Raptors cut roster to 18 by waiving Perry, Gillespie

The Toronto Raptors have announced that they’ve waived Reggie Perry and Freddie Gillespie, trimming their roster to 18 players.

Nick Nurse had indicated the team would make their final decisions quickly, and waiving Gillespie and Perry the morning after the final preseason game is indeed pretty quick.

But there’s still one more cut to make. And with the Raptors not practicing today, that tells me there’s some interesting debate going on inside the team’s management offices! Will it be Sam Dekker? Ish Wainwright? Isaac Bonga? Or a completely outside of the box candidate, like Malachi Flynn? (I kid! It won’t be Flynn.)

As for Perry and Gillespie, Perry at least seems likely to end up with the Raptors 905, although another NBA team could offer him a contract. Gillespie’s rights, though, are with Memphis, so if he is G-League bound, he might well end up with the Hustle.

Gillespie seems like a great dude and he had a great run with the Raptors in Tampa, when the team was starved for any capable big man to hold down the centre position. He played in 20 games last season, starting two of them, and averaged 5.6 points and 4.9 boards in 20 minutes per game; he also brought an energy and positivity the team needed in the doldrums of a lost season. Unfortunately his game hasn’t progressed at all since then, despite playing with the Raptors in summer league; his not making the roster seemed like a foregone conclusion after his lacklustre play.

Perry also didn’t seem to factor into the team’s plans since the start of camp; he barely played in the preseason. It seems likely that he was thought of as a 905 project all along; hopefully, he ends up there and the team can develop him into a role playing big.