There’s plenty to cover on the Raptors after trading DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard. We need to figure out whether the team is way better now (it is), and whether that is worth the risk inherent in this deal (it totally, definitely is), but let’s take a minute to clear up what this means for the salary situation.
As I’ve covered, the Raptors coming into this summer were lined up to pay a significant tax bill, and that was cemented once they re-signed Fred VanVleet to his deal.
A quick note on that deal for Fred — the Raptors gave him more money in these two upcoming years than any team could have offered him, and with the market cooling very quickly shortly before they signed him, they really weren’t avoiding much risk.