ESPN pundit rips Raptors, plus what's next for Toronto this summer

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The dog days of summer are upon us, but basketball never stops and the Toronto Raptors remain busy.

The team’s Summer League stint in Las Vegas went well, with plenty of youngsters impressing in a strong run and the veterans, including Scottie Barnes — who recently turned 24 — also getting work in.

Last year, the team felt it got huge benefits from a mini-camp held in Spain, improving chemistry significantly, which helped during the tough stretches of a long, losing season — so they’re doing it again.

This time, Toronto’s camp will be held in Madrid at the facilities of Real Madrid. Toronto and Real Madrid have met in pre-season matchups over the years and enjoy a strong relationship.

Chus Mateo, who was Real Madrid’s head coach until being dismissed last month, even joined Darko Rajakovic’s coaching staff at Summer League last summer. Centre Bruno Fernando signed with the club after being cut by the Raptors last season, joining former Raptor Serge Ibaka, who also was on the roster.

The Raptors will mostly go their separate ways following the camp, before reuniting toward the end of September ahead of media day in Toronto and training camp in Calgary. The well-travelled organization also will visit British Columbia, California and the U.S. East Coast during the pre-season before Season 31 tips off.

RAPTORS OVERPAY?

According to ESPN insider Bobby Marks, a long-time front office member of the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets, the Raptors helped contribute to the chilly restricted free agency market.

Golden State forward Jonathan Kuminga, Chicago guard Josh Giddey, Nets wing Cam Thomas and Philadelphia guard Quentin Grimes have yet to come to terms with their existing clubs or new ones via offer sheets.

Marks posits that Toronto giving Quickley five years and close to $160 million (it was reported as up to $175 million) a year ago has “totally screwed up restricted free agency,” Marks said on YouTube.

“That’s where (the other restricted free agents and their agents) are looking at as the benchmark.

“That contract screwed up a lot of things, and that’s why you can’t use comps … I don’t think Toronto got enough heat for that number because Immanuel Quickley is not a $32-33-million (a year) guy,” Marks said.

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Marks said players and their camps now want a deal like that, but teams aren’t giving them out, leading to standoffs.

Toronto had seen Quickley as the centrepiece of its OG Anunoby deal with the New York Knicks (even though RJ Barrett had more of a pedigree and has actually improved more in Toronto, leading the team in scoring since arriving). The former sixth man of the year award runner-up brings a skillset no other Raptor possesses (elite pull-up three-point capabilities) and one that complements Barnes tremendously in theory (Quickley only played in 33 games this season and rarely was in at the same time as Barnes in his 38 2023-24 Raptors contests).

Toronto bet heavily on upside and fit with Quickley’s deal and will need to rely on his staying on the court and the salary cap continuing to rise significantly for people to change their minds about the deal.

Apropos of nothing, this corner would easily pick a healthy Quickley in Toronto over Kuminga, Giddey or Grimes.

EUROPEAN BASKETBALL HEATS UP

More than 30 NBA players, including multiple MVP winners Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo and likely future MVP Luka Doncic, will compete at the FIBA Eurobasket tournament starting later this month.

Serbia, Germany (who beat Serbia to win the World Cup in 2023) and France (who won’t have Victor Wembanyama) are the favourites heading into the tournament.

You can consider the undercard the 2027 World Cup European qualifiers, which are taking place right now and don’t have the same NBA pedigree. That’s why Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl is one of the bigger names there. He had a big game Sunday, but Austria fell to the Netherlands.

No Raptors will be competing at Eurobasket since Poeltl’s team did not qualify.

RAPTORS 905 LANDS BIG MAN

If you missed it last week, the Raptors waived big man Colin Castleton and signed Olivier Sarr.

Castleton got into 11 games with Toronto last season, then went to Philadelphia, but was brought back on an non-guaranteed deal in the off-season and played at Summer League in Las Vegas.

While there, Castleton did not move the needle at all. It was unlikely he would have made the roster anyway, so the Raptors will instead take a look at Sarr, the older brother of 2024 No. 2 overall draft pick Alex Sarr of the Washington Wizards.

The elder Sarr, 26 and 6-foot-10, signed an Exhibit 10 contract, per Sportsnet’s Blake Murphy, meaning it’s also unguaranteed and it gives Toronto a bit of a leg up on other teams to get Sarr on the Raptors 905 G League roster should he fail to make the Raptors.

He has played 46 NBA games for Oklahoma City over three years, but tore his Achilles in April of 2024 and missed all of this past season.

Sarr averaged 13 rebounds per game and 2.2 blocks in 18 G League games in 2023-24.

AROUND THE RIM

Last week, two Raptors legends teamed up again on behalf of Giants of Africa. In Rwanda, Masai Ujiri and Kawhi Leonard were together again, helping mentor campers and posing for pictures. What must Raptors fans have been thinking when watching the two, who helped bring an NBA championship to Canada, reunite … Hamilton will honour champion and league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Thursday at “Shai Rally Day.” The rally will start at 3:30 p.m. at Hamilton Stadium, Hamilton mayor Andrea Horwath will present Gilgeous-Alexander with the key to the city there. Later he’ll make an appearance at the Canadian Football League game between the Tiger-Cats and B.C. Lions.

@WolstatSun