How Raptors’ cap, roster picture look after Ingram deadline acquisition

The most difficult trades to evaluate are the ones that are contingent on the next move.  

What does this deal set up? What is the contract after the acquisition? Do you evaluate a Pascal Siakam trade for the real-time asset return or based on what the Raptors can eventually turn those assets into? What if you clear cap space and can’t use it effectively? What if a cucumber is better pickled? 

In the case of the Raptors, they’ve become big fans of the deal that sets up the next deal. Specifically, they’ve operated in “pre-agency,” acquiring players who have Bird rights prior to their free agency and then re-signing them. Thaddeus Young, Jakob Poeltl and Kelly Olynyk were each acquired and subsequently re-signed or extended. 

And now, there’s Brandon Ingram.  

The Raptors acquired the former All-Star in an interesting gambit. There are reasonable opinions to be had about the timing of the move and the specific player targeted if the Raptors are shifting out of rebuild move for 2025-26; the big unknown is what Ingram’s next contract will look like, which could alter that opinion.

More notably for the purposes of this annual column, Ingram’s next contract could fundamentally change how all of these pieces fit together. 

What follows is not a subjective analysis of the moves. It is an objective explanation as to why and how the Raptors made them, and where things stand heading into the 2025 off-season. Let’s reset for the remainder of this year and the summer ahead.  

The moves

• The Raptors traded Bruce Brown, Olynyk, the Indiana Pacers’ 2026 top-four protected first-round pick and their own 2031 second-round pick to the New Orleans Pelicans for Ingram.

This trade fits seamlessly from a cap perspective. Ingram agreed to waive a trade bonus he was due, which would have been paid by the Pelicans but applied to his cap/tax hit for Toronto. Waiving the kicker saves the Raptors about $2.1 million in tax space, with the net of the deal adding about $200,000 to the Raptors’ books, which they had plenty of room for.

(Ingram had no need to waive the trade kicker, other than to start the relationship off on the right foot. It could suggest his side feels good about his next deal.) 

Moving Olynyk also clears $13.4 million off the books for 2025-26. That money is something New Orleans would have priced in when determining the draft pick return here.

• Toronto then dealt Davion Mitchell to the Miami Heat for P.J. Tucker, the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2026 second-round pick and cash.

While the Raptors could get creative in structuring this deal to create a new trade exception, doing so would leave them with too little of their mid-level exception to sign a player to a long-term deal for the rest of the season (more on this shortly). I’m working under the assumption they did a straight swap, then, as while Tucker makes about $5 million more than Mitchell, the salary matching math works.

• Finally, the Raptors traded a 2026 top-55 protected second-round pick to the Pacers for James Wiseman and cash.

While Wiseman has an interesting contract and was (is?) an interesting prospect, he was not long for Toronto. Indiana was barely below the luxury tax, and getting out of Wiseman’s $2.2 million contract gives them more breathing room on the buyout market. Toronto, meanwhile, had the space to absorb him and will get cash for its troubles. The pick the Raptors are sending is a “fake second;” the league rules require you to send something in a trade, so here the Raptors send a pick that will never convey unless they get really good, really fast.

The Raptors have already waived Wiseman. 

Here’s how things look right now: 

The net salary cap and tax effect for 2024-25, and possible buyouts 

The deals together add about $7.4 million to the Raptors’ cap sheet, which leaves them about $2.4 million below the luxury tax. That should be ample room to conduct their end-of-roster business. 

The Raptors could add to that flexibility by negotiating a buyout with Tucker, allowing him to join a contender down the stretch. In that scenario, Tucker would presumably leave some money on the table in order to be released, and the Raptors wouldn’t be on the hook for whatever he gave back. They could also theoretically negotiate a buyout with Chris Boucher, who remains on the roster, though Boucher is also eligible to be extended. (Tucker and Boucher both have salaries low enough that they could sign even with apron teams.) 

