Toronto Raptors center Bismack Biyombo is currently catapulting his stock in the playoffs and particularly the Eastern Conference Finals, where he had two major impact performances in Games 3 and 4.
Biyombo signed a two-year, $6 million deal with the Raptors last summer with a player option on the second year. Having shown a significant progression from his four previous seasons with Charlotte, Biyombo will expectedly opt out, and an anonymous GM told Sean Deveney of Sporting News that his price tag could be around $17 million:
“For someone like (Biyombo), I think when you look at a guy like Tyson Chandler and what he got from Phoenix last summer (four years, $52 million), that’s where you start for a contract,” one Eastern Conference GM told Sporting News. “But you factor in the cap spike and it’s probably going to be high, I’d say, $16-17 million. It’ll be a heck of a $17 million-per-year gamble.
The cap spike is really the key for this projection. Tyson Chandler is a fine example of someone comparable to Biyombo’s presence who was able to land over $10 million per year. This price tag does seem high on paper, but for the right team with the right amount of money to spend, an investment like this in Biyombo as a still developing center might even be worth the gamble.
