Toronto Raptors: Will They Keep Luke Ridnour?

The Toronto Raptors made some more noise today as they traded with the Oklahoma City Thunder for Luke Ridnour, who has now bounced around the league four times in the past week.

I sort of feel for the guy. One thing’s for sure: wherever he ends up staying, he should change his jersey number to the number of times he got traded. That would be perfect.

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The trade looked like this:

Raptors Receive:

Luke Ridnour
Cash Considerations

Thunder Receive:

Draft rights to Tomislav Zubcic (2012 second-round pick)

In all manners of speaking, this is a minor deal. Still, it’s one that gives the Raps an interesting choice. Do they keep Ridnour or make like the other teams before them and move him in some way?

The Case For Shedding Him

The Raptors are after big fish this summer. Masai Ujiri has been clearing cap space (like with the Greivis Vasquez trade) to make room for whatever plans he’s got going on behind closed doors. One of those plans, to try and steal LaMarcus Aldridge, is already rolling.

If Toronto waives Ridnour before July 10th, they can use the $2.75 million of his 2015-16 salary on free agents. It’s not a ton of extra money, but every bit helps in an attempt to land someone notable. Clearly, Ujiri wants to be the team with the most dough to offer when players come to listen to his pitch.

Toronto doesn’t really need Ridnour. They just drafted Delon Wright, an all-around point guard with defensive prowess. It makes far more sense to stick Wright into the rotation as the backup PG than Ridnour, and Toronto is a team that is always looking to the future, so the age difference between Wright and Ridnour matters.

A critique people placed on Wright during the draft (an unfair one, I might add) is that he is already 23 years old. Personally, I think that’s a good age; it simply means he’s gone through a couple more years at school and hopefully has had more time to learn the game.

Ridnour is 34 years old. He won’t be in the league for very much longer. If Raps fans thought Vasquez could be a pain, having Ridnour as the backup floor general would create just as much of a stir.

In Orlando last season, Ridnour played just 47 games as a bench guy. He averaged 4.0 points, 1.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists on 42.6 percent shooting over 14.5 minutes per game.

He missed some games due to personal matters, such as the birth of his child, but he also had a nagging hamstring injury that repeatedly made itself present.

There’s really no reason for Toronto to keep Ridnour on board with the way things are set up right now. But I guess there’s (slightly) still …

The Case For Keeping Him

Despite how poor his numbers look from last season, Ridnour is a veteran NBA guard who knows the game and keeps a cool head. He wouldn’t be difficult to stick into any team’s system because his skill set is so simple: he brings up the ball, can make some good passes, etc.

He’s a generic old-guy point guard at this stage. He would be able to bring some experience (remember when Vasquez said he wanted Paul Pierce on the squad?) to the roster, and a lot of coaches like having an aged guy playing the backup (or even third-string) PG spot. It doesn’t seem like Dwane Casey is any different.

He doesn’t really cost very much, either.

Final Judgement?

It’s a nice idea to have a guy who knows the game inside and out be there for your team through all the tough times. It’s like George Karl and his unhealthy addiction to Andre Miller. Coaches just eat that stuff up.

But Toronto simply doesn’t need him. Sorry, Ridnour. If your salary helps the Raps land Aldridge, I’ll throw a party in your honour, okay?

Next: LaMarcus Aldridge: Top 5 Free Agency Destinations

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