(Allow me one piece of editorializing: Just keep Boucher here forever.) 

What happens the rest of this season 

The Raptors have two open roster spots and would open up another with a Tucker buyout and/or Wiseman waiver. There are three types of moves on the radar: 

• Converting Jamison Battle to a standard NBA contract. Battle has exceeded the expectations for an undrafted player and for a two-way player, and he warrants a deal that keeps him in the program long-term.  

The Raptors haven’t used their mid-level exception this year, which means instead of signing Battle for just this year and next, they could sign him for this year plus up to three more. (They may prefer this year plus two seasons, for the purposes of maintain his restricted free agency status down the line.) Giving Battle a multi-year minimum contract with de-escalating guarantees over the years is a reasonable approach in these instances, and if the Raptors really wanted to entice him, they could pay him more upfront this year for a more team-friendly guarantee structure down the line. 

Orlando Robinson could also conceivably get a rest-of-season deal if they like what they’ve seen so far. 

• Churning 10-day contracts and the waiver wire. The Raptors have taken a look at Robinson and Eugene Omoruyi with 10-day contracts so far, and if they don’t want to commit to a non-Battle player just yet, they can continue getting these looks at G League players or other young players who become available post-deadline.

Sorting through the buyout/waiver names, plus the top G League pieces, is a piece for another day. I’d imagine the preference will be toward bigs, given the roster makeup, but if they want to reward a Raptors 905 standout, Jared Rhoden has earned the payday that comes with a 10-day deal, too.

• Sign a two-way to fill Battle’s spot. If the Raptors convert Battle, his two-way spot is open, and the Raptors can slide a player in there so long as they haven’t played more than four years in the league. (Robinson and Rhoden, as examples, are both eligible.) Battle hasn’t used all of his allowable NBA days yet, so this signing would be able to see some NBA time, too. Ideally, this player would be on a two-year, two-way so the team can continue developing them through the summer, similar to what they did with D.J. Carton around this time last year.

Ingram’s next deal 

So, why trade for Ingram to re-sign him, rather than just wait until free agency? 

The Raptors wouldn’t have had anywhere close to enough cap space to sign Ingram in free agency, given the contracts that are already on their books and Scottie Barnes’s extension kicking in this summer. In reality, very few top players move via free agency now, as most teams operate above the cap and use trades and sign-and-trades to manoeuvre (Fred VanVleet and Paul George are recent exceptions). Even letting all of their expirings just expire for nothing, there was no path to meaningful cap space. 

Acquiring Ingram via trade means the Raptors acquire his Bird rights, which allow them to go over the cap to re-sign him. He still counts against the cap and tax, there’s just nothing stopping you from exceeding the cap to keep him.  

Now, the Raptors can offer him up to his maximum in free agency (which would start at an estimated $46.4 million and could get to five years and $269 million total) or sign an extension right now for up to three years and $144 million. Those are his maximums, not projections. 

Whether Ingram ends up with a contract that starts at $35 million or one that starts at $45 million, or anywhere in between, will make a huge difference in how this trade looks. 

Holding Ingram’s Bird rights also leaves open the potential to sign-and-trade him elsewhere as a fallback option to recoup value if negotiations don’t go well. (It should be an interesting negotiation. Very few teams project to have meaningful cap space, and most of them will be bad. That gives Toronto leverage. Ingram, meanwhile, can point to what the Raptors paid for him and their lack of cap space as leverage of his own.) 

Fitting all the pieces together under the cap 

Technically, the week’s trades freed up money for the Raptors in 2025-26, by sending out Olynyk and only taking expiring (or non-guaranteed) contracts back. But you don’t acquire Ingram without the intent to re-sign him. 

Obviously, a lot can change between now and next season. For illustrative purposes, let’s assume the Raptors want to bring everyone back and keep their pick this year. Let’s also assume Wiseman is cut and Tucker, Boucher (no extension!), and Garrett Temple aren’t retained. Let’s also assume Battle’s NBA deal includes a minimum salary for 2025-26. We’ll also assume Barnes doesn’t make All-NBA, so his max is 25 per cent of the cap instead of 30 per cent of the cap. 

