2016 Toronto Raptors

Written by Paul Banks of the Washington Times, David Kay and Peter Christian of the The Sports Bank. Send Paul an e-mail here: paulb05 AT hotmail DOT com.
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Toronto Raptors (Last Year: 56-26)

2016-17 Projected Depth Chart:

C: Jonas Valanciunas/Lucas Nogueira

PF: Patrick Patterson

SF: DeMarre Carroll/Bruno Cabolco

SG: Terrence Ross/Norman Powell

PG: Kyle Lowry/Cory Joseph/Delon Wright

NBA Free Agents:

SG-DeMar DeRozan(UFA)

PF-James Johnson (UFA)

PF-Luis Scola (UFA)

C-Bismack Biyombo (UFA)

PF-Anthony Bennett (UFA)

C-Jason Thompson (UFA)

2016-17 Team Salary: Approximately $69.6 million

NBA Offseason Team Needs:

1. Is DeRozan Worth a Max? DeRozan is about to get paid this summer, and if Toronto isn’t willing to offer him a max deal, some team is going to. That may force the Raptors’ hand to open up their checkbooks and eat up a huge chunk the salary cap. If DeRozan ends up signing elsewhere, the Raptors will be looking for other options to add another proven scorer on their wing.

2. Power Forward: Toronto starts Patrick Patterson at power forward and can go small by sliding DeMarre Carroll to the four, but the team should be seeking an upgrade at power forward. Assuming DeRozan re-signs, the Raptors won’t have a ton of cap space, so they might be best off addressing this need when they select ninth overall in the 2016 NBA Draft.

3. Backup Big: With Bismack Biyombo hitting the free agent market and due for a big pay raise, the Raptors are without a quality backup big man behind Jonas Valanciunas.