Serge Ibaka is gone!! Van Goat 🐐 staying!

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Report: Ibaka agrees to two-year deal with Clippers - TSN.ca

According to The Athletic's Shams Charania, Serge Ibaka has agreed to a deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, ending a four-year run as a member of the Toronto Raptors.

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Bet pays off: VanVleet cashes in, stays with Raptors - TSN.ca

By now, you’re undoubtedly familiar with Fred VanVleet's story and how he bet on himself. And on Saturday those bets paid off, and paid out when VanVleet agreed to a new four-year, $85 million contract with the Toronto Raptors.

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The Raptors committed long term to their borderline all star point guard but lost Ibaka to the clippers. Serge was my favourite player so it’s very sad to see him go. Raptors have no bigs at the moment and their best bet is to resign the slow-footed and injury prone Marc Gasol.

I’ve had so many free agency alerts since yesterday and one notably absent headline: “Giannis signs supermax extension time remain in Milwaukee”. He has 30 days to sign it or it’s all over for the Bucks

 

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On another note, the future is very bright for the Toronto Raptors. They drafted Malachi Flynn, arguably the best point guard in college, and given their track record on player development, there’s no reason he won’t become one of the best PGs in the NBA.

He’s a better passer than Lowry and VanVleet and is also a great midrange scorer. He definitely would’ve made a difference against Boston if they had him.

The Raptors don’t expect to win a championship next season, and since they didn’t sign a centre, they might experiment with a small lineup of Kyle, Fred, Norm, OG and Pascal. This lineup terrified the Celtics and made it impossible to get corner threes.

It will get weird and who knows, it might work out handsomely. On offence, their “centre” OG Anunoby shoots 38% from 3 and can easily beat opposing centres to the basket. They will pile up a ton of regular season wins and anything can happen in the playoffs