The joy of this recent compressed season is that everything is pretty much happening at once. No sooner had the NBA Finals ended then the draft was upon us and now, we're less than 48 hours away from free agent mania.
On that note, Raptors President and GM Bryan Colangelo spoke to the media this afternoon regarding the upcoming FA period, as well as offering a bit of a debrief on last night's draft.
From the various media reporting live from the event, here were the key takeaways:
1) The Toronto Raptors will extend qualifying offers to Jerryd Bayless and Sonny Weems. This of course doesn't mean they'll still be Dinos come the fall, but it gives the team options to work with. Maybe to no surprise, it was reported that no offer would be made to Solomon Alabi, although apparently he will play for the team in Summer League.
2) The Raptors believe draftee Terrence Ross can play with DeMar DeRozan, with DD playing the 3 spot. Colangelo noted that DeRozan has bulked up to guard 3's so looks like this "DeMar playing SF" experiment will happen. BC likened Ross to another of his former players, Michael Finley.
3) Regarding the draft, there were offers for the eighth pick, but it would have meant trading out of the draft completely. The Raps wanted a first-round pick, so weren't prepared to do that. Also, there was lots of interest in the 37th pick, but none in the 56th. (Shocking.)
4) In terms of the upcoming FA period, BC noted that he won't just "spend to spend," they'll be targeting very specifically.
5) Terrence Ross will wear number 31 while Quincy Acy will don number 4. Apparently Acy and former Raptor employee number 4, Chris Bosh, both played with the same AAU squad and that's why he's wearing it. (This can't be true right? Right?)