Toronto Raptors

Kyle Lowry can hit free agency after this season, but he said Thursday he hasn't spoken to the Toronto Raptors about his future beyond this year, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.  

"My goal is to stay focused on trying to win a championship for the Raptors," he added, per Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports. "I'll let the other stuff play itself out."

Lowry has spent the past eight seasons with Toronto, playing a key role in helping the team win the 2018-19 NBA title.

The point guard has earned an All-Star selection in each of the last six years.

The 34-year-old is coming off another strong individual season in 2019-20, averaging 19.4 points, 7.5 assists and 5.0 rebounds while once again excelling on the defensive end.

The problem is he will earn $30 million in 2020-21 and could land another huge contract on the open market next offseason.

Toronto already handed out big deals to younger players Pascal Siakam ($129.9 million over four years) and Fred VanVleet ($85 million over four years) and might want to avoid another large commitment for a player nearing the end of his career.

Norman Powell is also coming off a strong year and could be part of the future backcourt alongside VanVleet, while 2020 first-round draft pick Malachi Flynn could also play a key role going forward.

In the meantime, the Raptors will focus on building another top contender in the Eastern Conference.

The Toronto Raptors will open their preseason schedule without All-Star guard Kyle Lowry. 

Per Michael Grange of SportsNet.ca, the Raptors announced that Lowry has been granted "personal leave" for games against the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday and Monday. 

Toronto rookie Jalen Harris told reporters that they "haven’t really seen him much" when discussing Lowry's absence.

The Raptors will play three preseason games before opening the regular season on Dec. 23 against the New Orleans Pelicans. 

Their first two exhibition contests will be played at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. They will return to their adopted home in Tampa, Florida, for their preseason finale against the Miami Heat on Dec. 18. 

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the Canadian government denied the Raptors' request to play home games in Toronto this season. The team has moved its base to the Amalie Arena, which it will share with the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning. 

Lowry is entering his 15th season in the NBA and his ninth straight year with the Raptors. He is the franchise's all-time leader in assists (3,939), steals (828) and helped them win the 2018-19 NBA championship. 

The Toronto Raptors announced Monday that three members of the organization tested positive for COVID-19 during testing ahead of training camp:

Three members of Raptors organization test positive for Covid-19. pic.twitter.com/3yFEXNMZf4

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 7, 2020

The Raptors' announcement follows the Portland Trail Blazers closing their practice facility on Sunday for coronavirus-related reasons.

"Over the past four days, we have had three positive COVID test results within our organization," Blazers president of basketball operations Neil Olshey said in a statement. "Out of an abundance of caution, having completed contact tracing, we are closing our practice facility today for deep cleaning while we run confirmatory tests."

The NBA announced Wednesday that 48 players have tested positive for the coronavirus since the league resumed testing ahead of the Dec. 22 start to the 2020-21 season, per the Associated Press.

"During this pandemic, all this stuff is going to be different this season," Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic told reporters. "Some players might get corona, get sick, not be able to be with the team for 10 days. So, I think that's going to be a big part—which team is not going to have positive people. It's going to be a lot of time together. I think that's going to be key."

The Raptors find themselves uniquely challenged during the ongoing pandemic, temporarily playing in Tampa, Florida due to Canada's travel restrictions during the pandemic. 

"My role is to just constantly be on [players] and be a reminder constantly of our actions and our behaviour, and how impactful it is not only themselves, their families, our team, the organization, there's lots on the line if you're not doing the best you can with the COVID-19 protocols," head coach Nick Nurse told reporters Sunday.

The Raptors will open their season with a home game vs. the New Orleans Pelicans on Dec. 23.

The Toronto Raptors' title defense season left plenty to be desired and little to regret. 

Faced with the departures of Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, Toronto looked for a holistic approach to replace the duo and landed on Stanley Johnson as well as bigger roles for OG Anunoby and Fred VanVleet. That was enough to earn the Raptors an Atlantic Division title, but the club was bounced in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the Boston Celtics in seven games. 