That gets us this: 

The Raptors have $139.2 million committed for 10 players before Ingram and their pick, which would leave them less cap space than the mid-level exception. They’ll certainly be operating as an above-the-cap team (we’ll get into that more in June). Basically, Bird rights, trade and exceptions are their only ways to add. 

You’ll see they have about $48.8 million under the luxury tax in this example. That has to cover Ingram, their pick and the final three roster spots, whether they be second-rounders, vet minimums, a mid-level piece or a trade piece. 

The cost of their draft pick is a big swing — if they land the No. 1 pick, it’ll cost an estimated $13.8 million; if they fall to No. 10, it’ll be an estimated $6.1 million. Keep that in mind for the following example. For now, let’s assume the Raptors get the No. 5 pick. 

Hey, congrats, you got a pretty good pick! You now only have about $39 million for Ingram and your final three roster spots. In the champagne problem category, landing Cooper Flagg would leave the Raptors just an estimated $34.9 million for Ingram and their final three spots. 

There are a few ways you can continue to tweak and make this livable. A team-friendly deal for Ingram goes a long way. You could also just spend into the tax! There’s nothing prohibiting the Raptors from doing so, they’re a big-market team, and while they’ve only ever spent into the tax in 2018-19, you don’t have to be under the tax until the final day of the season. Theoretically, you could operate above the tax, see how things go, and then try to get under the tax in-season if things aren’t clicking; that’s tough from a leverage standpoint, but we see it every year. 

The other option would be to trade another core piece to make all this breathe easier. Even if that’s not necessary this summer, it’s something they’ll have to consider over this core’s life. RJ Barrett is extension-eligible this summer, and giving him a raise alongside a new Ingram deal and the deals in place for Barnes and Immanuel Quickley could put the team in a situation where someone eventually has to go. 

That can all be fine. Very few cores are locked in place forever, as this deadline very clearly showed. The Raptors are betting that Ingram’s next deal and his value — or the value of anyone they have to move later to make it all work — is higher than Indiana’s 2026 first-rounder. That’s effectively what this bet comes down to. That, and a desire to be competitive again in 2025-26. 

Other notes 

• The Raptors still hold all of their own first-round picks through 2031. They own the Portland Trail Blazers’ 2025 second, the Lakers’ 2026 second, their own second in 2026 if it falls 31-55 and their own seconds from 2027 to 2030. 

• The amount of cash coming back from Miami and Indiana is not known as of this writing. Teams can receive up to $7.2 million in cash, total, in each league year. That cash has no cap or tax impact, it’s just straight cash, usually used to cover the dead salary (like Wiseman and Tucker), plus maybe a bit more for your trouble. 

• The Raptors have no active trade exceptions. 

• The mid-level exception of $12.8 million now begins to decrease in value by the day. That’s unlikely to matter with how things stand, but it’s a factor in why they couldn’t absorb Tucker into that exception, create a new exception and still convert Battle (or sign whomever) to a longer-term deal. 

• A reminder that a lot of the numbers for 2025-26 in this piece are based on projections of where the cap and tax will go, and how that impacts different contracts and exceptions. The exact numbers aren’t as important (yet) as the exercise of seeing how it all works. 

• If the Raptors don’t extend or buy out Boucher, they’ll hold Bird rights on him, allowing them some sign-and-trade or re-sign flexibility. They hold Early Bird rights on Temple and Bird rights on Ingram. They would have held full Bird rights on Mitchell, too, but he was going to have a large enough qualifying offer that they probably would have allowed him to become an unrestricted free agent.  

• We’ll do this all again after the season when we have some clarity on extensions, options, the cap level, the draft pick and more. Get ready to learn about aprons, buddy. 

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