The Toronto Raptors will not be extending shooting guard DeMar DeRozan’s contract during this upcoming season. The six-year veteran has averaged 17.2 points per game in his tenure with the Raptors.
Following from Sportsnet.
“There will be no extension talks with DeMar [before the end of the 2015-16 season],” Ujiri told Free Association. “He can only extend for a certain amount of money and I just foresee that DeMar sees himself- and we see him- as more than that type of a player. So I think DeMar is going to wait to see how it goes this year and do the best deal for himself, and we’ll do the best deal for ourselves, too.”
The decision is somewhat surprising as DeRozan will now be able to opt out of his current deal next summer, in order to secure a bigger deal – something made possible by the upcoming rise in cap space. However, it’s likely that the Raptors front office is waiting to see how the team does next year before deciding on DeRozan’s future with the team.
Toronto spent big money this offseason on DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph, and with rumors that they could go after Tristan Thompson next year, it would make sense that they would be cautious with investing more money on another player. Toronto seems to want to retain flexibility in the event that they choose to rebuild the team next year.