The club simply wasn't good enough to go any further without Leonard on board. As the 2020-21 season begins, it will be up to Toronto and reigning head coach of the year Nick Nurse to prove it's learned how to navigate a deep run with what it does have. 

General manager Bobby Webster retained VanVleet in free agency and drafted point guard Malachi Flynn in November. After winning the Atlantic six times in the last seven years, the Raptors' expectations have exploded.

Here's what they'll face in the coming months as they try to meet them. 

    

2020-21 Raptors Schedule Details

Season Opener: December 23 vs. New Orleans Pelicans

Championship Odds: +2200 (via FanDuel)

First-Half Schedule: NBA.com

       

Top Matchups

Milwaukee Bucks (Jan. 27, Feb. 16, Feb. 18)

The Raptors faced the Milwaukee Bucks three times last year, winning just one contest—a 114-106 victory in the Walt Disney World Resort bubble in Orlando, Florida. They'll need to do better in 2020-21. 

Few teams are capable of serving as measuring sticks for Toronto, but the Bucks absolutely qualify. The Raptors being forced to practice guarding the back-to-back reigning MVP in Giannis Antetokounmpo could prove vital in a postseason series.

If Toronto is going to march back to the NBA Finals, the Bucks will be in their way somehow. Proving it can consistently defeat Milwaukee—without two blowout losses along the way—may determine just how far it will go this season.

If nothing else, the matchup will pit two of the NBA's top teams against each other in a marquee series that's sure to draw the league's attention from start to finish. 

    

Miami Heat (Jan. 22, Feb. 24)

The Miami Heat may be the biggest threat to any Eastern Conference team with title aspirations. It's also another one of the teams the Raptors struggled most with last season—falling twice in three games.

Miami seemingly only got stronger as the year went on thanks to Jimmy Butler's elite skills and Bam Adebayo's rapid development, and it enters the 2020-21 campaign looking to prove its trip to the NBA Finals last season wasn't a fluke.

One of the ways it can do so is by taking down another conference contender like the Raptors. 

That will be the challenge for Toronto. If it can win a season series against a team that gave it fits all last year, it will go a long way towards confirming their status as a legitimate contender. 

If Toronto continues to struggle, it may be a sign that the Raptors need to make some adjustments—personnel or otherwise—before it can take another long postseason run. 

   

Season Forecast

Any expectations eased by the departure of Leonard were ratcheted back up by the improvements from Anunoby and VanVleet last year. 

The championship hangover has more than dissipated, and it's time to learn if Toronto has the pieces in place to make another run or if it needs to make some major adjustments in order to so. 

As much as Leonard's one year in Toronto put enormous pressure on the organization to win as quickly as possible, the 2020-21 season will show if the team constructed as is can get back to the Finals. More than anything, this will be the season that shows Raptors fans what they can expect for the next few seasons. 

Early round playoff exits and winning division titles no longer cut it. Toronto has raised the bar too high in previous years. Fortunately, the club has enough assets to make a few in-season maneuvers should Nurse and team president Masai Ujiri decide they're close enough to contend. 

Expect the Raptors to walk that line all season and put their front office in a position to determine how to proceed.

This will be another promising year of basketball in Toronto that will ultimately be remembered by whether it wins the conference. 

    

Record Prediction: 50-22 

The Toronto Raptors will start the 2020-21 season playing their home games in Tampa, Florida, because of travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and Pascal Siakam summed up the strange circumstances his team is facing.

"Nothing has been normal for a long time," he said, per Marc J. Spears of ESPN's The Undefeated. "We are still learning. We are still adjusting."

Siakam did say he is looking forward to living somewhere warm.

The Raptors are not the first professional sports team that needed to adjust to Canada's coronavirus limitations. The Toronto Blue Jays played their home games in Buffalo, New York, during the shortened 2020 Major League Baseball season, which did not prevent them from reaching the playoffs.

