Raptors make out like bandits as final trade details are revealed
It was hardly a blockbuster, but the Toronto Raptors made an important trade in the midst of the 2024 NBA Draft.
Under the new two-day format, the time between the end of the first and second rounds, roughly 17 hours this year, allowed teams to evaluate their rosters and make trades based on the moves in the first round. That is what happened with the Sacramento Kings and Toronto Raptors.
The Raptors and Kings made a trade
The Kings drafted Providence guard Devin Carter, an elite defensive prospect with real shot-making upside, and thus made Davion Mitchell expendable. Sacramento was likely already looking for a trade partner with which to clear some salary to go after a player in free agency, and adding Mitchell to the deal allowed them to open up the trade possibilities.
That led them to Toronto, a team that knew it was going to operate as an over-the-cap team by picking up Bruce Brown’s team option but had salary flexibility underneath the luxury tax line. They were an ideal trade partner to take advantage of the increased salary-matching rules in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement and help the Kings out.
At the time it looked like an excellent piece of business for the Raptors. They got to move off of Jalen McDaniels after a truly abysmal season in the 905, they added a recent lottery pick in Davion Mitchell to help them address their point-of-attack defense, and they got a pair of second-round picks, all for the cost of taking on the salary of second-year forward Sasha Vezenkov.
Since the deal things have only gotten better.
The Raptors made out like bandits
It was reported at the time of the trade that Vezenkov was unhappy with his time in Sacramento and was considering a return to Europe, where he was the MVP and featured in a way he wasn’t, and wouldn’t be, in the NBA.
After negotiating with the Raptors, Vezenkov this week agreed to give back his entire $6.65 million salary for 2024-25 in a buyout, and the Raptors subsequently waived him. He agreed to a five-year deal to return to his former Greek team Olympiakos, who will pay him an average of $3.7 million per year. Vezenkov, it appears, really wanted to leave the NBA.
