Five Thoughts On The Raptors Signing Terrence Ross To An Extension

As reported last night, the Raptors and Terrence Ross have agreed to a three-year, $33 million deal. My immediate reactions:

• I like the deal, but get back to me if he bricks five three-pointers tonight and looks lost on defence.
• With a lot of these extensions, the pay off usually comes later on. The often referred to example would be the Raptors giving DeMar DeRozan a four-year, $40 million extension which seemed like a huge oversight at the time, but in retrospect has turned into a very team-friendly deal. Part of that has to do with DeRozan's development, a little bit of it has to do with the improvement of the team around him, and some of it has to do with the raising salary cap which makes the deal much more affordable in retrospect.
• You can apply the same logic here. If Ross improves and is a consistent wing off the bench, this is a totally fair deal, with upside. With the addition of DeMarre Carroll, the expectations are in some ways lower on Ross in his bench role, which may also pay off in the long run. And of course, with the soaring cap next summer, if you assume Ross will be a solid bench player on a playoff team, this is a perfectly fine deal. I mean, Jeremy Lamb -- who has a much worse NBA resume than Ross -- got a three-year, $21 million extension from the Hornets yesterday. Relatively speaking, you have to be happy with that. But this deal isn't without risk. If Ross doesn't improve this season and beyond, the Raptors are paying $11 million for a player that doesn't figure into their long-term equation. You can say it's only three years, and the cap is going up, but there's still a risk here they're betting on a player that's already hit his ceiling. As with all things: we'll see.
• Masai Ujiri has now committed to three players that he inherited from the Bryan Colangelo regime in Kyle Lowry, Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross. This doesn't mean they're off the trade market, I don't think anyone is (except Bruno. Just joking, maybe), but he's seen enough from all three to sign them to long-term deals.
• Next season, the Raptors will have approximately $37 million committed to Lowry, Carroll and Ross. If DeRozan opts out this summer (which seems like a foregone conclusion given the pay raise he's set to receive) and commands a salary at $20 million, does Ujiri want to have almost $60 million tied to four players? For reference, the salary cap is expected to be $89 million next season and then jump to $108 million in two years.