The Toronto Raptors face a completely different challenge, fresh off their first championship celebration in 24 years of existence. Veteran players like Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol, and Serge Ibaka are currently in expiring contracts, with their future unknown as all of them are 30 years or older and bound for one last sizable contract before they call it a wrap.
The Raptors have no immediate plans to trade any of the aforementioned, instead using them as mentors for Pascal Siakam, whom the franchise will rebuild around — taking also OG Anunoby into consideration as another young piece.
“This is where they always wanted to be,” one source with knowledge of the team’s thinking told Sean Deveney of Heavy.com. “Masai was always going to rebuild things around Siakam and OG (Anunoby) and the other young guys eventually. He’s going to have a ton of cap space. But he’s got to be able to get free agents to go there and it’s still a tough sell, getting guys to go to Canada. So they’ve got the ring, if they can get to the playoffs again, he has something more to sell when that cap space comes available.”
It's almost certain that the Raptors will go younger after this season, as their championship window has certainly narrowed after the departure of Kawhi Leonard this summer.
The hope is that Siakam and Anunoby take a major leap in 2019-20, enticing free agents to come during the upcoming summer to retool this roster sooner than later.
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