Still, it is an understatement to say nothing has been normal for some time in the face of the pandemic, and the Raptors and Blue Jays' temporary homes are just two of countless examples of the upheaval the virus has caused.

At least the Raptors are accustomed to playing in the state, considering the NBA finished its 2019-20 season at the Walt Disney World Resort in the Orlando area.

Toronto was one of the 22 teams invited for the seeding games that led into the playoffs and eventually earned the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. It was an impressive showing, considering Kawhi Leonard was no longer on the roster, although the team lost to the Boston Celtics in seven games in the second round.

Siakam was a primary reason the Raptors were still contenders, as he was an All-Star and All-NBA selection who averaged 22.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game during the regular season.

Whether he can replicate that performance will go a long way toward determining if the Raptors are again near the top of the East.

The Toronto Raptors may have given Fred VanVleet a four-year contract, but they were reportedly hesitant to commit long-term money to any of their other free agents.

Ian Begley of SNY reported the Raptors were "hesitant" to offer Marc Gasol more than one year in contract negotiations before he left for the Los Angeles Lakers. They also took a similar approach with Serge Ibaka, who joined the Clippers.

The Raptors have sought to maintain financial flexibility for the summer of 2021, when they consider themselves contenders to sign many top free agents, most notably Giannis Antetokounmpo. While Gasol's two-year deal was for the veteran's minimum, it's unclear if he was willing to sign a similar contract to stay in Toronto. 

Ibaka's two-year, $19 million deal with the Clippers includes a $9.7 million player option for 2021-22.

Both of those contracts certainly would have been tradeable in the event Toronto lands a star in free agency but potentially would have required the team to give up compensation to another team. The Raptors already have Norman Powell's $11.6 million player option potentially mucking up their cap sheet. It seems likely Masai Ujiri decided the long-term flexibility was more valuable than the short-term boost given by Gasol or Ibaka.

The Raptors signed Aron Baynes to a two-year, $14.3 million contract that includes a nonguaranteed second season. Signing Baynes allowed Toronto to maintain flexibility for next summer, albeit while downgrading their bigs rotation.

The Toronto Raptors and free-agent forward Alize Johnson reportedly reached an agreement on a contract Friday ahead of the 2020-21 NBA season.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported the news.

Johnson spent his first two NBA seasons with the Indiana Pacers, who selected him in the second round of the 2018 draft.

The 24-year-old Missouri State product made a limited impact for the Pacers while also spending time with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the team's G League affiliate. He averaged 1.5 points and 2.2 rebounds per game while shooting just 35.6 percent from the field in 31 NBA appearances over the past two years.

His G League production was more promising. He averaged 20.1 points, 12.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists in 19 games for the Mad Ants during the 2019-20 campaign.

"[Johnson] works his butt off day-in and day-out. He's a great teammate and just awesome guy all around," Pacers forward Doug McDermott told reporters during last season. "Salute to Alize. He's a great player and he's got an unbelievable motor. We are really happy for him."

If he makes the Raptors' final roster, he'll provide forward depth behind starters OG Anunoby at the 3 and Pascal Siakam at the 4. It's unlikely he'll take on a major role barring a rash of injuries, though.

Johnson could also spend more time in the G League to continue his development. Raptors 905 are Toronto's affiliate.

Free-agent center Aron Baynes agreed to a deal with the Toronto Raptors on Sunday, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.

The veteran will reportedly make $14.3 million over the two years of the contract. Charania noted Toronto holds a team option on the second year of the deal.

Baynes was limited by hip and calf injuries last season, holding him to just 42 games in his first year with the Phoenix Suns.

The 33-year-old was a difference-maker when on the court with averages of 11.5 points and 5.6 rebounds in 22.2 minutes per game, all of which were career highs.

