Jared Sullinger Agrees To 1-Year Deal With Toronto Raptors

One of the areas Toronto Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri wanted to address this summer was the power forward position. The Raptors have found their upgrade with the addition of Jared Sullinger.

Given the limited cap space the Toronto Raptors possess after the re-signing of DeMar DeRozan, upgrading the team in a meaningful way via free agency was always going to be a long shot.

But one of the traits of Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri throughout his tenure with the team has been his ability to find valuable pieces for cheap that can help push his core to the next level in the playoffs.

Last year it was Bismack Biyombo and Luis Scola on bargain deals, this year that addition appears like it could be former Celtics power forward Jared Sullinger.

The news was first broken by Sullinger via his Twitter account:

Note, too, that Sullinger changed his avatar on the website to the Raptors logo. Later, ESPN reported that the deal between Sullinger and the Raptors will be for one year for around $6 million.

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This was made possible by the Celtics renouncing the rights to Sullinger in order to clear the cap space necessary to sign Al Horford to his four-year, $113 million deal.

Sullinger is a talented player, but not one without warts to his game. But you don’t get a quality piece without warts for $6 million in a summer where historic contracts have been given out due to the spike in the salary cap.

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Toronto is actually one of the few places where Sullinger can actually be viewed as a defensive upgrade over his predecessor, Luis Scola.

Opponents of the Celtics only scored 1.1 points more per 100 possessions when Sullinger was on the floor, compared to 6.1 more for opponents of the Raptors when Scola was on the floor.

Sullinger will give the Raptors some floor spacing. While he isn’t a strong three-point shooter, only 27.6 percent for his career, he shoots 42.2 percent between 16 feet and the three-point line.

This should be good enough to force a defender to get out on him and provide Jonas Valanciunas with space to operate in the post.

The Raptors are gaining a player that’s tough to move at 6’9″, 260 pounds. Sullinger’s rebound rate (percentage of missed shots gathered by a player while on the floor) of 18.7 compares favorably to Tristan Thompson‘s of 18.4.

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With this addition, Ujiri has essentially replaced all of the departures from last season. Scola is gone, with Sullinger likely slotting into the starting lineup so

can resume his role as bench spark-plug/closer.

The hole at backup center left by Biyombo is filled by the newly drafted Jakob Poeltl, as well as Sullinger’s ability to slide over to the center position due to his size.

They also have the 22-year-old rookie, Pascal Siakim, that may be ready to provide energy and some impact off the bench at either big man position.

What’s left now is finding an upgrade at the small forward position. Any upgrade would likely come via trade at this point. DeMarre Carroll is a high-end role player at that position and Ujiri has expressed a desire to find a quality backup for him.

Norman Powell stepped up in a big way at that position towards the end of the year and should be considered the frontrunner for that role in the event that Toronto cannot find an upgrade through a trade.

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Terrence Ross also could spend a fair amount of time there, but his name has come up in most Raptors related trade rumors and it feels as though his time in Toronto may be coming to an end.