Porter Jr. should be a natural fit with position-less Raptors

TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO – If there was ever any doubt how they felt about last season’s great roster experiment, the first 18 hours of free agency should have reaffirmed that the Raptors are all-in on position-less basketball.

Within 30 minutes of the negotiation window opening on Thursday evening, Toronto retained its own unrestricted free agents, Chris Boucher and Thaddeus Young. With the roster filling up quickly, they still had the non-taxpayer midlevel exception of roughly $10.5 million to address another need. Would they finally look to add a centre? Could they use it to bolster their depth in the backcourt?

On Friday morning, they agreed to terms with veteran forward Otto Porter Jr. As first reported by Yahoo Sports, he’ll sign a two-year contract with a player option on the second season once the league’s moratorium is lifted and deals can become official next week. The deal is believed to be worth most, if not all, of the MLE.

Positionally, Porter does not address a need on the Raptors’ roster. In fact, on paper he would seem redundant with the pieces they already have in place. But that’s by design. That’s how this team wants to play.

“If I can find more Preciouses and more Pascals and OGs, trust me, we’ll have 15 more of them on this team,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri said shortly after last season came to an end. “We’ll continue to pile them up.”

Yep, they sure have a type. Of the team’s 12 players under guaranteed contracts for the 2022-23 campaign, eight are listed between 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-9 in height with a wingspan of at least seven feet. The lone exceptions are Fred VanVleet, Gary Trent Jr., Malachi Flynn and Svi Mykhailiuk.

Pascal Siakam: 6-foot-9 with a 7-foot-3 wingspan OG