The 2015 Sixth Man of the Year is headed to Los Angeles to play with Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. It was almost 100% that the Raptors would re-sign their 2nd leading scorer in the season, but after Williams received offers from other suitors, the Raptors backed off. Why?
Williams explains it clearly to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun:
Speaking on Tim and Sid on Sportsnet on Monday, Williams admitted he was “kind of a little disappointed I wasn’t allowed to stay in Toronto, but things happen, you move forward.”
Williams said he even offered the Raptors a chance to match the Lakers deal, but Masai Ujiri and Co. told him to take the offer.
“I think the playoffs just left a sour taste in everybody’s mouths,” Williams said, before adding, “we were all disappointed with how the playoffs ended. When things like that happen, you don’t know what to expect. I really wanted to be a part of what they were building there.”
Williams even took Instagram to explain his situation, stating that he couldn’t have accepted an offer he was never given. Toronto fans like me were mad. We lost our ‘6 man’ and no one in Toronto can sing that song by Drake anymore. We also lost our 2nd leading scorer, and scoring may become harder for us now. With the addition of DeMarre Carroll, Corey Joseph, and Bismack Biyombo, the Raptors have moved on from scoring options and added defensive players to bolster their defense. The Raptors were bad when it came to defense, management thought that was because of the addition of Williams and the combination of him and Vasquez. Now Vasquez and Williams are both gone and the Raptors don’t have the same fire power they had off the bench. Look for the Raptors to make a trade for a starting Power Forward and some bench scoring.
