undrafted player who made just over $1.5 million combined over his first two seasons in Toronto. VanVleet will now make more than that every time he gets a paycheque.

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VanVleet became one of the greatest stories in franchise history and one of the top performers for that matter. He’s got the team record for both points and assists in a game and is Top 10 in many overall categories and was maybe the most mature leader the franchise has ever had. He’ll be missed on and off the court. But it would have been unwise for the Raptors get into a bidding war with the Rockets and give him $35 million a season or so for the next four years. VanVleet was run into the ground by Nick Nurse and the wear has shown in poor finishes to the last two seasons and in the playoffs and in his 2022-23 down year. There’s no guarantee he returns to his prior form or holds up on a long deal.

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Plus, with or without VanVleet, this group is nowhere close to winning another title. Don’t let Miami’s Cinderella run to the NBA Finals confuse you there. The Raptors got used to winning, there was the historic championship in 2019 and even an impressive follow-up — sans Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green — that saw the team second overall in the NBA when COVID-19 altered everything. With Pascal Siakam, O.G. Anunoby and VanVleet continuing to improve and then Scottie Barnes arriving on the scene in spectacular fashion a couple of years ago, it’s easy to understand why the Raptors’ front office embraced the possibilities, even after Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka and Norman Powell followed Leonard and Green to new teams. But they were lucky to fetch Precious Achiuwa for Lowry via sign-and-trade after not dealing Lowry at the trade deadline earlier that year, and too confident they’d be able to get value back should someone else eventually leave. Instead of trading VanVleet at this year’s deadline, or moving Siakam or Anunoby, they kept them all and even added Jakob Poeltl for next year’s first-round pick, ensuring they had to keep pushing forward instead of coming to a more realistic assessment of where the franchise stands.

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This isn’t hindsight either. We said as much at the time.

Now VanVleet’s gone for nothing. Siakam and Anunoby can change addresses themselves a year from now, though Siakam’s people let it be known earlier in June that he wouldn’t sign a new deal should another team trade for him.

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So, what now? New head coach Darko Rajakovic and one of his assistants have ties from their time in Oklahoma City to middling, oft-injured veteran guard Dennis Schroder, the stop-gap replacement signed Friday after other options were snapped up while the Rockets and Raptors tried to woo VanVleet. Schroder is a far different player than VanVleet — he drives a lot more and finishes better, has more size, but isn’t as good as an outside shooter, particularly on corner three-point shots (though both shot an identical 35% on catch-and-shoot attempts this season). He’s an OK defender, better at keeping players in front of him than VanVleet was in his final season as a Raptor, but not nearly as disruptive while on the ball or in passing lanes.

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The big man Poeltl is back on a fair deal and the team was much better with him than the centre-less existence it had been living for too long. Siakam and Anunoby are playing for VanVleet-esque deals so they should be good in 2023-24, Barnes is still capable of taking some big leaps, Achiuwa has promise, as does Gradey Dick, the new shooter in town and Trent won’t be distracted by contractual issues should a rumoured extension with the team be worked out.

Thaddeus Young or Chris Boucher can be moved for guard help.

Perhaps things aren’t as gloomy as they seem. There’s more parity in the NBA than we’ve seen in decades and the coming cap crunch will result in some current contenders free-falling.

But that doesn’t mean mistakes haven’t been made. The front office has long claimed to despise being in the middle, but by being too patient, they’ve lost potential opportunities to acquire assets that could help get the Raptors closer to where they want to be.

VanVleet bet on himself and hit the jackpot. The Raptors bet on themselves and now wobble away from the free agency table with a lot fewer chips than they expected to have.

@WolstatSun

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