The Toronto Raptors are officially done with the championship honeymoon season. The next question for the franchise is this: Do they re-sign Fred VanVleet?
Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet is going to be an interesting case study in years to come when we look back on the 2020 free agency class.
With Anthony Davis winning a ring with the Los Angeles Lakers and other players like Gordon Hayward or DeMar DeRozan opting in due to the uncertainty of the salary cap, It leaves a handful of players who in most years would be the afterthought of the free agency class — to now being elevated to the “stars” of this free agency class.
The best unrestricted free agents left include Montrezl Harrell, Goran Dragic, and Fred VanVleet. Harrell may have lost a lot of money with his NBA Bubble performance (which was affected by multiple uncontrollable factors). And Dragic, who is coming off an NBA Finals appearance with the Miami Heat and a fringe All-Star level talent, but is on the older side of 34.
That leaves Fred VanVleet, a 26-year-old point guard and an integral piece to the Toronto Raptors championship team in the 2018-2019 season. The teams that have the most cap space (excluding the Heat, who’ll likely re-sign Dragic) are ones that are rebuilding and have picks in the lottery of the 2020 NBA draft – the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons and the New York Knicks.
The Hawks and Hornets already have young guards so, depending on trades and draftees — the team who currently would be interested and have cap space are; the Knicks and the Pistons. These two teams are both desperate for any sort of point guard and culture setter, which VanVleet is.
VanVleet is now just hitting his prime and this season became an integral starting piece to the Raptors — a seconded-seeded team in the Eastern Conference. The playoff success wasn’t was spectacular for the Raptors, only making it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals and losing to the Boston Celtics.
All of is to say, Fred VanVleet is likely going to get money from someone – the question is should it be the Raptors?