Should Toronto Raptors Be Happy with Status Quo After Re-Signing DeMar DeRozan?

In hammering out a new contract with All-Star DeMar DeRozan, the Toronto Raptors have firmly fixed themselves to the existing core. The issue for them now isn't whether this is the right move; it's whether they should be content knowing this is the right move.

The news came swiftly, less than three hours into the NBA's free-agent moratorium. The Vertical's Shams Charania was first with the details, valuing his deal at five years and $139 million. ESPN.com's Marc Stein and Marc J. Spears have since estimated it will hit $145 million.

Though the dollar amount comes with initial shell shock as the league navigates a lucrative new salary-cap climate, the news itself is hardly a surprise. Sources told ESPN.com's Tim MacMahon DeRozan only planned to meet with Toronto at free agency's inception. 

The Los Angeles Lakers bugaboo, of course, never totally died. DeRozan is from Compton and attended the University of Southern California. But this going-home scenario never gained traction between his ears, as he made clear weeks before free agency, per the Toronto Star's Bruce Arthur:

"

And for me, to be second all-time scoring, the most wins as a Raptor, that’s something — you might not see it now, but that’s a legacy. Unless you go there and win seven championships, there’s no overshadowing who played (with the Lakers) for 20 years. That’s that. My whole mindset has always been, what can I do here that’ll separate me from others? And maybe someday, somebody will say, I want to try to pass DeMar. I want to do what DeMar did.

"

DeRozan, in sum, couldn't find a reason to leave Toronto. Likewise, the Raptors had no incentive for cutting the cord.

Losing a star for nothing is never good business—unless you have an upgrade in place. Even then, it's tough to sell washing your hands of a real asset without receiving anything in return as a victory.

More than that, the Raptors have no way of justifying a roster-rattling decision of that magnitude.

They just wrapped up the best season in franchise history, tallying 56 victories and an Eastern Conference Finals bid. The loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers could not be avoided; even the Raptors' two wins in that series rang hollow. But, in the end, this is a team that finished two victories shy of an NBA Finals appearance.

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Subtraction becomes the enemy in this situation. DeRozan has still yet to shoot 34 percent from three for an entire season, and his sub-40 percent clip from the floor during postseason play is alarming. But he cleared 23 points per game, recorded an assist rate better than 20 and posted a true shooting percentage of 55 this season—a feat only matched by Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Paul George, James Harden, LeBron James, Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook. You keep him, at any cost, then figure out the rest later.

The rest is just difficult.

"The Raptors have entered a new and fascinating phase as a franchise," Arthur wrote. "They’re good, but the gap from good to great is a motorcycle jump over a canyon."

Immediately making that leap is next to impossible. Maintaining the status quo to a T, even after retaining DeRozan, is difficult enough.

Bismack Biyombo, a driving defensive, rebounding and rim-running force in the playoffs, is a free agent as well. His preference is to stay in Toronto, but he could command a starting salary of $17 million or more, according to USA Today's Sam Amick.

As outlined in our offseason-spending primer, the Raptors do not own any form of Biyombo's Bird rights and must sign him into cap space. They don't have that kind of flexibility. Never mind that DeRozan's hold is just slightly more than half ($15.2 million) of the average annual salary in his next deal until he signs it; Toronto could have parted ways with him and still fallen short of Biyombo's market value.

Hence the Raptors' interest in finding a cheaper replacement. They tried trading for Serge Ibaka ahead of the draft, per Arthur, and are now hoping the Philadelphia 76ers bite on a package for Nerlens Noel built around Terrence Ross, according to ESPN.com's Zach Lowe.

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All of this just to field a team cosmetically identical to last year's version—the one that, per Arthur, Cleveland "never took" seriously.

That pins the Raptors, who remain the second-best squad in the East, to expensive uncertainty. They are not like the Boston Celtics or the Milwaukee Bucks—teams operating in a gray area, between competing and rebuilding, as they wait for prospect-types to develop into established cornerstones. Toronto's window is open now and won't be wedged open any further by a special someone in waiting.

Kyle Lowry is on the wrong end of 30 and will be a free agent in 2017, when the cap explodes yet again. DeMarre Carroll is making Eric Bledsoe money ($14 million) and turns 30 at the end July. Jonas Valanciunas is just 24 but a known commodity: a post player with finite offensive range and limited ability to protect the rim. And now Toronto has nearly $30 million annually invested in DeRozan's prime-most years.

This isn't to say the Raptors are devoid of prospects. Breakout rookie Norman Powell is just 23; point guard Delon Wright will be 24 for his sophomore season; Bruno Caboclo remains a tantalizing, albeit sushi-raw, prospect; No. 9 pick Jakob Poeltl, while Valanciunas-like on offense, is just 20; and, again, the ages of Cory Joseph (24), Ross (25) and Valanciunas do work in Toronto's favor. 

At some point, though, the Raptors must bridge the inimical timelines festering within the roster.

Do they attempt to consolidate some of their younger assets into a blockbuster acquisition? Or do they eventually concede that Cleveland's reign is impossible to overthrow and instead flip some of their more proven contributors, including DeRozan, into picks, prospects and cap space?

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It's a fascinating dilemma the Raptors remain unsure how to address. If irreversibly committed to winning now, team general manager Masai Ujiri would have (likely) bent to the Oklahoma City Thunder's predraft asking price for Ibaka: Joseph, Powell, Patrick Patterson and the No. 9 pick, per Arthur.

Indeed, there are other headlining acquisitions the Raptors can pursue. The contracts of Ross (three years, $31 million) and Valanciunas (four years, $64 million) are exceedingly inviting this side of July 1. One or both of them could be partnered with Powell, Poeltl, Wright and/or future first-rounders as part of monster trade. Carroll can even be thrown in there if Toronto's primary target is a multiposition wing.

With the exception of the Celtics and Denver Nuggets, there's aren't a ton of teams that can cobble together better packages for stars who might hit the chopping block within the next year—names like Carmelo Anthony (no-trade clause), Jimmy Butler, DeMarcus Cousins, et al.

After re-signing DeRozan and extending head coach Dwane Casey, Ujiri is, it seems, more inclined to chase those transcendent upgrades rather than start over. And it helps that the Raptors, as Arthur noted, should be a destination of choice for free agents next summer, like Ibaka, who might want to latch onto a contender.

Still, Ujiri is not one for convention. He ravaged the roster upon arrival, only to build it back up quickly (perhaps inadvertently). He was out in front of the cap eruption with Carroll's contract last year. He is all about options, and Toronto has plenty, its lone constant being Ujiri's persisting aggression.

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"There’s 29 teams that have lost, there’s 29 disappointed teams in the NBA at the end of the season, and we’re one of them," Ujiri said at the end of May, per Arthur. "And I’m one of them...because we didn’t win the championship. Could we have won the championship? I don’t think we’re good enough yet, we’re not there yet."

DeRozan's return doesn't change that. There is still a gorge between where the Raptors are and where they want to be.

And as long as that separation exists, it's only a matter of time before Ujiri, fueled by his own visions of grandeur, seeks to again double down on or tear down what he has already built.

Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise cited. Salary information via Basketball Insiders.

Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @danfavale.