Toronto Raptors: What OG Anunoby’s extension means for the future

The Toronto Raptors have signed OG Anunoby to a four-year extension. What does this mean for the Anunoby and the team’s future?

The Toronto Raptors have signed OG Anunoby to a four-year $72 million-dollar extension according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Anunoby will roughly be making $18 million a year under his new contract, leaving the Raptors cap space less flexible than it used to be. This extension and the size of the extension was likely haggled to be lower to keep within the 2021 free agency race.

Now that well has dried up with the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rudy Gobert, and Paul George all re-signing, that made the dilemma of keeping cap space open a non-issue so extending Anunoby with that deal became an easier choice for the Raptors.

OG Anunoby came into the 2019-20 season recovering from an appendectomy that sidelined him from the 2019 Raptors championship run, led by Kawhi Leonard.

Anunoby filled the starting slot left by Leonard and had a successful, but not an eye-catching third season. He started 68 games and averaged 10.6 points per game, 5.3 rebounds per game, 1.4 steals per game, and shot 39 percent from three.

The Raptors hope that Anunoby can develop into that Kawhi Leonard kind of player, a two-way threat alongside Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam. Anunoby was tied sixth in defensive win shares, 12th in defensive box plus/minus, and received two points (either one first-team vote or two-second team votes) for the 2019-20 All-Defensive teams.

Anunoby is a 6’7” wing with one of the sturdiest frames in the NBA, listed at 232 pounds Anunoby repeated as defended bigs in the post with success and even LeBron James — who outweighs him by 20 lbs and out-muscled him in the post in this clip, but Anunoby still plays it perfectly.

Many pundits believe Anunoby is due for a breakout season, HoopsHabit’s own Josh Cornelissen believes OG Anunoby is due to get some All-Star votes this season. 

It’s easy to see why Josh and many others including myself see Anunoby possibly being a more potent offensive threat this season.

Anunoby only had a 14.3 percent usage rate last season, when you look at the leap that Siakam took last season, the usage rate is one of the things that changed significantly between seasons.

Siakam in 2018-19 had a 20.8 percent usage rate and averaged 16.9 points per game, and then in 2019-20 Siakam rose to a team-high 28.1 percent usage rate and averaged 22.9 points per game.

Anunoby has the skill set to drive and shoot but has to work on his off-the-dribble creation — he has shown flashes of being an offensive threat, he scored 20 points or more in six games last season and his career-best was against the Nuggets where he scored 32 points.

It was a combination of hustle plays (two offensive boards) and defense (seven steals!) that got him into the 30s but Anunoby was taking Mason Plumlee off the dribble plus taking and making threes — all good signs of developing as a perimeter offensive threat.

This signing shows the Toronto Raptors believe two key things

The Raptors believe that they can build a championship roster without needing to spend big money in free agency. Filling out the roster with cheaper free agents like Aron Baynes, and developing undrafted players like Chris Boucher, Fred VanVleet, and Matt Thomas into productive pieces.

The other thing that is shown when you read the tea leaves is that the Raptors believe they can turn their raw prospect into an All-Star, as they have done with Siakam and like they are planning to do with OG Anunoby. And if anyone can do that, it might just be Masai Ujiri and Nick Nurse.