Toronto Raptors: Grading summer moves at the halfway mark

Putting the ink on the paper

As said before, the Toronto Raptors were not that active regarding attracting any players from the 2018 free agency pool. Due to their salary cap situation, the Raptors had to pretty much work with the pieces they already possessed.

The Raptors made just two notable signings throughout the summer. The major one was re-signing backup point guard Fred VanVleet to a two-year deal worth $18 million. Last season, Van Vleet proved to be one of the best bench players in the NBA, thus rendering his return essential.

During the first half of the season, VanVleet has been even better than last year. As Kyle Lowry’s been dealing with minor injury issues, Freddie has stepped up. Averaging 13.0 points and 5.4 assists per game during the 15 contests he’s started, VanVleet has been making sure that Lowry’s absence goes semi-unnoticed.

Moving on to Toronto’s other free agency signing, Greg Monroe, we have a player with much more limited playing time, mainly due to the team’s surplus in big men. Monroe signed a one-year deal worth approximately $2.2 million.

Monroe is currently averaging 5.0 points and 4.2 rebounds in 11.2 minutes per game. Even though those numbers do not signal something that significant, Monroe has been spending much more time on the court recently, capitalizing on most of his chances.

Grade: B