The eight-year veteran was known as a serviceable big man during his first seven seasons in the NBA, mostly playing limited minutes with the Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs. He usually took advantage of his opportunities either as a starter or off the bench, averaging at least 11 points and 10 rebounds per 36 minutes in six straight seasons from 2013-14 to 2018-19.

There was a bigger opportunity for playing time after an offseason trade to Phoenix, especially with center DeAndre Ayton suspended for 25 games because of a failed drug test.

Baynes quickly became the team's most reliable option at center and produced quality numbers over the first few months of the season.

This production adds to a resume that also includes a lot of postseason experience with playoff appearances in six of his first eight years in the NBA. The big man was on the 2014 Spurs title team and appeared in 28 playoff games for Boston across two seasons in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

It was enough for the New Zealand native to earn a new contract even coming off an injury-filled season.

The move should help upgrade the frontcourt rotation for the Raptors, adding a proven big man who can play big minutes next season. Whether he starts or comes off the bench, Baynes should be a valuable contributor in 2020-21 and potentially beyond.

The Toronto Raptors and combo guard Fred VanVleet reached an agreement Saturday on a new contract.

Brian Jungreis, VanVleet's agent, told Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium the deal will be worth $85 million over four years with a player option for the final season.

VanVleet steadily developed from a little-used reserve into an impact starter over the past four years with the Raptors. It was a growth process that included a key role off the bench during the team's run to the 2018-19 NBA championship.

The 26-year-old Wichita State product is coming off his best statistical season. He averaged 17.6 points, 6.6 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game while shooting 39.0 percent from three-point range, though his offensive efficiency has room for improvement after he shot 41.3 percent from the field.

VanVleet said during an appearance on Sportsnet's Tim and Sid in October he was hopeful of remaining with Toronto but wanted to keep his options open.

"I've been here. This is the team that gave me my chance, I think we understand that. I'm not gonna speak too much on free agency this year just cuz it's a business and I have to do what's best for me and my family," he said. "But, I mean, I've been on record about how I feel about this place. This organization knows how I feel about this place. So in a perfect world, we know what would happen."

His notable impact at both ends last season—he ranked 10th among all shooting guards in ESPN's real plus-minus with positive offensive and defensive rating—put him in line to negotiate a new contract at a perfect time in his career arc.

VanVleet's desire to remain with Toronto paired with the fact he emerged as a valuable contributor for the organization since going undrafted in 2016 made the new deal no surprise.

He'll continue to play a crucial role in the Raptors backcourt, and further improvement in his shot selection and efficiency would allow him to reach an All-Star level.

A rising demand for Serge Ibaka may complicate the Toronto Raptors' quest to re-sign their backup forward.

According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, contenders in both the Eastern and Western Conferences are "aggressively" trying to lure the 31-year-old free agent out of Toronto after four seasons. 

Michael Grange of Sportsnet reported Ibaka has received as many as ten offers, including some above mid-level compensation. 

The big man averaged a career-high 15.4 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists while playing 27 minutes per night. Though he saw slightly fewer minutes during the playoffs in 2019-20, Ibaka still posted 14.8 points and 7.7 rebounds per postseason contest. 

The start of free agency has seen a run of bigs with Mason Plumlee agreeing to a three-year, $25 million deal with Detroit, Meyers Leonard re-signing with the Miami Heat for two years, Derrick Favors landing with the Utah Jazz, and Patrick Peterson staying with the Los Angeles Clippers. 

After starting his career with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Ibaka seems to have found his comfort zone with the Raptors and told Sportsnet's Matt Rodrigo in April he had no intention of leaving.

"I'm going to stay, bro." Ibaka said. "This place is beautiful. ... It's a beautiful city, beautiful people here and then we have one of the best teams. Why leave?"

It appears other contenders may have given him the reason he needed. 

Toronto will have to work harder than it expected in order to keep a key piece of its rotation with the Raptors.