The Raptors: God Bows to Math

The trade to be finalized today has not yet made the Raptors a better team; the two players the team added when the Hedo Turkoglu signing became a sign and trade are marginal at best. Neither is even as likable a player as Kris Humphries – the key extra player now departing in this four-team deal.

Instead, it is the sheer mathematical precision of the deal that is notable – and, it is the free agent options now back on the table that will give the Raptors a chance to become a better team.

The math is pretty breathtaking. *

After this trade is finalized the Raptors will have: the option to use both the Mid-level Salary Exception and the Bi-Annual Exception to sign players; sufficient cap space to sign Carlos Delfino and Pops Mensah-Bonsu to contracts at the level of their qualifying offers, around 2.7 million and 1.0 million respectively; and, meet their existing contract obligations – all while staying under the luxury tax threshold by just the slimmest of margins (likely under one hundred thousand dollars).

Thankfully, the Raptors would still have one mechanism for regaining a little extra cap space – they can save close to $800,000 by waiving Patrick O’Bryant, since just a little over half of his 2009-10 salary is currently guaranteed. The pain of eating that contract would be mitigated by the fact that, with all of the exceptions used and offers accepted, the Raptors would have 16 players under contract and would need to jettison one anyway.

The money saved on O’Bryant could come in handy in meeting any demands from Delfino and Mensah-Bonsu over and above their qualifying offers. Additionally, the Raps would save a minimum of $700,000 by finding a player willing to accept a salary at the Minimum Salary Exception level rather than the Bi-Annual.

This has been, and will continue to be, a very complicated process – and, the potential free agent signings are still just empty roster spots – but, it is clear that Bryan Colangelo and his aides, with their spreadsheets and slide-rules, have cleared the way for this team to improve significantly.

* Keep in mind that exact salary numbers are largely private, and a fair bit of guess work is involved.