2020-2021 AROUND the NBA: Archived

[Hypermav]

• Toronto’s Gary Trent Jr. sat out Sunday’s win over the Lakers with a bruised lower left leg, and with the Raptors having eight games left in their season, he represents an interesting case.
  

"Trent will meet the “starter criteria” for his qualifying offer with either one more start or 57 more minutes played, as our intrepid Raptors writer Blake Murphy recently noted. Doing so would raise his qualifying offer and cap hold from a paltry $2.2 million to a slightly more expensive $4.7 million.

While this has no material impact on the Raptors re-signing him — Trent’s market value far exceeds that qualifying offer amount — it does somewhat impact Toronto’s cap space scenarios for this offseason. The Raptors can generate roughly $23 million in space by waiving the non-guaranteed deals of Aron Baynes, Rodney Hood and several fringe rotation players but would have $2.5 million less if Trent returns to action for these final seven games.

Currently holding the league’s eighth-worst record but sitting 2.5 games out of the play-in and still having a game left against the 10th-place Wizards, the Raptors are in an interesting spot. No, the cap implications aren’t worth sitting Trent out, especially after Sunday’s win in L.A. But if they drop a few games this week and Trent isn’t back yet, it will become a more interesting conversation."


The Athletic