Where the Raptors stand cap-wise heading into free agency  

After finishing 30-52 last season, the Toronto Raptors are heading into NBA free agency with a salary total above the luxury tax.  

That might not make a lot of sense at first, but when you consider how the Raptors have operated in free agency historically and how the franchise has had success team building, the picture starts to come together.  

The Raptors best trades: Shedding Andrea Bargnani’s salary and getting Jakob Poeltl out of it, flipping Greivis Vasquez for two picks that became Norman Powell and OG Anunoby, trading Poeltl and DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard.

The Raptors best free agent signings: Jose Calderon, Anthony Parker, Bismack Biyombo, Dennis Schroder, DeMarre Carroll(?) 

There are different kinds of flexibility.  

The Raptors, as currently constructed, can’t sign free agents. But they also have never really been able to sign free agents (sorry Carroll and Schroder), so that freedom is understandably less valuable to them.  

They do have plenty of players they can trade, which is something they can do right now. Will they? Are they looking to? Of course there are various reports, but I don’t know. What we do know is that the Raptors have had far more success accumulating value through trades in the past, and that they have a roster full of talent to potentially deal from when the opportunity presents itself, should that be immediately or sometime further in the future.  

Now for the cap stuff. Since Gradey Dick and Ja’Kobe Walter each signed for 120% of the rookie scale for their draft position (the maximum allowed), I’ve presumed that Collin Murray-Boyles will do the same and input his contract at $6.3 million. Technically the Raptors aren’t over the tax yet, but once CMB signs they will be, no matter what percentage of the rookie scale he signs for.  

So, the draft is done, Garrett Temple is back, and the Toronto Raptors have 15 players on their roster and three two-way spots filled. Sure, three are non-guaranteed, with Jamison Battle having a partial guarantee and both Colin Castleton and AJ Lawson being non-guaranteed, but still, the Raptors are (about $3.9 million) above the tax. That’s somewhere they probably don’t want to be quite yet and have only been once before – during the championship season.  

Does that mean that the Raptors are done for the offseason? Not necessarily. While there are restrictions on what they can do both as a tax team and if they want to avoid the first apron, they do have some (limited) options.  

There’s one thing we have to address first. As pointed out by Raptors Republic blogfather Blake Murphy, Toronto has an additional $6.4 million in unlikely to be paid incentives that doesn’t count towards their tax figure but does count towards the aprons. 

RJ Barrett’s roughly $3.4-million incentive kicks in if he makes All-Star, All-NBA or All-Defence. The latter two are extremely unlikely. And while him making All-Star would mean he’s had a transcendent season – one that the Raptors would have no problem shelling out an extra few million for – it also could end up being the difference of them being in the tax or not at season’s end. The front office might be ok with this too, especially if Barrett’s hypothetically elevated play results in team-wide success. But regardless, until that does or doesn’t happen, it counts towards the aprons.

Immanuel Quickley and Jakob Poeltl’s unlikely incentives are listed at $2.5 million and $500,000, respectively. But the conditions are not listed publicly, only that they are unlikely, so, guess we’ll have to trust it.

If you include these incentives along with Lawson and Castleton’s non-guaranteed money, the Raptors would technically be over the first apron. Although until the Temple and Murray-Boyles deals become official, they aren’t yet.

Also, the Raptors have all 15 roster spots filled and have not yet signed Alijah Martin, meaning that barring an immediate trade, one of Lawson or Castleton will almost certainly be waived. But even if you switch out Lawson’s slightly more expensive contract for Martin at the rookie minimum, the Raptors are still about $800,000 over the apron. They’ll have to waive both Lawson and Castleton to duck under and open up the possibility of them signing someone. And even if Toronto does that, they’ll be limited to the tax-payer mid-level exception at about $5.7 million. In this scenario, signing a free agent for anywhere between the minimum and the tax MLE would put them above the first apron.

And that would restrict their second option, which is to trade. Teams above the first apron cannot use more than 100% salary matching in a trade. So not only would this make it harder to get a deal done, but it would also limit the Raptors ability to get off the salary they’ve accumulated.

Of course there are other ways to navigate this. If they duck under the apron by waiving the non-guaranteed guys then unload either Ochai Agbaji or Barrett’s money, suddenly they’re dealing with a good amount of room. But that just might not be appealing to a team that has had so much more luck squeezing value out of trades than free agency. This is also a good reason to maintain flexibility below the apron, should a golden opportunity present itself.

Basically, to sum it all up, the Raptors aren’t likely to do much this offseason. It’s unlikely Lawson and Castleton return, they can only sign someone for between the minimum and the tax MLE, or trade (which would be difficult if they go over the first apron).

Notes:

• Jamison Battle’s contract is guaranteed for $977,689 but fully guarantees on July 10 at $1.96 million for the 2025-26 season.

• AJ Lawson and Colin Castleton’s contracts fully guarantee for just over $2 million each on Jan. 10, 2026. 

• The Raptors only have to be under the tax at the end of the season to avoid paying. They ended about $80,000 under the tax last season after all the 10-days plus Lawson and Castleton’s rest of season money.  

• The Raptors also have three players that will become extension eligible this offseason; RJ Barrett, Jakob Poeltl and Ochai Agbaji, which I went into a little more detail on here.  

• Other options unavailable to first apron teams are the bi-annual exception, acquiring players via sign-and-trade, signing a buyout player who made more than the non-tax mid level exception or using a traded player exception that was created in a prior season.

The post Where the Raptors stand cap-wise heading into free agency   first appeared on Raptors Republic.