Austin Daye Completes the Raptors Summer Roster Moves

He’ll be the 15th man on the roster but Austin Daye will have a chance to contribute for Toronto next season. Al Dannity gives his take on Masai Uijiri’s final move of the summer.

There has been one unifying theme to the Raptors this off-season. Strengthen the bench. You could add dumping Bargnani but that was purely a move to facilitate the wider objective. In have come Tyler Hansbrough, D.J. Augustin, and, now, Austin Daye. Hansbrough is the only one of the three who will count against the salary cap in 2014/15. Augustin and Daye are calculated risks at bargain prices.

As I wrote last week, Augustin was the right man at the right price. Daye fits the same mould. He’s a three-point shooter who can offer support on the bench and has fewer obvious holes in his game than Steve Novak, Toronto’s likely go-to bench option for treys. Daye’s tenure in Memphis actually saw his average from beyond the arc dip to career lows but he’s got two full seasons of 40 per cent plus on his resume. At the minimum salary and as the last guy on the bench, that’s an upgrade.

The move has immediate and long-term benefits. The Raptors are an outside shot for the post-season. Our own odds-makers don’t think too much of their chances, with a starting five similar to the one with which they finished last season. Uijiri is making a gamble that getting Toronto to the cusp of the playoffs can give him the best of both worlds next season. Jonas Valanciunas is critical to everything he’s got in mind.

If the Lithuanian carries on from his MVP display in the Summer League, Toronto’s image as a destination free agents shirk could be avoided. The Raps won’t be able to lure LeBron or Melo but they don’t have to. The free agent class this summer is going to be stacked. Toronto is on course to have a ton of cap room. Uijiri knows that to succeed in Toronto, he’s got to make players want to go there. That requires a serious boost in on-court performance, something this roster can manage.

Even if the Raps flat-line in the coming season, Uijiri has given the franchise the flexibility to push the restart button the following summer. This was never going to be a splashy off-season for the Raptors but it has certainly been a productive one. Bargnani’s gone, they now have a bench which doesn’t make fans cry, and the future hasn’t been sacrificed in the process.